Turnpike Troubadours

One Liner: Top notch red dirt band with intelligent writing

Wikipedia Genre: Country, Americana, red dirt
Home: Oklahoma

Sunday

Thoughts:   They came to ACL In 2014, and I wrote an extremely brief review of them at the time.  Maybe I should go back to those sorts of cursory reviews!  Also, for some reason, I used to color the text in my blogs.  Why, Jack?

"Yes.  Great name.  Good sound – alt country/roots rock with prominent violin.  Funny to look at their play count versus Calvin Harris – his most popular was over 100 million, their most popular has 840k.  But, maybe because I’m from Austin and not Monaco, I think these guys are really good.  One song that I have heard somewhere – maybe KUTX or KOKE.  Wrecked [now with 13 million streams in 2023, and not in their top ten on Spotify]:

Yeah, that is a good tune.  I’ve now listened to both of their albums on Spotify and they are damn solid.  Their internet presence is light, but I found out they are from OK.  Which is OK.  Here's another bit with lots of YouTube views [that video is dead, and I can't tell what it was supposed to be]: These guys are definitely worth a listen."

But also, "Good Lord Lorrie" from that second album, with 54 million streams, is also a good one.

Before that album, their debut was 2010's Diamonds and Gasoline.  It has two big songs - "7 & 7" has 63.9 million streams, and their top streamer overall is "Long Hot Summer Day" with 69.3 million.

The violin keeps it grounded in the country world, but it also comes on like a southern rock and roll track.  Seems like a good sing-a-long for a crowd.  "7 & 7" is a good one too, it reminds me more of the Old 97's than some of these other tunes. I like the rock-forwardedness of it. "Diamonds and Gasoline" is a nice little ballad.

Their third album actually got a full-on review from me at the time, although none of the songs on that album made much noise on a streaming-count basis.  "Turnpike Troubadours - The Turnpike Troubadours.  Odd to name their third album after the name of the band.  Seems like a first album move to me.  But whatever, I found these guys when listening to the bands for ACL in 2014 and liked the sound a lot.  Pretty classic americana sound heavy on the fiddle.  Their second most listened-to track on Spotify from the album, the opener "The Bird Hunters" is a good one, but I'll give you the most listened-to track, "Down Here." [14.5 million streams right now in 2023]

Definite classic sound, along with a video of small town rodeo cowboys.  Relaxed vibe and likely a good singalong track.  And my favorite piece of the album is the Old 97's cover "Doreen."  I like the 97's well enough anyway, but this is a good cover.  I'd also point out "Ringing in the Year" as a standout track.  Solid album."

After that, it seems like I just let them slip off of my radar entirely.  Which is a little annoying to me.  But their next disc was their biggest hit, reaching #1 on both the US Indie and Folk charts.  2017's A Long Way from Your Heart also topped out at #3 on the Country charts.  "Housefire" might be my favorite of these, but two other tunes have more streams - "Unrung" with 23 million and "Pay No Rent" with 28.8 million.

I had a moment listening just now where this felt a little like a Revivalists song.  The pedal steel is so good in this one, and I love the imagery at the beginning of the clicking of the dominoes being shuffled.  Takes the "lives rent free in my head" trope and turns it into a love song.  Nice song, good album.  Kicking myself that I let them disappear from my rotation, this is nice stuff.

Let's go in to the  back story here though.  Band was formed in 2005 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and they made a debut album so that they would have something to sell at live shows.  I can't find that one, called Bossier City, on the streaming services.  There are apparently six current members, but several have left the band over the years.  According to Wikipedia, they went on indefinite hiatus in 2019, and then they popped back up in November 2021.  Pretty good timing to just skip the whole pandemic thing.  Apparently, Evan Felker, the band's frontman and main songwriter, was having some trouble with the drink that caused the band to have complete chaos of cancelled shows and angry fans for a while.  After the hiatus was announced, Felker got sober, remarried his wife for the second time, had a daughter, and went off the grid for a bit.  "We were in the bars — for 10 years, I was in a bar every night. If you expose yourself to that long enough, you’re going to wind up needing some help. I know I did. I don’t miss it. I don’t miss that. I miss playing music, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t miss being drunk and telling the same stories over and over again, not at all.”

So, good for him.  Rehab and COVID lockdown was super helpful for him, and also let the other guys go out and realize what they missed with this band.  Some of them did solo stuff, or played with other bands, but they all missed this one.  So, they are apparently all back in the fold and excited to keep doing what they do.

And what they do is finally release a new disc of music, 2023's A Cat in the Rain.  I reviewed this one a few weeks ago.  

"Turnpike Troubadours - A Cat in the Rain.  I needed to dig into these guys anyway, they are coming to the Two Step Inn next April.  I remember liking some of their older albums, but they've definitely fallen off of my radar over the years.  I think this album is really good - polished in a way that I wish old Zach would do!  Like, the second song, "Brought Me" is super clean and tuneful with great harmonies.  Has an almost Irish/country vibe that is really comforting.  The opening track is the top streamer though, with 8.1 million streams.  "Mean Old Sun."

I like that lean into the banjo, kind of an aggressive tune to open the album that otherwise is not an aggressive-sounding collection of songs.  And their look is interesting.  Lead singer is straight country, then the rest look like they repair cars on the side.  Good tune though.  Whole album is good - these guys sound like the next evolution of the Texas country sound."

So, I'm all in.  Fixing to add that "Pay No Rent" song to a mix playlist for the wife, and promise to keep playing these tunes after this is over.