Artist: Turnpike Troubadours
Album: Goodbye Normal Street
Bitrate: 242kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Blue Rose Records
Genre: Rock
Size: 82.24 megs
PlayTime: 0h 45min 06sec total
Rip Date: 2013-04-06
Store Date: 2013-04-05
Track List:
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01. Gin, Smoke & Lies 4:35
02. Before The Devil Knows We're 3:52
Dead
03. Southeastern Son 3:31
04. Blue Star 3:21
05. Call A Spade a Spade 4:34
06. Morgan Street 3:41
07. Gone, Gone, Gone 4:08
08. Good Lord Lorrie 4:59
09. Empty As A Drum 3:27
10. Wrecked 4:57
11. Quit While I'm Ahead 4:01
Release Notes:
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Times are tough for just about everyone these days, especially for those who
live in what is often referred to as the "flyover states," in the heart of the
country. People have become tougher, their skins have grown thicker and they
have become much harder to win over. That especially holds true when it comes to
the music that rolls into the bars, music halls and honky tonks of their towns.
The overwhelming success that TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS have had on the so-called Red
Dirt circuit of those states says a lot about the quintet's authenticity and
fire, particularly because their music is not exactly what that scene in known
for producing.
"When we first started playing, people couldn't have cared less that we were
there," recalls Troubadours' frontman Evan Felker. "They were there to drink
beer and raise hell and they didn't really care what music was playing while
they did it. But as we went on and as we got better, they started to listen. I
mean, they were still drinkin' plenty of beer, but before too long, they were
actually coming to hear us and asking us to play our songs, and not just covers
of traditional favorites and all the other stuff we'd been doing."
Not only did the crowds get more attentive, they kept getting bigger. As time
went on, and the Troubadours broadened their touring circle, they moved on from
tiny clubs in the more obscure corners of the Sooner state and started hitting -
and selling out - prestigious venues like Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, the
Firehouse Saloon in Houston and Antone's in Austin.
Over the course of the past five years, Felker, bassist RC Edwards, fiddle
player Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engleman and drummer Gabe Pearson, have honed
the rowdy, quick-witted sound that's brought folks of all stripes together in
front of those stages. And on Goodbye Normal Street, the Troubadours' third
full-length album, the band takes that blend of nice and easy and nice and rough
and distills it into a 43-minute ride that takes in the scenery of America's
Heartland and the inner workings of a group of 20-somethings on a quest for
something better.
"This time around, we tried to balance things out," says bassist Edwards, who
shelved a steady gig as a pharmacist in late 2011 to concentrate on the band.
"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."
They attack that goal with gusto on Goodbye Normal Street, putting the pedal to
the metal on "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead" (a breakneck romp about regular
folks who lived hard and died in a blaze of glory) and dialing back to a sensual
closing-time waltz on "Call a Spade a Spade" (a cheater's lament on which Felker
duets with Jamie Wilson of the Trishas).
Felker, who writes the majority of the lyrics - with an assist from Edwards, who
penned the semi-autobiographical "Morgan Street," about the band's hardscrabble
early days - has a knack for capturing slices of life in vivid detail. He can
hit hard emotionally with a song like "Blue Star" (a bittersweet tale of a
veteran returning from war) or tweak the listener with something like "Gin,
Smoke and Lies" (on which he contrasts his own romantic plight with that of a
rooster who manages to satisfy 20 partners, and not just one).
"All the songs are about people we know," he says. "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 band - which took its name from the Indian Nation Turnpike that connected so
many of the smaller towns where they cut their teeth - gradually evolved from
offering acoustic explorations of tunes by Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff
Walker to kicking out three or four sets a night of full-throttle roadhouse
country - tinged with the punk rock attitude that was in the air during the
members' teen years.
"We all pretty much grew up with hardcore country music around us," says Felker.
"I mean, sure, there was rock stuff in there, but the real old-school stuff,
plus exposure to folks like Jason Boland and Cross Canadian Ragweed, really
affected what we were playing. We're really a product of both our influences and
our environment. It wasn't something that we sat in a room and dreamed up in one
day."
That's clear. The raw-boned energy of their 2007 debut, Bossier City, cut on a
shoestring budget and aimed squarely at getting boots on the dance floor earned
raves from many corners, including No Depression, which dubbed it "a testament
to the small towns in which they were raised à with stories of longing, humor,
tragedy and general life in rural America." The quintet broadened its horizons
on its sophomore outing, Diamonds and Gasoline, which spawned the Americana
favorite "Every Girl" and brought them to the attention of folks throughout the
country, and overseas.
And with Goodbye Normal Street - the name a reference to another longtime band
residence as well as a state of mind that they left behind long ago - they set
their sights on conquering even more expansive territories. With songs like the
blue-collar anthem "Southeastern Son" and the universally understandable breakup
plaint "Wrecked," they look pretty likely to conquer them.
"This music, at its best, can put into words what we have been thinking for our
entire lives," says Felker, "and even at its worst, it gets people drinking beer
and makes people happy. Either of those is fine with me."
even at its worst, it gets people drinking beer
and makes people happy. Either of those is fine with me."