Turnpike Troubadours embrace country music that’s outside the mainstream

Turnpike Troubadours have kept their sound pretty steady in the decade they’ve been playing. While some bands explore different musical directions with each new album, the Oklahoma country/folk group just keeps refining what it does.

“We’ve just grown and gotten better at it,” says bassist RC Edwards in advance of the band’s stop on Friday, Oct. 9, at Strummer’s.

The band’s self-titled third release (available now) sees Turnpike Troubadours in peak form, he says.

“It’s the best version of us,” says Edwards, who’s joined on stage and the record by singer/guitarist Evan Felker, fiddler Kyle Nix, steel and electric guitarist Ryan Engleman and drummer Gabe Pearson.

And it’s earning the band some real buzz.

“Turnpike Troubadours” hit No. 17 on the Billboard Top 200 and earned mentions in Rolling Stone and The Wall Street Journal. It was No. 3 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart and No. 2 on its Independent Albums Chart.

“Those are real numbers,” Edwards says.

And they’re numbers the band earned without help from mainstream radio. This is the long-view road to success finally paying off, Edward says.

It’s what Turnpike Troubadours do, what they have always done, even when the band was starting out in Oklahoma’s eclectic Red Dirt music scene. The band cut its teeth in places where people didn’t come to shows to hear original music, Edwards says. They came mostly to dance and have a good time.

“They wanted to hear Merle Haggard songs,” he says. “And we did our share of Merle Haggard songs.”

The band also made its share of fans, five at a time, all over the country, Edwards says. Eventually, those fans added up.

Turnpike Troubadours may not yet have the arena-sized following of their contemporaries in mainstream pop-country music, but Edwards doesn’t see the band’s place in that world, either. He likens the current state of mainstream country to fast food. Sure, everybody likes it.

“But after a while you get tired of it and you want some home cooking,” he says. “We’re like that home cooking.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Turnpike Troubadours embrace country music that’s outside the mainstream."