No country music outfit deserved a berth on the vaunted Austin City Limits stage more than the reigning Saving Country Music Artist of the Year The Turnpike Troubadours. This is a huge honor for a band that’s been making big waves in the Texas and Red Dirt music scene for nearly a decade.
The Turnpike Troubadours were the headliners at Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida on Friday night (2-9), and despite putting on an top notch performance as usual, a half-pint visitor on the stage nearly stole the show, during a week that has seen many guest performers make their way on stage to sing each other’s songs.
One of the most erroneous arguments made in music is that traditionally-inspired country cannot be relevant to the modern ear—that it’s a mode stuck in nostalgia, with a by-gone influence not receptive by the young and hip of today.
The last few years have been a somewhat down era for excellent, legacy-caliber releases in country music and independent roots,. But 2017 was a different story, especially the first half, leaving us with difficult choices of what to consider to be the best of the year. As always, your feedback is requested, and will be included in the final calculus.
The Turnpike Troubadours will finally get their own appearance on Austin City Limits. The revered, longest-running music television program taped live at Austin’s Moody Theater has chosen the Oklahoma-based band for the final episode of ACL’s 43rd Season.
The Turnpike Troubadours have just crashed the mainstream party at the top of the Billboard Country Albums chart with the release of their latest record, ‘A Long Way From Your Heart.’ Signed to Thirty Tigers, and with little help from radio beyond regional play, they continue to show what quality music and grassroots efforts can result in.
2017 continues to make a great case for itself as a bumper crop year for songs and albums, and recent additions to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 playlist reflect that. Just added to the stable of the best country songs are Alan Jackson’s surprise new single “The Older I Get” from a yet named new album, and more….
Before the accolades start to feel like platitudes, and the reasons become excuses, the Turnpike Troubadours should find their place in the national narrative. Because country music needs them. The Turnpike Troubadours are the band for right here, right now, delivering everything you want, saddled by nothing you don’t need.
As summer concludes and we start to enter what promises to be a very crowded fall for landmark releases in country music, new songs have just been added to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Playlist to get you ready. Also, the playlist is finally available for those who use Google Play.
For those who’ve been to a Turnpike Troubadours show over the last year or two, or were somehow otherwise tuned into the throwback country soul of Charley Crockett through his first few self-released records, they need not be assuaged to the idea that he could be the next big thing in roots music.
In the first song released from the Troubadours’ upcoming album A Long Way From Your Heart out October 20th, a familiar female protagonist for many Turnpike Troubadours fans re-emerges. “Lorrie,” who has now made an appearance in numerous Turnpike songs, becomes the heroine of “The Housfire.”
You’ve never heard of the Mile 0 Festival in Key West, Florida before, but you have now. And it will be hard to forget about it once you feast your eyes on the pretty ridiculous lineup they’ve assembled for their inaugural run. It’s scheduled for February 7th – 11th 2018 at the new Truman Waterfront Park Amphitheatre in Key West.
The Turnpike Troubadours have cut short their current tour, with lead guitar player Ryan Engleman citing an undisclosed personal issue as the need for the cancellations. The shows cancelled affect dates primarily on the West Coast and in the interior West for the next week.
Is it October 20th yet? How ’bout now? Sorry for the impatience, but that’s the day one of the most badass independent country bands in existence will release their highly-anticipated fourth album A Long Way From Your Heart via Bossier City Records and Thirty Tigers.
As times get lean for alternative newsweeklys, their penchant to dispose of any and all journalistic class, fact-based reporting, or positive counterpoints to their dubious assertions goes out the window in lieu of mercilessly ripping into entire segments of artists without a single word of objectivity or credit where credit is due.
The problem with the whole Texas Music/Texas Country/Red Dirt “scene” is just that—what to call it. Texas Country is not really Red Dirt, even though the two regularly get lazily lumped together. Texas Country and Texas Music are separate things as well, but once again get summarily bundled. Yet all of these things are intertwined.
For six years straight, the Turnpike Troubadours have celebrated a self-appointed holidays each Spring called Dia Del Gallo at the historic Floore’s Country Store on the outskirts of San Antonio. The city has always been a crossroads of cultures, and the rooster (“gallo” in Spanish) has always been the band’s official mascot.
The 5th Annual Medicine Stone Music Festival focusing on the best of Red Dirt music and sponsored by the Turnpike Troubadours, and Jason Boland & The Stragglers will once again commence at the Diamondhead Resort in Talequah, Oklahoma. This year the event will be held on September 21st-23rd, and they have just revealed the fest’s initial lineup.
In many sectors, the future of country music is rife with uncertainty as you’re forced to squint hard at the current tiers of top stars and up-and-comers and wonder where this all will lead us years down the road. But when it comes to the Texas country scene, there is no cause for concern for who’s gonna fill the shoes.
A traditional like few others will transpire once again this summer when Willie Nelson celebrates the 4th of July by gathering together friends and family for his annual 4th of July Picnic. For the third year in a row, the event will be held at the Circuit of the Americas speedway just south of Austin, TX, and will include many long-standing invitees.
From California to Brooklyn, to the deep South and interior West, Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours will be embarking on an extensive U.S. tour starting March 30th in Baton Rouge, and ending in August at the Braun Brothers Reunion in Idaho. 39 dates in all will be encompassed in the tour over the next six months.
Editor’s Note: This is a contribution to Saving Country Music by Zac McDaniel who is a freelance writer. Zac is also a rancher and small business owner from Oklahoma. Along with immersing himself in the music of others he is also an aspiring songwriter. He enjoys spending time with his wife, children and Gibson guitar. […]
There’s no stopping the Turnpike Troubadours. The mainstream country music industry may continue to turn a blind eye to their regional and national success, but that won’t slow them down at all. As they continue to put on one of the most engaging live shows in country music, the crowds at their shows continue to swell.
Zane Williams is a smart one, and like many others are recognizing, he understands that the new trend in country music, is actual country music. And this has been exemplified in the Texas scene as much as anywhere. Zane Williams senses that people want by God country music again, and that’s exactly what he delivers on the aptly titled ‘Bringin’ Country Back.’