David McLister
There was a time not long ago when the Turnpike Troubadours thought they were done.
With a decade-long run behind them, the six-piece band of road-warrior brothers had risen to become perhaps the most successful “Red Dirt” group in history, with legions of fans all over the world. But like the Icarus of indie country, maybe they flew too high.
They had released four studio albums that became instant classics, fusing pure country sonics with the high-voltage energy of born entertainers (and the mischievous wit of a barroom poet). They had amassed over one billion streams and were booking arenas and amphitheaters, sharing billing with the biggest mainstream stars and remaining proudly independent, still planted in Oklahoma. And then, in 2019, it all stopped.
Burned out and battling a tabloid frenzy, the band canceled shows at the last minute and eventually announced an abrupt hiatus, with reports indicating frontman Evan Felker had essentially fallen out of love with music. But after a year of re-centering on his part, and some side projects for the rest of the band, they’ve found their way back. Back to the road. Back to writing songs filled with countercultural grit and traditional grace. And back to their first record in six years, A Cat in the Rain, out August 25.
All things considered, it’s one of the most anticipated albums in recent memory—and a joyous moment for fans and band alike.
“I’m probably the optimist of all of us, so I kind of always knew we’d do it again. But there was always that worry maybe we might not,” says bassist and co-founder, R.C. Edwards. “To know for sure you’re making music with your friends again, I think everyone was just really fired up [to make] this record.”
Co-founded by Edwards and Felker in 2005, the band also features Ryan Engleman on guitar, Kyle Nix on fiddle, Gabe Pearson on drums, and multi-instrumentalist Hank Early on steel guitar and accordion. Jumping right back in where they left off, A Cat in the Rain features 10 songs produced by Grammy winner Shooter Jennings. Edwards calls its recording a catalyst of sorts, and since then, they’ve spent the past year headlining shows all over the nation.
“This was the first time we got back in a room to play music together,” he says. “And just all being together, making music again, it’s not that we ever took it for granted, but you appreciate it more when you take a step away.”
Those first sessions took place at Muscle Shoals’ famous FAME Studio in early 2022, and after finishing up months later in L.A., the resulting set marks a new chapter for the band; one with that same old Turnpike fire, but tempered with some wisdom. No one knew what would happen when the band finally gathered for those reunion sessions, and Edwards even admits there were some questions about whether it would stick. But ultimately, he says Jennings helped get the ball rolling. His guiding hand put them at ease, helping to create a batch of songs pulled straight from the moment with themes that speak directly to the hiatus and lessons learned.
“Going into [the studio] there was some anxiety or tension,” Edwards says. “It was like, ‘How’s it going to be? How are we gonna be working together? We haven’t done this in a long time. Can we even still do it?’ But Shooter’s just a wealth of knowledge and ideas, and he keeps everything so chill and in the right headspace for making a record.”
He says the time off also allowed the band members to find themselves and that self- improvement shines through in the new material.
“I think there’s a lot of growth and maturity in this record that comes from everything everyone’s been through,” he says. “That shows in a neat way on a lot of the songs, but our core sound is still very much there. Some things have changed, but then there’s something that’s definitely Turnpike Troubadours and I hope always will be.”
Mostly written or co-written by Felker, Edwards, and friends like John Fullbright (with one especially meaningful cover), the music presents fans with an honest, vulnerable look at the fallout from Turnpike’s almost-demise. It’s been well documented that Felker got sober during that time, but he also patched up his marriage and rediscovered his musical passion, so Edwards says there was a lot of ground to cover. Themes of growing into your age and learning to live without the crutches we lean on in youth give this Turnpike record a perspective they haven’t often explored.
“He had a story to tell,” Edwards says of Felker. “He went through a lot, and one of the ideas we tried to stick to on this record was [to] get out of the way and let him tell the story.”
The first track they recorded ended up becoming the title track, “A Cat in the Rain,” and it established the tone. With a gentle country sway, warm harmonies, and Felker’s voice feeling more humble than hot-blooded, he sings of “taking every bad fork in the road” and eventually finding someone still standing there with you in the end, offering shelter for “a stray out in a storm.” Edwards explains the band rarely has a plan of attack when they enter the studio, and it was the same this time around, even with such a momentous challenge to tackle. After “A Cat in the Rain,” it felt good to be back together as friends and create a safe space to address their near-ending openly.
The first single, “Mean Old Sun,” pairs a bluesy, swampy stomp with the theme of a new day dawning, as Felker expresses the need to be relentless in whatever you’re doing. Edwards co-wrote the follow-up single, “Chipping Mill,” using a classic, fiddle-laden Red Dirt sound to describe a heart beaten and battered but still pumping for those it loves. It was written about “leaving more than you take in the world,” and “giving the best of you to the people you care about,” Edwards explains—and it sometimes resembles an upbeat, modern version of Willie Nelson’s classic “Always On My Mind.”
“Drank my way through a hurricane / Thinking ’bout your wedding ring / I’ve done a lot of real dumb things / But I always kept the best for you.”
Elsewhere, older songs like the easygoing “East Side Love Song (Bottoms Up)” get a new, bluegrassy facelift, and while “Three More Days” was originally co-written by Felker and Fullbright years earlier, the family-oriented road anthem finds an ideal home here with a sly strut and some thick, classic pop “oohs” and “ahhs.”
Meanwhile, Felker describes climbing out of his low point in the dark-and-stormy ballad “The Rut,” proclaiming he doesn’t “miss the taste of liquor, or really anything about it.” And the album ends with a solemn message to Turnpike’s fans by way of that powerful cover choice: “Won’t You Give Me One More Chance,” a hat-in- hand makeup song by one of the band’s guiding influences, Jerry Jeff Walker.
A slow rolling, arm-in-arm acoustic ballad, with a mournful harmonica and Felker’s voice joined in genuine solidarity by lush background vocals, Edwards says it was a fitting send-off for a project no one could be sure would actually happen. One with a message to all those who hung in there with the band, hoping they’d make it back to just such a situation.
“We really made this record for ourselves. It was really good for us as far as getting the band back together and back to work, but I hope it comes across how much we love that we’re getting to do this again. And then also, I hope it gives a little glimpse into what we’ve been through.” He pauses and lets out a grim laugh. “Thanks for bearing with us.”