Biography and Works
Childers was born on November 20, 1946, in West Union, West Virginia, to parents Howard and Rhea (Gaskins) Childers. At the age of seven, he and his family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma. He developed an interest in music and started playing guitar at age 16. After graduating from Ponca City high school he moved even further west and studied music in Berkeley, California. After a stint in California, Childers returned to Oklahoma - this time to Stillwater - where he found "people interested in the natural and supernatural aspects of life and love, and folks not afraid to sing about it."
Childers emerged in 1979 with his debut album titled I Ain't No Jukebox which he recorded with help from friend Jimmy LaFave. The album received many positive reviews and led Childers to begin touring nation-wide. In March 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor disaster took place. Protestors of Three Mile Island, having heard Childers' song "Sunshine, Wind and Water," invited him to perform at a no-nukes rally in Washington, DC. Childers performed before Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger in front of a crowd estimated to be 65,000 to 100,000 persons.
His second album, Singing Trees, Dancing Waters, was recorded in 1982 and released on March 30, 1983. Afterwards, he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1986, Childers released two albums: Four Horsemen and a collection of instrumental works entitled King David's Lament. While many of his peers had success in Nashville, Childers chose to relocate to Austin, Texas. He then released Circles Toward the Sun (1990). By 1991 Childers had relocated again, back to Oklahoma where he released Nothin' More Natural (1996), Hat Trick (1999) and a fan club collection of rarities La vita è bella - Outtakes, Demos and Jams 1980 - 1988 (2000.) His return to Oklahoma facilitated collaboration with other Red Dirt music artists including Dirt & Spirit with The Great Divide (1999), Two Buffalos Walking - Live At The Blue Door with Terry "Buffalo" Ware (2003), Kindred Spirits with Randy Crouch (2004) and Ride for the Cimarron with Jason Boland and the Stragglers (2006.)
In 2003, Jimmy LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by Childers, sometimes called the "Dylan of the dust", who served as the show's narrator.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)