Charlotte Observer, June 2004

By: Mark Kemp

Lots of good folk; too little blood, sweat and tears
The Carolinas have a glut of sensitive singer/songwriters and folkies. What we don't produce regionally, we import from New England, which also has a glut of sensitive singer/songwriters and folkies.

Just look at the schedules of clubs like the Evening Muse in NoDa, the Sylvia Theater in York, S.C., the Orange Peel in Asheville, all those Tosco music parties and acoustic-music festivals.

Don't get me wrong: I love the sound of organic guitars with inspired storytelling. Both are righteous Southern traditions. But it takes more than pretty picking and earnest singing to make folk-based music resonate. Few singer/songwriters possess the delicate balance of lyrical chutzpah, melodic inventiveness and a voice that communicates the right feeling a song requires -- pain, joy, anger, bliss, frustration.

Around these parts, a handful of singer/songwriters tower above the masses: David Childers, Mount Holly's gritty Southern musical poet; Danielle Howle, Columbia's punk-edged folkie who wails like a gospel singer; and Ryan Adams, who high-tailed it out of Raleigh for the smoggier pastures of New York and Los Angeles. Lots more area singer/songwriters are talented enough, pleasant, have nice voices and play sparkling chords. But Childers, Howle and Adams sweat blood.

No Depression, April 2004
review of "Room 23"

David Childers' lastest disc is much more closely representative of the brilliance that radiates from the big man at his live shows than any of is previous releases have been.

NetRhythms.com, February 2004
review of "Room 23"
by: David Blue

If you are looking for the new Johnny Cash then your search may well be at an end. David Childers and his top-notch band The Modern Don Juans open with I Was The One, which I'm sure the great man would have been only too happy to record. The honky-tonk barroom feel of 38th Street follows and continues with another eleven self-written (with a couple of collaborations) tracks of various styles. Her Side Of The Story is rock and roll, The Man In Louisville is on the traditional side of alt.country and Room #23 (Culpepper Virginia) is out and out rock. Country gets its chance with Hardwood Killing Floor and One More Run and he goes all folksy on The Prettiest Thing. There's a strange Chinese feeling to the start of The Price I Pay but what follows turns out to be my favourite song in an album of favourites - this could be rock, folk or country, you choose. Baby Baby is a Stray Cats type rocker only in a beefier way whereas there's a sixties garage feel to I Think I'm Gonna Make It and Doctor Sanchez conjures up visions of the Allman Brothers. The album finishes with the excellent folk song Lucky Stranger and I deny you to find many better albums around today.

Rockzilla.net, Dec. 2003
review of "Room 23" on Sliver Meteor / Ramseur Records) by: Jud Block

"I really don't much like to talk about it, but I always feel like God, who has seen every dirty thing I've done, gives me these songs as some kind of reward for trying to do a few good things here and there."
David Childers

In nearly every town in this country there exists a musician whom locals consider to be a big crawfish in a small pot. From Ruston, Louisiana; to Alabaster, Alabama; to Chester, South Carolina, if you're there long enough and let your love of music be known, someone will inform you of a band or solo artist that you just have to see. In my experience, this is more than not a disappointing venture; in fact, I can count on two-fifths of one hand the number of musicians that turned out to be either as good or better than the local bias promised - - Topper Price in Birmingham, Alabama; and Eric Culberson in Savannah, Georgia, in case you were wondering. Well, thanks to David Childers it looks like I'll have to change that fraction to three-fifths, and after having listened to his latest release, Room #23, I'm seriously considering increasing both my "dirty things" and "good things" quotients in the hopes of receiving a little of that divine reward myself.

Coming on like a confluence between the world-weary warrior poetry of David Allan Coe and the roadhouse spirituality of Billy Jo Shaver, David Childers dispenses with peripheral niceties and strides unblinking into the desolate epicenter of failure, deceit, suicide and sacrifice. But as is the case with any truly astute chronicler, he understands that Life is more a black comedy than a tragedy and tempers the bleakness with touches of resilience and humor...CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST.

Ctrl. Alt. Country e-zine, Dec. 2003
DAVID CHILDERS & THE MODERN DON JUANS “Room #23” (4.5 stars out of 5) Room #23” without a doubt is one of the finest records to reach us over the last couple of weeks. And if there’s any justice, this will turn out to be the album, we’ll refer to in the future as the one he sealed his break-through with.”
by Benny Metten

altcountry.nl e-zine, Dec. 2003
David Childers "Room 23"
I found David Childers via Don Dixon. Now we haven't heard much of Dixon since his masterpiece for Sugar Hill, Romantic Depressive (1995), but it remains a name that you always want to know everything about. So I recently read in 'Heaven' a story about Dixon, this was a reason to search for some recent information on the internet. One piece of information is that he produced 'Room #23' of David Childers and his band The Modern Don Juans. Childers has been around for a while (as I read at allmusic.com), but I don't have anything by him. Rather, didn't have. Because Room #23 is now playing in my cd-player for the fourth time, and this is a disc that pleases the first time you play it. That is in the first place because of his voice, a raw country-voice with soul which he can take in any direction (he often reminds me of Fred Eaglesmith). Dixon has recorded Childers and band crispy-raw. That is immediately clear with the sturdy rootsrock song 'I Was The One', and remains that way until the singer-songwriter tune 'Lucky Stranger' at the end, about the artist who always has to go on, even if he meets a girl along the way: 'I want you tonight, but tomorrow I'll be gone'. Also life on the road isn't always great, as he sings earlier in 'The Man In Louisville'. The owner of a bar promises $300, he drives eight hours and plays that evening for nobody. Without a penny things don't end well at home, as you can imagine. It is clear, Childers is a real storyteller; one who presents his stories smoothly-tasty with clear lyrics that don't hide anything. Listen to the roots song (with mandolin solo) '38th Street', 'Thunder clouds are building in the late days eve'. With a little imagination you see Childers walking through the rain at dusk, looking for the warmth of the tavern, where undoubtedly he'll look further than the whiskey bottle. Enough yammering, experience it yourself, this wonderful rootsrock disc!

Flyin' Shoes Reviews, Nov. 2003
ALSO _ TOP TWENTY 2003
David Childers and the Modern Don Juans "Room #23"
I'm not quite sure where David Childers' musical heart is at. The bulk of this album is bar-room country, robust and mature like his singing voice. What you hear first time round is pretty much what you get and there aren't many subtleties to be teased out in repeated listenings, just good solid songs performed well. However, maybe half the album veers off in other directions, with his singing working well in every new context. There's rock songs with an early 70's feel to them (I was reminded of Free, Family and Steppenwolf in turn) and then slower numbers with simpler arrangements, sometimes just the man and his guitar. For me, they're probably the highlights of the album, but Room #23 is a broad church and there's something here for most folk. I'm sure, too, that these songs would come over really well at a gig, and you'd be needing your dancing shoes; worth checking out at Celtic Connections if you can get there. John Davy
by Jon Davy

RootsTown Freezine, Jan. 2003
(Translation of RootsTown Music review of "Blessed In An Unusual Way" on Ramseur Records)

OK, I assume I don't have to redo my homework and explain to you who David Childers is? I expect that my enthusiasm speaking about the man's previous release 'A Good Way To Die' has left a few impressions and I don't have to get you excited again about the person and the voice of David Childers?

Good, then we can start today's lesson: David has just made a new record, his seventh, and I can tell you one thing in advance: nothing is what it seems.

This is not the record of someone who got a 'religious tic' but the man is certainly "blessed." Blessed with an ability to write and sing exceptionally beautiful folk songs. Also blessed with the talent you need to find the right covers and to interpret them.

David visited Mister Williams, Hank, whose 'Lonesome Whistle' he reinvents and records in a sitar arrangement. He visited Mr. Dylan, Bob, whose 'Oh Sister' gets a thorough reading. There's also the long-forgotten Martin Stephenson, whose 'The Old Church Is Still Standing' is thoroughly taken care of. For the rest, the album consists of sixteen originals, at least if you count the introductory talk, titled 'Message Of Thanks' and short ditties such as 'Epitaph/Alien Gods' or 'Saturday'.

In these originals David shows what he is: a good singer, a good performer, with both feet in folk music - at least if you can count people like Johnny Cash, Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen as folk musicians. That kind of folk, sir, is heavenly to listen to. We again love a new David Childers album and hope you will do the same. (by Dani Heyvaert)

Durham Independent , Dec. 2002

The music of Mt. Holly, N.C.'s David Childers, like the man himself, is multi-faceted and more than a little intriguing. He comes off as part root-rock storyteller a la Dave Alvin or Tom Russell and part beat poet, with original songs that are alternately rugged, romantic and restless and with cover choices that are often inspired. For starters, Childers' ability to combine influences and impulses that are typically worlds away is showcased on the sitar-visited version of Hank Williams' "I Hear that Lonesome Whistle" on the recent Blessed in an Unusual Way, an album that's both spiritual and spirited. He's eclectic enough to cover Dylan, longstanding troubadour Martin Stephenson, and Bob "How Much is That Doggie in the Window" Merrill, and electric enough to rock out when the mood strikes. David Childers will be at Cary's Six String Café on Dec. 12, along with Chris Cook and Darlene Caine. Call 469-3667 for details.

Rick Cornell

Fresh Dirt , Oct. 2002
David Childers Blessed in an Unusual Way [Ramseur Records]
David Childers is an over-educated hillbilly Renaissance Man, a poet with a law degree and a penchant for pithy stream-of-consciousness social observations delivered in a primitive musical style entirely his own. On his fourth album, Blessed in an Unusual Way, Childers’ theme is religion, but this is in no way a "gospel" album.

The album echoes with the resonant hum of wooden church houses, the sounds of little churches in the hills and hollows and tiny burgs, unelectrified churches, churches without heat or air-conditioning, the kinds of churches where bodily comfort isn’t even a concern. Part of the album is worshipful and contemplative, filled with an awestruck wonder at the power existence implies; other parts are filled with a fiery anger at the hypocrisy that seems part and parcel of the modern public religious experience. Childers points an accusing finger at our modern Pharisees....Click here for the rest of the review

William Michael Smith

No Depression, the essential alt.country (whatever that is) bi-monthly, Sept./Oct. 2002
There's a striking quality to the recent work of Mt. Holly, North Carolina songwriter David Childers, a tangible ruggedness and restlessness, as if his songs are carved out of old railroad ties and wood from recycled church pews. While Blessed In An Unusual Way features Biblical characters (The Pharaoh's Daughter) and the prayer-like "Precious Lord", Childers sees it less of a gospel record and more of a spiritual one.

Childers seems to follow wherever his spirit leads, whether it be to the melodica-and-yelp-backed battleground monologue, "Meadows Of Blood" or to the traditionally structured, acoustic-guitar-based "The Devil Loves To Make My Baby Cry", which disarms with its directness. He's not quite as out there as Johnny Dowd, but he's not nearly as grounded as, say, Dave Alvin or Tom Russell.

Childers also welcomes other voices and pens into the fold, as reflected by the album's bookends; a faith-filled but misdirected phone message, and a found-sound sermon snippet that gives the album its title. In between, he stops to cover artists unparalleled (Bob Dylan and Hank Williams, the later via a sitar-visited version of "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle") and unexpected (UK troubadour Martin Stephenson and Bob Merrill, the writer of "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window").
Rick Cornell

WUMB Boston, Aug. 2002
David Childers doesn't know how to pull a punch. You get every ounce of emotion in every song. It doesn't hurt that he is a gifted poet and a highly individual singer with a heck of a band behind him. Yep. He is "Blessed in an Unusual Way." In fact, he is blessed in countless ways.
Marilyn Rea Beyer, Music Director WUMB Radio UMass Boston

Mountain Xpress, Sept.. 2002
'Blessed in an Unusual Way"
David Childers is one of the most dangerous men in traditional roots music. Who else would rearrange a classic hank song like 'I Heard That Lonesome Whistle' around a sitar? Who else would put out an album that successfully rides the thin line between making fun of hard core xtian fundamentalism and paying homage to it? and who else would place a bizarre rainstick-and-spoken-word wound collage into an album of such music, as childers has with 'Saturday?'

Childers does it all, and flawlessly. his original songs here are often deceptively simple, and yet all are solidly performed, fully crafted works. Even the vague religious themes are easily overlooked in favor of the simple power of the music. And besides, he pokes anyone who will write a good review of him...
Steve Shanafelt

The Triad Style (Greensboro News & Record, NC), Aug. 2002
Hallelujah! Sometimes a little spirit goes a long, long way. I've heard about David Childers, but I hadn't heard him, and certainly couldn't figure out if he was full of poop or a real artist - the back cover of this CD has a "forgiveness" section - included on it are Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Jones, Oral Roberts … (You get the idea. I had to laugh). Musically, this particular CD is a collection of terrific folk tunes, gospel, original tunes and traditionals. And what I loved immediately is Childers's utter earnestness. In my opinion, he sounds like a cross between Bruce Springsteen (on the fiery stuff) and Van Morrison (on the sweet and lowdown stuff). Childers is a Charlotte musician who plays dulcimer, guitar, banjo, melodia, harmonica, percussion and bass. He has that accurate, dead-on, almost scary writing style of a Steve Earle or Dave Alvin, but can flip to a Guy Clark feel or Buck Owens in a New York minute. And this Childers experience was so good, I felt more than just a little redeemed when it all over. Amen!
Allison King

RootsTown Freezine, Feb. 2002
(Translation of RootsTown Music review of "A Good Way to Die")

You know what is fun in this job? We don't always know either, but when one day you get an e-mail from someone like Duane Jarvis, who points out that he just finished recording an album for a friend and asks you if you would listen to it, well that is fun in this job. Certainly when this album turns out to be great.

This CD is Childers' sixth album. It contains a total of 21 songs, all originals, written by him or together with Duane Jarvis. Six marvelous instrumental, film noir pieces glue the real songs together. To describe the music of Childers is not easy: the terms "Americana" and "storyteller" come to mind immediately, but there is more than that. David is an unbelievably intense singer, who tells things in such a way that you cannot but believe what he says. Now he hits heavy and raw ‘Possibilities,' then in one second he brings you to a cantina near the Tex-Mex border ‘The One I Cannot Resist,' now he waltzes around the room in the way of Guy Clark, David Olney or TvZ on‘Goodbye To The Night', then he's Dylan or Guthrie with ‘The Devil's Train.' Anyone who likes Jimmy LaFave, will certainly love this album because of tracks like ‘Cincinnati' and ‘Gates of Hell,' they who cherish Steve Earle will be perfectly accommodated by ‘Six Days on the Road,' ‘On the Juke Box,' or ‘Blue Morning.'

You've got the picture? We put it to the test on a few unsuspecting RTM-subscribers, and it was right on target every time, let me assure you of that. David Childers, definitely remember the name, or even better: go as fast as lightning and look for a copy of this absolutely magnificent CD.

No Depression, the essential alt.country (whatever that is) bi-monthly Sept. 2001
David Childers has always been a true believer, throwing himself into his music with such fire and brimstone gusto that broekn guitar strings and sweat heavy clothing are de rigeur. Childers walkes and pounces around the stage like the bear he is, squeezing the honey out of his voice and songswith beautiful abandon.
Tim Davis

MusiComet, (travels in music and film) Sept. 2001
You know that movie where Harrisson Ford is the really cool President? You know how the whole time you're thinking, "I wish he really was the president"? That's kind of how it is when you see Dave Childers perform. Why isn't he the President or at least the mayor or something?

Some have likened Childers' performances to that of a tent revival and while he invokes the Bible on several occasions and is full of fire and brimstone, he seems more concerned with secular redemption. His world is about love, family, and all that other messy stuff......He's got my vote. For what? For whatever.
T.E. Flanagan

The Music Monitor Sept. 2001
A Good Way To Die is half well told tales, (it's easy to imagine Childers as the NC version of Tom Russell or Dave Alvin)and half instrumentals, the latter group coming off like the soundtrack for a movie that'syet to be made. The highest point on an album of many peaks occurs midway with "Cincinnatti", "Gates of Hell", and "Six Days On THe Road On The Jukebox"--as smart and compelling a trio of songs as I've heard on any roots-leaning album this year.
Rick Cornell

The Tennessean, Saturday, March 24, 2001
(of David's new CD, 'A Good Way to Die')"Childers delivers song after song (21 in all) of harrowing, impassioned, well-crafted music."

Creative Loafing Charlotte, April 4, 2001
"On 'A Good Way to Die', he's finally got the Lost Highway soundscapes to place his made-for-the-movies characters in. Childers' fervor and raw honesty lead one to imagine he made himself and his bandmates place their hands on the Good Book and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help them God. Childers' fervor is given additional fire by a love of Christian and other symbolic mythology, and it's no small feat that the songs manage to avoid any sort of preaching. They're more like parables, maxims that may seem simplistic at first but contain enough shadow and storm to let you know he's not just getting by on a stairstep of well-placed cliches."

Winston-Salem Journal, March 30, 2001
"(Childers' music) combines trace elements of all the music he loves. There's the raw country of Buck Owens and Johnny Cash. There's the healing revelations and storytelling magic of unadorned folk music. Listen closely, and the primitive side of Delta bluesman R.L. Burnside will emerge. Childers' music is smart enough to grab your attention, crude and edgy enough to keep you wondering if he'll navigate that next tricky turn, and pure of heart and intention."

Totallymusic , April 2001
"One look at David Childers' new album cover tells it all: Childers bleeds his music. Childers sings of intense situations with dynamic outcomes."

The State (Columbia, SC), April 2001
"(Childers is) a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll and a little bit folk."

The Music Monitor by Rick Cornell, Issue No. 122, 11/99. From "Notes From Home Regional Music" .

"David Childers Hard Time County (Rank Records) Charlotte, NC -- An impressive debut from Childers,  that positions him as the Queen City's version of rustic, country-influenced rockers like Dave Alvin and especially Tom Russell, with the occasional Tom T. Hall and Merle Haggard shading. Deserving special mention are "Cold Steel Arms" and the rugged title track, both featuring the underheralded Duane Jarvis on guitar."

Creative Loafing by Tim Davis

"Whether with his fine band or not, Childers elegiacal yet hopeful songs continue to get better with age. Childers' songs are of perfect vintage to enjoy right now, however. Probably one of the most important Charlotte-area artists, his "aw shucks" stage demeanor is just that--stage demeanor. A real country politan gentleman in the truest sense of the word, the Mount Holly resident makes a convincing case every time he hits the stage, showing the same fire whether playing in front of 20 or 200 and often going positively Gen. Sherman, attacking the guitar like it was Atlanta. Charles Mingus used to say that if a musician could connect with just one listener, then the whole show was worthwhile. Heck, David's got me a few times."

Herald-Journal by Peter Cooper, Escape section, Herald-Journal, Spartanburg S.C.,8/20/99

"David Childers is a burly man with a burly twang that immediately distances him from his sensitive contemporaries. More imoprtantly he writes good burly songs. A bunch of those songs find a home on Hard Time County a newly released efford on Charlotte-based Rank Racords. The album features guest turns from notables including guitarist Duane Jarvis and Ranck Outsiders' vocalist Gigi Dover, but Childers' voice and songs are the stars here. Childers' sound is kind of heartland rock filtered through a bluegrass sensibility. The songs are of tough towns, tough love and tough travel and they are heavy with the weight of experience. The heaviest, and perhaps the finest of the songs is also the quietest. "Breath or Blood" is an embittered beauty, with Childers' vocal accompanied only by a finger-picked acoustic guitar. But most of what's here is juiced with electric guitars and drums, though never straying far from the southern roots of rock ' roll and country music. The only misstep is "Ghosts of Cleveland," a kind of emotionally combersome tribute to Carolinian's northern friends. Everyting else - especially the rollicking "El Rojo," the lovely "Heart in my Soul," the title track and aforementioned "Breath of Blood" - hits the mark. Advice to the rock-starved: skip the John Cougar Mellencamp CD and put your money on someone with less cash and more heart. Childers' is your man."

Totallymusic 1999

Creative Loafing's Critic's Choice-Best of Charlotte ' Best Local Songwriter'  1999 

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Creative Loafing's Critic's Choice-Best of Charlotte 'Best Local Songwriter' 1998