When Tyler Childers won Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Honors and Awards, he stepped to the microphone and dismantled the very genre honoring him. The Kentucky-born country and bluegrass songwriter demanded to be called what he is — a country artist — turning a polished awards ceremony into a defense of Appalachian identity.

Raised on traditional country, bluegrass, and honky-tonk in Lawrence and Johnson counties, Childers saw the Americana label as a velvet rope keeping working-class roots music out of its own house. His fight to reclaim country music for Appalachia — and his later evolution beyond genre entirely — makes him one of the most compelling voices in modern country music.

• Shredded the awards-show script in 2018, rejecting the Americana label in his acceptance speech

• Grew up in Lawr ...