Turnpike Troubadours, Austin Music Featured in ‘Walker’ Reboot
No, the best band in country music has not announced any intentions of getting back together … yet. The Turnpike Troubadours from Oklahoma called an indefinite hiatus in May of 2019, and have left many fans on edge impatiently waiting for a return. But aside from an announcement from Evan Felker in August of 2020 that he’s found sobriety, and a badass record from the band’s fiddler Kyle Nix that features all the members of the band (except Evan), we’re still in a holding pattern.
However, a few studious Turnpike fans were caught off guard and cracked a smile recently while watching the pilot episode of the new Walker, Texas Ranger reboot abbreviated simply to Walker. Similar to some other shows recently like Yellowstone, original music from independent artists plays a prominent role in the presentation.
The song “The Hard Way” by the Turnpike Troubadours off their 2017 record A Long Way From Your Heart showed up in a scene where Walker is two-stepping with a woman in a bar. Led by Austin resident Jared Padalecki who not only plays Walker but executive produces the series, the new Walker is set in Austin as opposed to Dallas, is shot in the Texas Capital, and so it’s only appropriately it has a heavy musical component.
In fact, 15 separate songs found their way into the first episode’s soundtrack, and a lot of them have Austin or Texas ties. Austin rock bands Chill Russell, White Denim, Royal Forest, Okkervil River, Loteria, and The Mammoths all saw songs placed in the pilot episode, as was the song “Those Who Wait” by Austin songwriter Cristy Hays, and “Valley” by the Lubbock-born Kevin Morby.
What does all of this mean? It means that the struggling Austin music scene and cool independent bands from the region might get a boost in royalties and attention through the new series. And this isn’t just wishful thinking. A lot of folks attribute the recent meteoric rise of Texas band Whiskey Myers to TV placement on Yellowstone. This stuff can make a big difference for performers who don’t receive mainstream radio play, while also padding their pockets with licensing fees.
Reviews for the new Walker series have been mixed, but the ratings were through the roof. The debut episode ended up landing the CW network their best Thursday ratings in three years with some 2.4 million viewers.
We’ll have to see where this all goes, but an Austin-based TV show that is willing to feature the city’s musical talent could be a big boon for the region, and right when it needs it.
Walker Episode 1 Soundtrack:
1. “Dogs of War” – Blues Saraceno
2. “In a River” – Rostam
3. “Waters Crossed RE” – Royal Forest
4. “Go Down River” – The Heavy Heavy
5. “It Might Get Dark” – White Denim
6. “Low” – Chill Russell
7. “Those Who Wait” – Christy Hays
8. “Westfall” – Okkervil River
9. “Rhythm Revue” – Loteria
10. “The Hard Way” – Turnpike Troubadours
11. “Run” – Abhi The Nomad
12. “Poison in the Well” – Ethan Burns, The Ragged Jubilee
13. “Valley” – Kevin Morby
14. “Livin’ In” – The Mammoths
15. “Souvenir” – Boy Genius
January 25, 2021 @ 9:07 am
Been a long time since I saw Blues Saraceno’s name
January 25, 2021 @ 10:29 am
Padalecki is a gifted actor but I can’t pretend I don’t have some weariness going into this series.
January 26, 2021 @ 10:48 am
Same. Haven’t watched it, but Walker was such a specific show for a specific time for a specific audience that it really doesn’t surprise me that this new show seems to barely resemble it. And it might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think the original series has aged all that gracefully, either. I loved it when I was a kid, but the few times I’ve seen it as an adult it’s come off as cheesy and hackneyed.
January 26, 2021 @ 10:53 am
As I said in the article, reviews for the show have been very mixed. I have not watched it either, but I wonder if some of the negativity is because it’s not Chuck Norris doing roundhouses. But from my recollection, the original Walker, Texas Ranger was a meme machine before we even knew what meme’s were. Unless it’s done in a tongue-in-cheek manner like Cobra Kai or something, I just don’t see how trying to recreate the series verbatim would have fared well.
Either way, I’m just happy some cool bands are getting licensing checks. I don’t watch TV anyway.
January 26, 2021 @ 10:59 am
I agree. Even the original series spotlighted the odd hat act (weird to pull that term out after over two decades), which I also appreciated at the time. I also don’t watch TV, so I’m unequipped to comment on this new iteration. But I did watch hours and hours of the original series, hence my comment. And yes, it was a meme machine. My mind immediately goes to Conan O’Brien’s Walker Texas Ranger Lever from the mid-2000s.
January 25, 2021 @ 10:40 am
You got me for a sec with the headline.
Waiting for parallel stories from your “peers,” about how the trailer features the actual country music of the series. Those are some sick snare rolls though.
January 25, 2021 @ 1:24 pm
The Best? Huh, I guess to each is own!
January 25, 2021 @ 1:46 pm
The Hard Way is criminally underrated. Lowkey one of the most fun songs in their catalogue
January 25, 2021 @ 1:54 pm
It’s not Walker unless it has Chuck Norris!!!
January 25, 2021 @ 3:47 pm
Shame that they appeared in Walker. That show is an utter fiasco. It has so little to do with the original series, you could just rename it from Walker to Smith and no one would be the wiser, thinking they’re just watching a new, medicore cop drama for tweens, not a reboot of Chuck Norris famous TV series.
January 26, 2021 @ 10:16 am
36 years ago, Chuck Norris once karate chopped a guitar at a bar in Oklahoma. A woman saw this and was instantly impregnated with Chuck Norris’ seed upon the sight…
9 months later she gave birth to a baby boy named Evan Felker
January 26, 2021 @ 4:08 pm
I’m not a big TV watcher either, but I do know that one of the networks has a night of programming that features a Chicago cop show, a Chicago doctor show, and a Chicago firefighter show all in a row… so yeah… that’s TV for ya.
January 26, 2021 @ 6:07 pm
Yup, you drew me in with the headline, kind of like that time a really hot woman I had a huge crush on invited me up to her apartment… to fix her printer.
March 6, 2021 @ 5:37 pm
I saw Turnpike on Bluegrass Underground and it was outstanding, now a fan for ever!