 You asked and now it's finally here. Appalachian Wireless now offers unlimited data on the best network in the region. See store for complete details, better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless and East Kentucky Network Company. Lawrence County native Tyler Childress has been making waves in the country music industry with his new LP Purgatory. Tyler says growing up in these mountains played a big part of who he is today as an artist. It's a foundation for just me as a person, you know, and the way that I've grown to see the world around me and, you know, it's influenced the characters that I write about. It's influenced the sound, what I want to hear out of my music, you know, out of other people's music, you know, what I think is quality and what's not. Rolling Stone Magazine describes Tyler's sound as a raw look at the darker regions of modern-day Appalachia where bluegrass is in the soul but cocaine is in the blood. However, Tyler describes it a little differently. The sound I'm trying to go for is, it's a combination of a lot of things but it's like Marty Stewart says we're doing a little thing called the Hillbilly Rock, you know. I mean, grew up listening to a lot of southern gospel and a lot of bluegrass. You know, growing up in this region country music was a big influence early on. You know, I listened to a lot of Ricky Skaggs and Mary Cordell and pretty partial to D-White. So all that, you know, just welded together with some drive-by truckers and I don't really know how to explain it other than that. Those who knew Tyler early on knew right away he was something special and was destined to do big things. I teach in Lawrence County High School and I teach freshman and I had Tyler several years ago in my freshman government class. A little broad-eyed red-haired kid and I play music and a lot of people know that so me and Tyler connected pretty early because he played music. It didn't take long to figure out that Tyler wasn't like most of the other children. He was already writing songs and was interested in some pretty esoteric stuff. We always knew that he would grow. It's like, okay, we got to watch this. You know, I can't wait to see him in a few years because we know he's headed for bigger and better things. You know, wherever he is, he's going to take that next step. If you miss Tyler's show at the Mountain Arts Center, you can catch him this week on December 2nd and 3rd at the V-Club in Huntington, West Virginia. Reporting from Prestonsburg, I'm Shawn Allen for EKB News.