TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS
''GOODBYE NORMAL STREET''
MAY 8 2012
45:05
1 /Gin Smoke & Lies
Evan Felker/4:35
2 /Before the Devil Knows We're Dead
R.C. Edwards / Evan Felker/3:52
3 /Southeastern Son
Evan Felker/3:31
4 /Blue Star
Evan Felker/3:21
5 /Call a Spade a Spade
Evan Felker / Jamie Wilson/4:34
6 /Morgan Street
R.C. Edwards/3:41
7 /Gone, Gone, Gone
Evan Felker/4:08
8 /Good Lord Lorrie
Evan Felker/4:58
9 /Empty as a Drum
Evan Felker/3:27
10 /Wrecked
R.C. Edwards / Evan Felker/4:57
11 /Quit While I'm Ahead
Evan Felker/4:01
R.C. Edwards /Bass, Vocals
Ryan Engleman /Baritone, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Pedal Steel
Evan Felker /Banjo, Guitar (Acoustic), Harmonica, Vocals
John Fullbright /Accordion, Vocals
Mike McClure
Kyle Nix /Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals
Gabriel Pearson /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Thomas Trapp /Guitar (Acoustic)
Jamie Wilson /Vocals
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
On the cusp of breaking out of the Oklahoma/Texas corridor, Turnpike Troubadours have turned inward, hunkering down and honing their hard country on Goodbye Normal Street. Where their 2010 album Diamonds & Gasoline was anchored on several songs with a rock & roll bent -- including a stomping cover of John Hartford's "Long Hot Summer Days" -- Goodbye Normal Street gets into the dust and dirt of Texan country, the songs of Evan Felker often recalling those of Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt. The Troubadours have a relaxed, broken-in virtuosity -- they're as comfortable kicking up the dirt on "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead" as they are laying back with a summery groove on "Southeastern Son," jerking out tears on the sad "Gone, Gone, Gone," or rocking & rolling a Cajun-inspired groove on "Quit While I'm Ahead" -- and this road-tested musicality perfectly suits the sturdiness of Felker's songs, which never have a wasted word or melodic line. This understated nature can mean that Goodbye Normal Street doesn't grab hold upon its first listen but it is, as they say, a grower, the kind of record that slowly reveals its depths and eventually seems like an album that you've always known by heart.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
A gritty, country-leaning roots rock band out of Oklahoma, the Turnpike Troubadours at their best synthesize the populist, political folk of Woody Guthrie and the outlaw-styled honky tonk of Waylon Jennings with doses of bluegrass, Cajun and straight-out rock dynamics. Fronted by singer and guitarist Evan Felker and including bassist R.C. Edwards, fiddler Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engelman and drummer Giovanni Carnuccio, the group celebrates and explores modern rural life with a full awareness of history, delicately avoiding being ornate revivalists. A debut album, the self-released Bossier City, appeared in 2007. The follow-up, Diamonds & Gasoline, was produced by veteran songwriter Mike McClure and released in 2010.
''GOODBYE NORMAL STREET''
MAY 8 2012
45:05
1 /Gin Smoke & Lies
Evan Felker/4:35
2 /Before the Devil Knows We're Dead
R.C. Edwards / Evan Felker/3:52
3 /Southeastern Son
Evan Felker/3:31
4 /Blue Star
Evan Felker/3:21
5 /Call a Spade a Spade
Evan Felker / Jamie Wilson/4:34
6 /Morgan Street
R.C. Edwards/3:41
7 /Gone, Gone, Gone
Evan Felker/4:08
8 /Good Lord Lorrie
Evan Felker/4:58
9 /Empty as a Drum
Evan Felker/3:27
10 /Wrecked
R.C. Edwards / Evan Felker/4:57
11 /Quit While I'm Ahead
Evan Felker/4:01
R.C. Edwards /Bass, Vocals
Ryan Engleman /Baritone, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Pedal Steel
Evan Felker /Banjo, Guitar (Acoustic), Harmonica, Vocals
John Fullbright /Accordion, Vocals
Mike McClure
Kyle Nix /Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals
Gabriel Pearson /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Thomas Trapp /Guitar (Acoustic)
Jamie Wilson /Vocals
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
On the cusp of breaking out of the Oklahoma/Texas corridor, Turnpike Troubadours have turned inward, hunkering down and honing their hard country on Goodbye Normal Street. Where their 2010 album Diamonds & Gasoline was anchored on several songs with a rock & roll bent -- including a stomping cover of John Hartford's "Long Hot Summer Days" -- Goodbye Normal Street gets into the dust and dirt of Texan country, the songs of Evan Felker often recalling those of Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt. The Troubadours have a relaxed, broken-in virtuosity -- they're as comfortable kicking up the dirt on "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead" as they are laying back with a summery groove on "Southeastern Son," jerking out tears on the sad "Gone, Gone, Gone," or rocking & rolling a Cajun-inspired groove on "Quit While I'm Ahead" -- and this road-tested musicality perfectly suits the sturdiness of Felker's songs, which never have a wasted word or melodic line. This understated nature can mean that Goodbye Normal Street doesn't grab hold upon its first listen but it is, as they say, a grower, the kind of record that slowly reveals its depths and eventually seems like an album that you've always known by heart.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
A gritty, country-leaning roots rock band out of Oklahoma, the Turnpike Troubadours at their best synthesize the populist, political folk of Woody Guthrie and the outlaw-styled honky tonk of Waylon Jennings with doses of bluegrass, Cajun and straight-out rock dynamics. Fronted by singer and guitarist Evan Felker and including bassist R.C. Edwards, fiddler Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engelman and drummer Giovanni Carnuccio, the group celebrates and explores modern rural life with a full awareness of history, delicately avoiding being ornate revivalists. A debut album, the self-released Bossier City, appeared in 2007. The follow-up, Diamonds & Gasoline, was produced by veteran songwriter Mike McClure and released in 2010.
