Turnpike Troubadours

The Turnpike Troubadours have never followed any script. Breakthrough albums have been followed by breakups. Triumphant reunions have overcome insurmountable odds. And live shows have been thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Now, just two years since their comeback album, A Cat in the Rain, the Tahlequah, Oklahoma, band delivers yet another helping of the unexpected: the surprise release of The Price of Admission, the group’s most vibrant, piercing album since 2010’s career-defining Diamonds & Gasoline. Reteaming with Grammy winning producer Shooter Jennings, who oversaw A Cat in the Rain, the Turnpike Troubadours crafted and recorded 11 new songs for The Price of Admission, reminding fans and peers alike just how it’s done. Songwriter and frontman Evan Felker rises to the occasion, cementing his status as country- rock’s version of Bruce Springsteen. He writes and sings openly and poetically about his sobriety, about loss, and about lighting out in search of something, anything, to fill the void. For Felker, it’s his band of brothers in Turnpike Troubadours: fiddler Kyle Nix, multi-instrumentalist Hank Early, guitarist Ryan Engleman, bassist RC Edwards, and drummer Gabe Pearson. All of them are at the top of their games on The Price of Admission, refusing to hold on too tightly and letting the music guide them. “We made these songs intentionally very band-friendly, like if we were going to play them in the backyard,” Felker says. “We got back to how we did things, and it really was a lot of rediscovering who you are. Because somewhere along the way, we forgot we were an independent band and that can we do whatever the fuck we want to. We remembered that there is nothing stopping us.”

Trampled By Turtles