Road Scholars

The Turnpike Troubadours have synthesized the travels, and travails, of touring into a red-dirt sound all their own.

By PRESTON JONES
September/October 2011

The name of this Tahlequah-based quintet could be taken a couple of different ways. 

There are the literal miles accumulated by the Turnpike Troubadours, driving the interstates between Oklahoma towns large and small and in surrounding states. 

More broadly, there are the endless, back-country dirt roads navigated by teenagers and young adults waiting for their lives to begin and whose soundtrack is supplied by the songs populating the band’s first two albums, 2007’s Bossier City and last year’s Diamonds & Gasoline. 

“That’s the song going full circle, to me,” says frontman Evan Felker. “There are a lot of things we’ve achieved that are big, but when you hear some college kid say, ‘We ride around the back roads and drink beer and listen to your music all the time,’ that’s what I would be doing if I wasn’t doing this.” 

Either interpretation accurately reflects the music made by this proud outfit, which settled into its current lineup in 2009 with Felker, bassist R.C. Edwards, fiddler Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engleman, and drummer Giovanni Carnuccio. Felker and Edwards say the group resulted from refusing to settle, making sure to find like-minded souls as invested in passion of performance as precision. 

“There are some songs that are better on the record than they come across in a honky-tonk, and vice versa,” says Edwards. “We’re proud of being a real band and a live band.” 

That pride is evident in their performances. This is a tightly knit band that’s cut its teeth in the smoky barrooms and boisterous dancehalls of the South, places like the Arbuckle Ballroom in Davis. From the beer bottles perched atop the amplifiers to the shots of tequila called to the stage, it’s a loose, warm, slightly rowdy atmosphere that allows couples to two-step off to the side or fans to sing along. 

The Troubadours’ tunes have earned them vocal champions like singer-songwriter Mike McClure of the Great Divide, who produced their sophomore effort, Diamonds & Gasoline.

“I gravitated to them because of the songs,” McClure says. “I thought the songwriting was head and shoulders over the stuff I hear that comes out of the red-dirt scene. I think Evan Felker is a hell of a writer.” 

Indeed, the Turnpike Troubadours’ sound doesn’t immediately conjure visions of fellow red-dirt artists Jason Boland and Stoney LaRue. However, their songs also do not fit snugly into any one genre, another indicator of red-dirt roots. There are traces of folk, of country, and of roots music plainly apparent, as when Felker deftly channels the woes of a working man in the song “Solid Ground”: “I’ve been thinking/about a brand new life/Because this one sure don’t pay.” 

Conviction is also a key ingredient, whether Felker is singing about the agony of life on the road (“Come November”) or nostalgia’s irresistible pull (“1968”). 

This earnest, raw approach already earned the Troubadours a pair of Lone Star Music Awards earlier this year. Although Felker downplays the success the band has enjoyed to date, it’s clear the members are refusing to rest on their laurels. 

“We have a long way to go in terms of our music reaching all the people it can reach,” Felker says. The quintet headed back to McClure’s home studio near Ada in July to work on their third studio album, scheduled for release early next year. 

“We’re always growing as songwriters and as a band,” says Edwards, “so we’d like the next album to reflect that.” 

In other words, the Turnpike Troubadours won’t stop searching for fresh roads to explore anytime soon. 

Get There: The Turnpike Troubadours will appear at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa on November 25, part of Jason Boland’s annual Leftover Turkey show. For more information, visit turnpiketroubadours.com.