One of America’s most beloved independent bands, Turnpike Troubadours, will release their highly anticipated new album ‘A Cat in the Rain’ on August 25 via Bossier City Records/Thirty Tigers.
Produced by Shooter Jennings and recorded at Muscle Shoals’ Fame Recording Studios and Dave’s Room in Los Angeles, ‘A Cat in the Rain’ marks a long-awaited return for the band following their self-imposed hiatus in 2019. With these ten new songs, Turnpike Troubadours is back with a refreshed perspective on the authentic songwriting and signature foot-stomping sound that first captivated their deeply devoted fanbase. Pioneers of the Red Dirt music scene and originally from Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Turnpike Troubadours has amassed a massive following throughout their career with more than 1.5 billion streams globally and over 1.28 million equivalent units sold to-date. Further adding to their renowned career, the band was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2022.
This 10-song album is a tale of reliability, rebirth, and redemption. It’s the story of brothers — Felker, fiddler Kyle Nix, steel player Hank Early, guitarist Ryan Engleman, bassist RC Edwards, drummer Gabe Pearson — six musicians who ran the gauntlet of success, scrutiny, and even personal troubles, and would fight tooth and nail for one another. “We’ve been through a lot together and it’s only drawn us closer,” says Nix. “I’m insanely protective of all these people,” Pearson adds. “Just like I would be for my actual brothers.”
Turnpike fans thought the band was done when they went on hiatus in 2019 amid lurid tales of frontman Evan Felker’s personal descent into alcoholism. Speaking on that now, Felker sees life through a different lens, “I am in a different headspace having gotten sober. I had never written anything sober, so it was a total learning curve. But as far as playing with the guys, it was a breath of fresh air. Some of us hadn’t seen each other in a year or so and to be able to play together, suddenly you’re 22 again. It’s just that natural. But there was work to be done too, like learning how to write songs again. It was one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever been a part of.” Out of the ashes of despair comes ‘A Cat in the Rain’ and a whole new fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm for the craft.
Lead-off track, ‘Mean Old Sun’ is the poster-child for this renewed enthusiasm, coming across like a defiant miners’ song full of Appalachian grit. Its melody is reminiscent of ‘Youngstown’ Springsteen meeting rural Kentucky in a head on collision of melody and meaning. “It was a song about an outlaw in my mind,” Felker describes, “The character is this unrepentant gambler. And I came up with that line by turning different phrases and mixing metaphors together and thought it was interesting.”
Elsewhere, the themes of redemption and rebirth and can be found scattered liberally around ‘A Cat in the Rain’. The title track, itself, feels like a very personal analogy for both those ideas. ‘Like a country girl who came across a cat in the rain,’ Felker sings, needing ‘…a little shelter for a stray out in the storm.’ Once lost, but now found again, this song barrels along on a steady beat of drums and electric guitar licks, a little accordion and a whole lot of help from the Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) playbook of lyric writing. That Counting Crows influence can also be heard on tracks like ‘The Rut’ and the very personal ‘Brought Me’. The former is a heavy, portentous track that’s perfectly placed in that pivotal ‘mid-album’ slot. “I don’t miss the taste of liquor,’ Felker declares, ‘but the temporary shelter was a welcome compromise.’ ‘The Rut’ is a confessional song with slight Gospel and mountain overtones. The Counting Crows influence can be heard in the heavy bass and slide guitars that underpin the song although it is much more prevalent on ‘Brought Me,’ which is an earnest song of gratitude that the band explain is a love song from Evan Felker to his wife whilst he states it is a song for the fans who have stuck with them over the years. It’s laid back, Folk-Americana vibe and gang vocal chorus puts me in mind of a Crows track like ‘Omaha’ and it’s one of the best on a strong album.
Further influences, as varied as Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Eric Church can be found on tracks like ‘Lucille’, ‘Chipping Mill’ and the John Fullbright co-write ‘Three More Days’. ‘Lucille’ is a darker, fiddle-driven look at a relationship that runs its course but leaves a young mother and baby behind in its wake. Engaging, evocative storytelling is a feature on ‘A Cat in the Rain’ and no-where is this more in evidence than on ‘Lucille.’ The beating heart of Americana FM radio, meanwhile, can be found on the infectious ‘Chipping Mill.’ Written by RC Edwards, Turnpike Troubadours’ bassist, we find Evan Felker singing, ‘I sold my soul for Rock ‘n’ Roll….. but I always kept the best for you.’ It’s another three minutes of soul searching and another plea for redemption set against a strong melody and some gorgeous fiddles: it should be the type of song you hear on the FM Americana airwaves for the rest of this year . ‘Three More Days’, meanwhile, is a world-weary, tired-of-the-road song about the sacrifices that touring musicians have to make that Evan Felker says makes him think of his daughter. A Bluesy guitar solo evokes hotel bars and smoky clubs on a song destined to become a live favourite.
Two covers round out this powerful, personal album. ‘Black Sky’, originally from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, is a funky, earthy, organic song driven by Southern vibes and a gang-vocal chorus made for late nights and live shows whilst album closer ‘Won’t You Give Me One More Chance’, popularised by Jerry Jeff Walker, is all acoustic guitars and harmonica as Felker sings, ‘all I see is goodbyes and I wish I wasn’t there.’ Walker passed away whilst the band was making ‘A Cat in the Rain’ and Felker explains, “Probably my most listened to records were Jerry Jeff records. He’s my favourite so we wanted to do something that was a tribute to him.’ The song is a touching and personal plea that must have been very close to home for Felker as he worked to put his life back together again over the past 2 to 3 years.
Fiddle player Kyle Nix says of ‘A Cat in the Rain’ that it’s an album that shows ‘that you can redeem yourself. It doesn’t always have to end in a shitty way. Whether we are talking relationships, jobs or just life. It’s important to look out for one another,’ and that’s exactly what Turnpike Troubadours are doing on this album. The themes of re-birth, fresh starts and redemption run through this album like lettering through a stick of rock. Turnpike Troubadours are re-energised and making music in the only way they know how – with a passion and a verve for what established them in the first place as one of the best earthy, organic purveyors of Folk-Americana-Country Rock out there. ‘A Cat in the Rain’ breaks no new ground in terms of style but what it does do is prove that Evan Felker can write music sober and the band can achieve the heights and the high standards that they previously set themselves just as much, post-hiatus, as they did in the hectic, turbulent whirlwind of a career that they had up to 2019. It’s a welcome return: now let’s see what they can go on the achieve in the years to come.
Tracklist: 1. Mean Old Sun 2. Brought Me 3. Lucille 4. Chipping Mill 5. The Rut 6. A Cat in the Rain 7. Black Sky 8. East Side Love Song (Bottoms Up) 9. Three More Days 10. Won’t You Give Me One More Chance Release Date: 25th August Record Label: Bossier City Records/Thirty Tigers Buy ‘A Cat in the Rain’ now
