After a rigorous nomination and voting process compiling ten select albums and a host of honorable mentions, something nearing a universal consensus has centered around one album in 2025.
The point of this exercise is not to devolve music into a competition. It is to stimulate a lively conversation about what we all believe is the best album, using our differing perspectives to inform each other.
As you hit the road for a Thanksgiving trip or hang around with family roasting a turkey, what better time to catch up with the best and latest tunes in country before we all get crushed in the avalanche of Christmas music.
Lance Roark was patient in officially presenting his debut album to the planet, forging his own sound, finding the unique contours of his voice, and making his case for being Red Dirt’s next star.
You’ll have another opportunity to see the recently reunified Cross Canadian Ragweed in 2026, but this time it won’t be in a stadium. It will be in the comparatively intimate amphitheater in beautiful Key West.
After finishing up a big Red Rocks show on May 9th, the Turnpike Troubadours have released a brand new batch of tour dates, titled under the “Wild America Tour” 2025.
What the Turnpike Troubadours have proven over time is that good songs endure, and better songs grow even better over time. There’s no mistaking it. The Turnpike Troubadours are now legends.
The Turnpike Troubadours have always been a band graced by a fervent, and frankly, gossipy fans base that will take any kernel of information about the band and make it go megaviral before breakfast.
Welcome to Saving Country Music’s most comprehensive guide to music in a given year, The Essential Albums List. It includes the “Most Essential” Albums, and then other albums reviewed and deemed worthy.
Alright, we ran down the nominees for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. But it’s time to give a little love to the songs that simply get stuck in out heads and remind us of the sheer joy of music.
With his new six-song EP Tenkiller, Lance Roark steps out of the shadows of being a Turnpike Troubadours beneficiary. He also breaks out of the singer/songwriter shell to turn in a full-tilt Red Dirt rock experience
In 2024, the Jackalope Jamboree (June 27-29) still had some of the topmost names in independent country like Charley Crockett, Kaitlin Butts, and Silverada. It had legends of Red Dirt like Jason Boland, and The Randy Rogers Band.
Summer is in full swing, and that means plenty of time for hanging out near bodies of water and listening to the best songs in independent country. Don’t buy into what Nashville proclaims is the “Song of the Summer.” Find your own.
What happens in Key West doesn’t stay in Key West during the annual five-day Mile 0 Fest. As one of the first country music events on the calendar each year, it helps set the table for everything else that will transpire.
Every year there’s that handful of artists that you discover and it’s hard to comprehend how you got along without them previously. In 2023, there seems to be even more of these artists than normal.
The story of the Turnpike Troubadours is one of a victory, where the better angels of a bunch of friends from Tahlequah, Oklahoma refused to allow some moments of weakness and the outside noise to tear asunder something…
Before Turnpike went on indefinite hiatus in 2019, they were doing quite well for many independent acts, but were also meandering along in the effort to really spark national attention for themselves. Now the game has completely changed.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right now in country music. Available on all major streaming platforms.
It’s been a week for the Turnpike Troubadours, that’s for sure. But they aren’t done yet, announcing a new tour and album pre-orders.
The Turnpike Troubadours will release a new album called “A Cat in the Rain.” The Turnpike Troubadours will release a new album called A Cat in the Rain on August 25th. It will be their first new album since 2017.
New music is on the way from the Turnpike Troubadours, finally. On Wednesday (4-19), the band confirmed that a new single called “Mean Old Sun” is coming and is now available to pre-save on streaming networks. The quick announcement was also accompanied by a teaser video of the band.
On Friday (4-14), a new song from the band called “Mean Old Sun” populated on TouchTunes machines at bars and other locations across the United States. As Turnpike fans showed up at their favorite watering hole and went to play a Turnpike song, they noticed it.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats, or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations.
RC Edwards stumbled upon Lance Roark in 2020 during the Turnpike hiatus/pandemic when he was looking for a lead guitar player. Roark fit the bill, but has subsequently slid even deeper into the Turnpike universe while finding a way to showcase his own music at the same time.