The Oklahoma band is composed of frontman Evan Felker, bassist R.C. Edwards, fiddle player Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engelman and drummer Gabe Pearson. They have released three albums since their debut in 2007. The group’s most recent album was “Goodbye Normal Street,” which was released in 2012.
“This time around, we tried to balance things out,” Edwards said in a press release. “We wanted to combine the idea of getting something perfect, the way you can only do in a proper studio, with the energy of playing in front of a thousand people jumping around and screaming.”
According to the band’s official website, Felker said he writes the majority of the lyrics based upon life experiences. He said he never wanted to be a solo artist. So he brought the group together when he was younger.
“All the songs are about people we know,” he said. “And yeah, some of them are probably about me to some degree — the guy who ticks off the wrong girl from Arkansas and the guy who doesn’t always like what he sees himself becoming. Mostly though, I think they’re just honest.”
The group is described as having a contemporary country sound with the incorporation of fiddles, harmonicas and banjos in their performances.
Turnpike Troubadours took its name from the Indian Nation Turnpike that connected the smaller towns where they cut their teeth. The band evolved from acoustic ?explorations of Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker to playing country-tinged with punk rock attitudes during their teen years.
“This music, at its best, can put into words what we have been thinking for our entire lives,” Felker said in a press release. “Even at its worst, it gets people drinking beer and makes people happy.
“Either of those is fine with me.”
Alexis Daily
