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July 19-28, 2024
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Everybody loves a good comeback story. Even the ones doing the “coming back.”
“We all like to see things go well for people,” says Evan Felker, frontman and chief songwriter of Turnpike Troubadours. “There’s so much bullshit in the world now, where we’re focused on seeing people failing, that it’s nice to see something positive happen.”
After releasing five genre-defining albums and building a fiercely loyal fanbase, Turnpike Troubadours — the Tahlequah, Oklahoma, kings of Red Dirt music — all but fell apart in 2019, taking a three-year hiatus to find clarity amidst the noise of red-hot career. But after the break, something remarkable and even unprecedented happened: the band returned more popular than ever. Not to mention stronger.
The proof is in the group’s sixth studio album, A Cat in the Rain. Produced by three-time Grammy winner Shooter Jennings (Brandi Carlile’s By the Way, I Forgive You) and recorded at the legendary FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and in Los Angeles, the 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.
Hailing from the red dirt clay of Mobile, Alabama, the Red Clay Strays have spent the past year trailblazing their musical path across the nation by bringing their unique blend of tunes to stages ranging from the intimate to the large-scale in small towns and big cities all over the country. Amidst the success of their debut album Moment of Truth, the seasoned band of road warriors has kept pedal to the metal as of late making major festival appearances at HWY 30 Fest, Bonnaroo, Peacemaker Festival, Under the Big Sky, Mile-0 Fest, Lollapalooza, and CMA Fest. the industry is certainly noticing–after a jam-packed summer tour that catapulted them onto the fast track of becoming a household name. The band was welcomed to walk into the circle at the Grand Ole Opry, culminating lifelong dreams no doubt a result of the years of hard work and drive spent honing their craft. With their explosive chemistry on stage and eclectic rock-n-roll sound that is distinctively their own, they’re bound to burn stages down everywhere.