Charley Crockett Offers His Grammy Nomination to the Turnpike Troubadours
Well, it’s unlikely there’s a provision in the Record Academy’s bylaws that allows Grammy nominations to be swapped like a “Get Out Jail Free” card or Marvin Gardens property in Monopoly to pay your debt from landing on Boardwalk. But this does pose an interest wrinkle to this year’s awards.
When the Grammy Awards announced the nominees for the inaugural Best Traditional Country Album category on November 7th and The Price of Admission by the Turnpike Troubadours was not among them, many traditional country fans cried foul. It felt like the selection should be a consensus pick for a nomination, if not the front runner to win the trophy.
The actual nominees were Hard Headed Woman – Margo Price, Ain’t In It For My Health – Zach Top, American Romance – Lukas Nelson, Oh What A Beautiful World – Willie Nelson, and Dollar A Day – Charley Crockett. That’s not a bad field all things considered, but the biggest quibble the public took was far and away the Turnpike Troubadours exclusion.
Well lo and behold, on Sunday afternoon (11-16), Charley Crockett took to social media to offer up his Grammy nomination to the Turnpike Troubadours.
“Volunteering to give up my nomination with the Recording Academy to the Turnpike Troubadours who not only earned the right with Price Of Admission, but for which without Evan Felker, I might not have ever even shown up on the map to be nominated in the first place,” Crockett said. “And besides, Evan Felker’s the best damn songwriter of all of us. See, Texas and Oklahoma can get along.”
Along with this caption, Charley Crockett also included his own quote, “I was standing out at Gruene Hall handing out CDs on a street corner ’cause I couldn’t get into the show. Handed a guy a CD, his name was Evan Felker. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he was the frontman for the Turnpike Troubadours. He took it home and listened to it with his then girlfriend, now wife. Lo and behold, his agent Jon Folk called me up and started booking me.”
Can Charley Crockett really hand off his nomination? Of course not. The situation feels somewhat reminiscent of Dolly Parton being nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before withdrawing her name from consideration—and being inducted anyway because the ballot had already been sent out, and folks voted for her anyway.
But it’s a classy move by Charley, and perhaps a vote for Charley can be seen as a vote for Turnpike as well, especially since as he rightly points out, it was Evan Felker and the Troubadours who seeded his career. Crockett very much got his legs underneath him opening shows for the Turnpike Troubadours. That’s one of the many reason that it felt like a tragedy the band was not nominated for a career effort.
UPDATE: Evan Felker has since responded to Crockett, “Any good thing in your world feels like a win for us my friend. Thanks for the kind words but y’all earned every bit of this. It didn’t happen overnight and nobody did it for you … the only thing I ask I’ll ask is that you enjoy it. Love and Luck. EF.”
Voting for the Grammy Awards is open from December 12th through January 5th. The 2026 Grammy Awards are on February 1st.
November 16, 2025 @ 12:14 pm
To date, I’ve never heard of relinquishing an awards nomination like this, and I doubt anything will change here. In any case, it’s a nice gesture to acknowledge what Evan did for Charley.
Dolly’s overture is similar to this, and I suspect she knew the nomination couldn’t be withdrawn. She’s media savvy and business savvy and I think Charley learned well from her example.
November 16, 2025 @ 12:16 pm
FWIW Evan responded via his Instagram stories
November 16, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
Turnpike could do more promote themselves and it seems like they may have been trying to do it this time around. Evan was on the Meateater podcast twice, Robert Earl Keen’s, and Rhett Miller’s. Turnpike seems to be one of the few artists in their lane who haven’t yet been on Rogan. Would love to see it though I’m not sure how much of a conversationalist Evan would make on there. But man if there’s anyone I want to see get some shine, it’s them.
November 17, 2025 @ 8:18 am
You mean “exclusives” behind Rolling Stone’s paywall while you virtually ignore the rest of media really didn’t get the word out? You don’t say …
November 17, 2025 @ 11:39 am
If Evan went on Rogan they would talk hunting for 3 hours and somehow Joe would sneak in some AI 50 cent soul covers.
November 16, 2025 @ 1:14 pm
I know he is a bit of a “sacred cow” for some around here, but Zach Top being included in this group is ridiculous.
Zach Top certainly has loads of potential, but I’m not sure regurgitating 90’s Country radio is deserving of a Grammy nom – at least in this field.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad Zach Top is getting played at Country radio rather than “stubbled, baseball cap wearing male artist #965”. but the actual depth and quality of his music IMO has still not caught up to his potential. And “Ain’t In It For My Health” does very little to push his sound forward, boost the songwriting of his albums, etc.
I don’t know, I haven’t listed to the Lukas Nelson album all that close, but Top has stuck out like a sore thumb since the day these noms were announced. Not sure recording the leftover material to Tracy Byrd album is Grammy worthy all things considered…
November 16, 2025 @ 1:38 pm
I like Zach, and I’m happy for his success, but I kind of feel the same way. This category seems more like a way to honor the artist who’s not getting radio airplay and mainstream media buzz.
I love the 90’s revival going on, but it doesn’t really strike me as ‘traditional’. This category is a good thing for the genre, and these nominees don’t look like a “Metallica/Jethro Tull” situation in the making.
November 16, 2025 @ 1:59 pm
Yeah, now that I think about it, I think Zach’s first album was a lot better, bad as I hate to say that. Would’ve been far preferable to have the Turnpike album nominated instead of his.
November 16, 2025 @ 3:24 pm
Yeah, self-promotion isn’t really their strong suit. How are we going to announce the best album you’ve heard in years? Maybe just slap up a billboard in Stillwater.
I think it seems like a nice gesture from Crockett, but I also think he was bluffing – 0% chance he thought he actually might be able to pull the ole switcheroo. I’d never heard the story of him giving Felker the demo; that’s very cool.
November 16, 2025 @ 3:31 pm
I think Top definitely deserves his nomination based off of net influence and the quality of the musicianship alone this past year…………..but I nonetheless agree with you that what Top has been doing presently feels derivative and largely lacking in songwriting chops even if the music itself is good.
I’m just hoping he pushes himself from here on out and we ultimately get a record that feels like “his own” so to speak, the full package sort of labor of love where he bears more of his soul in the songwriting. I completely understand with a debut project that you’re going to be in the early stages of discovering yourself and figuring out your sound and thus your influences will be more glaringly obvious and transparent from the get-go, but I can’t help but feel his current sophomore album was playing it too safe as well as playing to the crowd to a fault.
November 16, 2025 @ 3:44 pm
To me, Zach Top kind of reminds me of when bands like Jet, Wolfmother and The Darkness emerged in the 2000s (or Greta Van Fleet in more recent years) and their whole schtick was trying to emulate extremely popular, iconic bands that came before them…………but the most generic, cosmetic aspects of said bands without offering their own wrinkle (although to The Darkness’s credit they have a frontman with extraordinary charisma and also had some undeniable hooks on their debut record)
Top, to me, feels like the Jet or Greta Van Fleet of neotraditional country presently. It’s not saying Top’s music isn’t bad (it definitely sounds good)………..but lyrically and thematically there’s just way too much playing to the crowd (i.e. too much of a written-by-committee check-off-as-many-boxes-as-you-can feel to most of the songs as if his label said, “Hey: we need a couple of beach country songs!”. “Next we need a couple of fun-loving barroom sing-alongs!” “And then we need some tear-in-your-beer ballads!”. “Oh, and we need a song or two about the highs and lows of being a musician!”, etc.) these first two projects and not enough of him in the songwriting.
November 17, 2025 @ 8:23 am
Zach Top 100% deserves to be included in this group, and this comes from someone who was somewhat harsh on his first record, somewhat harsh on his second record, and has said multiple times he needs to up his songwriting game and go beyond being a ’90s country facsimile, and start being more original if he wants to sustain his high level of popularity, which we’re already seeing trailing off.
That said, he is the spearhead of the neotraditional country resurgence. He’s made traditional country popular in a way none of us could have ever imagined a few years ago. He’s an incredible guitar player, good singer, and CAN right a good song when he wants. On Wednesday, he could be the big story of the CMA Awards since he’s up for all the major ones except Entertainer of the Year.
And I also think it’s good that he’s more of a mainstream creature. That’s why his career infiltrating the mainstream means something. And it’s also important this new Grammy awards is NOT just “independent country” while the other one is “mainstream country.” It should be based on sound, and Zach Top has a traditional country sound.
My two cents.
November 16, 2025 @ 2:11 pm
Crockett deserves his nomination but Turmpike’s lack of one is a disappointment.
November 16, 2025 @ 2:22 pm
Both CC and Turnpike were more than worthy of nominations here, but this was such a cool thing to see. Mad respect to Charley.
November 16, 2025 @ 2:58 pm
Dolly Parton-level marketing.
Crockett knows how to make the fish bite.
November 17, 2025 @ 8:23 am
Of course there’s a marketing angle behind this, like most everything that happens in music. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a cool gesture too.
November 16, 2025 @ 3:33 pm
Both Crockett and Felker are class acts here. Glad to see some mutual respect being exchanged between two worthy talents. =)
November 16, 2025 @ 4:19 pm
This might be one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever read on this website.
November 16, 2025 @ 4:49 pm
Im late to this party. Just bought Price of Admission on vinyl. Im a casual TT fan, nowhere near the level of most of you. It is a decent album, and im enjoying it. Is it album of the year? Im not totally sold. But it’s got its highlights for sure. I own a few Crockett albums and to me they are interchangeable blocks with most about the same quality. Hes easy to listen to. Good on Charley.
For some reason, there’s a segment on SCM that cry’s foul everytime Zach Top comes up. Im looking at him from the overall view, he spent years of his life in bluegrass, not jamgrass, but traditional bluegrass. His guitar playing is very impressive, mind blowing at times. His voice is pretty great in the traditions of the legends, his sound is bar room honky tonk, he’s crafted that sound impressively and his last two albums are what you want to hear. I don’t look for intellectual Americana songwriting from a honky tonk record. I suspect the naysayers are Americana and Alt country fans which, no offense to you, are in a completely different universe. Honky tonk is feel good music, shuffles, waltzes a couple 12 bar bangers, dripping twang, pedal steel and Teles cooking. Thats definitely part of what Zachs bringing. Hes selling out everywhere and he’s the young honky tonker of this generation. Hard for me to not root on him.
November 16, 2025 @ 6:44 pm
This is one of the more positive and uplifting things I’ve seen in this arena in a while
November 17, 2025 @ 2:31 am
…let’s get the timeline right: charley crockett was handing out his first album “a stolen jewel” (2015) in front of Gruene Hall to prettey much anyone, who’d accept this promotion there at the time, according to his own comments in interviews. the fact that he caught the attention of the turnpike troubadours there and then, who saw something in this fellow troubadour happend only after he had decided to get started seriously in the music business. it was a nice and useful endorsement but nowhere near the importance of a grammy nomination.
furthermore, then and now crockett had earned it by himself. shifting the emphasis from today’s well earned endorsement (by a respected voting body) to the (accidental) endorsement of peers speaks for crockett for being a considerate/humble (?) human being but is rather overblown. on top of everything, he’s doing a disservice to his (favourable) odds of winning a grammy in febuary by making the people responisble for the final verdict looking like not being exactly on top of their game. i’ve seen smarter moves than this totally unneccessary and hopeless one.
November 17, 2025 @ 3:48 pm
he’s doing a disservice to his (favourable) odds of winning a grammy in febuary by making the people responisble for the final verdict looking like not being exactly on top of their game.
Oh, NARAS does a fine enough job of that all on their own and have for literally decades. Just as an example, I remember seeing this headline shortly after the 2023 awards:
“Twitter reacts to Lizzo’s lyric about Bissonnet at the Grammys”
(Lizzo is a Houston native, and Bissonnet is a major thoroughfare in that city.)
I saw that, and the first thing I thought was, “well that’s nice, but Rodney Crowell wrote and recorded a whole damn song about Telephone Road in 2000 and NARAS apparently didn’t give two shits about that.”
And then, just for another example, there’s the fact that Tenacious D won more Grammys for their covers of Ronnie James Dio songs than Ronnie James Dio did for his own versions of those songs. Of course, there’s the fact that Grammy categories for metal weren’t even a thing before 1989, and so that’s almost 20 years of genre-defining stuff that went unrecognized. Sure, now and then those awards are given to deserving recipients, but too often it’s as much a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut as it is anything else.
November 17, 2025 @ 7:42 am
Let’s just underscore a fundamental point – music has no business in a competition. There could be unlimited numbers of strong songs and albums produced – none would be mutually exclusive to another. The whole idea of an award show is just stupid.
November 17, 2025 @ 4:30 pm
I 100% agree that music should not be a competition.
That said, if these awards shows are going to happen, and they can have a major impact both positively and negatively on the careers of musicians (which they can), I am going to attempt to leverage and influence them to do right by musicians deserving of recognition, and make sure they are equitable to everyone who makes music, especially independent artists and others who are commonly overlooked.
November 17, 2025 @ 1:37 pm
He said in an interview after he was nominated for $10 Cowboy that if he won he’d give the award to his mother because she would be proud of it. I don’t think he puts a lot of stock in winning a Grammy.
The Grammys are like country club members voting for their favorite country club golfers. The bigger the name, the better the odds. not because they’re the best, but because they have the most connections and know more members in the clubhouse. Charley doesn’t like country clubs, probably won’t ever be a member either.
November 17, 2025 @ 6:44 pm
I think it was a good thing charley did here. He gave his reasons for doing so and ill take it at that.
November 17, 2025 @ 9:56 pm
I am not a fan of Charley at all. He makes stale, sataid and utterly boring music and even with 40 albums and one every 6 months he really is an unknown and total non factor in the country music discussion and culture. His bizarre nonsensical rants about Morgan and Gavin are lowlights of the year and obscene in there ill intent and are honestly the ramblings of someone utterly bitter and jealous of people like Morgan, a legit generational mega superstar or Gavin one or the most successful artists of the last few years and a star on the rise. The gods honest is Charley will never be among those names, will never sell out stadiums of 80,000 like Morgan does, won’t have albums that sit at number one for months and won’t ever have the charisma, charm, and magnetism of people like Gavin. And I think Charley knows this deep down. Hard Times is like listening tk dry wall, he’s got a great voice but he rips off legends like Hank sr. If I want the 50s-60s style country that Charley offers, I’d rather listen to the people who did that style to perfection. Charley is a copy, a facsimile. I want Hank sr baring his soul not some lifeless cadaver like Charley who seems unlikely to show passion, exuberance even if he wins, given he’s never showed any in a single stanza of his many many songs.
But fair is fair.
i agree with trigger totally. It was a classy move and he deserves praise for doing what he did. And classy move by Evan to say it’s all Charley.
Hopefully this ushers in a new era for Charley. One of humbleness, of extending grace and good will to his fellow artists even those like turnpike who I don’t know if I’d say they are more famous than he, but people have a passion and love for turnpike that will never be shown for Charley. Turnpike was on hiatus and they were literally front page news daily at whiskey riff. Charley put out like 8 albums in that Hiatus and I can’t think of one iota of any of his songs during that time period that reverberated throughout our culture. Not one.
Let Charley be a better man going forward and hope he is less jealous, less envious and is instead a friend and fan of those in our culture and music who further the genre.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:21 am
What is the culture you are referring to? Because it seems like you are more into pop culture. I think you’re on the wrong site
November 18, 2025 @ 8:10 am
What he should do is look for someone to help like he was helped. To many people helping out there sub par friends. Don’t go around like up and coming artists are going to steal your fans.
November 19, 2025 @ 9:11 am
I know Turnpike Troubadours fans will flip their lids when they read this comment, but the band, as amazing as they are, are not a traditional country act. They are pure Americana. Do they deserve a Grammy nomination (and a win)? Absolutely; and I’m sure it will happen. But they shouldn’t be nominated for Best Traditional Country Album.
The Grammys, like most awards, have been a joke for years, so I’m not sure it matters other than it being a great promotional tool for certain artists. Great music survives despite the Awards shows.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:06 am
I would agree with you if we were talking about “Goodbye Normal Street,” maybe the self-titled album, or really any of their albums previous. They are a Red Dirt band, and mix rock with country and folk. “The Price of Admission” however is the most traditional country album they’ve released, and I think it fits in Traditional Country more than Americana or Contemporary Country.
That said, did some voters look at the album on the ballot, say, “Love this band, but it’s not the kind of ‘traditional country’ I would expect to see here,” and choose not to vote for it? That definitely could have happened.
November 21, 2025 @ 6:41 pm
Charlie Crockett + Ray Crok = 2 nothing burgers.