Turnpike Cousin Project RC & the Ambers Announce New Album
Sorry, I can’t turn you onto any new music from the Turnpike Troubadours at this turn, but I can offer you the next best thing. Turnpike bass player, songwriter, and beating heart RC “Rooster” Edwards has been working a side hustle for some years now called RC and the Ambers with singer and long-time Turnpike friend Amber Watson. First hinted about back in March, they have a new album on the way, and now we have the details and the first song.
Big Country will be released on September 10th, and will feature nine songs written or co-written by RC Edwards, another written by Turnpike Troubadours steel guitar/accordion player Hammerin’ Hank Early, and a cover of Hank Jr.’s “The Blues Man.” Also appearing on the album will be Turnpike fiddle player Kyle Nix and Turnpike drummer Gabriel Pearson. Hank Early produced the record, and plays multiple instruments on it as well.
“I can promise you, it sounds nothing like a Turnpike record,” Hank Early told Saving Country Music back in March. “We are both extremely proud of it and can’t wait for you to hear it.”
The album includes a song many Turnpike Troubadours fans have probably heard live before in “Drunk, High, and Loud.” And though RC Edwards is the primary songwriter on the album, the first taste we get from the record is the satirical “Oklahoma Beach Body” written by Hank Early about life in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. The band was out near the Illinois River in their hometown of Tahlequah recently shooting a video for the song. Big Country was recorded in Tahlequah at a home studio.
Though RC and the Ambers have been around for years as a side project, the band has taken on new emphasis for RC Edwards and Amber Watson since the Turnpike Troubadours hiatus. Amber Watson has been a close friend of the Turnpike Troubadours since the very beginnings of the band. At one point Evan Felker was sleeping on her couch in Tahlequah as the band was just getting started.
Also involved in the band are Justin “JT” Kay, Nicholas Pitre, and Lance Roark.
TRACK LIST:
1. Big Country (Edwards)
2. Oklahoma Beach Body (Hank Early)
3. Compass (Edwards)
4. Fall Out of Love (Edwards)
5. Gravy and Biscuits (Edwards)
6. Oologah (Romance at the Iron Horse) (Edwards)
7. Astronaut (Edwards, Burke)
8. Drunk, High, and Loud (Edwards, Burke)
9. The Blues Man (Williams)
10. The Assassination of Ned Christie (Edwards)
11. Let The Whiskey Do The Talking (Edwards, Burke, Watson)
June 11, 2021 @ 8:48 am
I’ll reserve judgment for the album release, but it feels like a cross between Nathaniel Rateliffe, bro country, and Shovels & Rope stuff. Not my jam (so far), unfortunately.
June 11, 2021 @ 8:59 am
Turning into a Red Dirt Wu Tang.
June 11, 2021 @ 10:41 am
Off topic,
I know Trig you’re busy & probably don’t even want to review it… but any chance we get reviews on Blake Sheltons & Thomas Rhett’s latest albums?
That new Blake album seriously i don’t know where you’d begin.
June 11, 2021 @ 11:00 am
Maybe.
June 11, 2021 @ 10:52 am
“Drunk, High, and Loud” is a bad song.
Heard it during Felker’s break when I saw Turnpike in Philly. Sounded like a Bro-Country reject tune. Outside of the Johnny Football line, it was a dreadful song. Sucked all the momentum out of the building.
June 11, 2021 @ 11:54 am
I’m here to disagree with the first few comments. I think this song is great! The lyrics may not be super thoughtful and/or deep, but the instrumentation and vocals sound great and certainly have me excited about what’s coming!
June 11, 2021 @ 1:36 pm
I’m going to have to pass. To me, it sounds like a song I would see some dude line dancing to that is wearing boots with silver tips, a braided black & white belt dangling down to the middle of his thigh, and a cheap Tim McGraw cowboy hat.
June 11, 2021 @ 2:42 pm
This isn’t bad, but it very much belongs in a 3:00 p.m. Thursday slot on the side stage.
June 11, 2021 @ 5:47 pm
Wow. ….and not in a good way.
June 11, 2021 @ 6:44 pm
Wow. I didn’t think this would garner so much hate. Its not a bad song. I think that some perspective is due. I view this more as something in the vein of the Shack Shakers, Rev. Horton Heat, Southern Culture on the Skids, etc. Its a sort of punk, country, rockabilly song… Its not a bro country, line dancing song.
If you heard “Miss You” in 1978 and it was released by some one-hit wonder, you would think it was a shitty disco tune. But, knowing the Stones and their history, you can accept that its a good band trying to walk the line between their sound and the zeitgeist.
If “Second Chance” was released by a one-hit-wonder in 1989, you might think that its just a slow, crappy adult contemporary song. But, knowing how many great songs and guitar parts Jeff Carlisi was involved in, you have an appreciation for him trying to write a decent song to get on the charts.
I hear absolutely no “Bro” in this at all. It sounds like a modern cow punkish tune to me.
June 12, 2021 @ 3:42 am
Sorry but…i like it!!
June 12, 2021 @ 7:50 am
Ain’t nothing Bro Country about this one. Too much pedal steel and real drumming to be Bro.
Sounds like a Ray Wylie and 1994 Nashville country love child.
I like it.
June 12, 2021 @ 3:03 pm
For people saying Bro Country in reference to a previous comment, it is clear that Bro Country is a reference to “Drunk, High, and Loud” not the posted song.
June 13, 2021 @ 6:20 am
I like the song featured. Nice steel and funny lyrics. This is less structured and perfect sounding than a Turnpike album, but I think that’s the goal. I like the fun honky tonk vibe of this and I’m looking forward to hearing more.
June 15, 2021 @ 6:00 am
I personally like this tune. I think it’s much different than what many expected from a Turnpike member, considering Kyle Nix, Mike McClure and Fulbright all sort of took the same route to maintaining that signature TT sound. Nothing wrong with this one here.