Turnpike Troubadours - The Price of Admission

Turnpike Troubadours are without question the largest band in the Red Dirt scene at this moment, or maybe any moment in time.  From the moment we world premiered the Diamonds and Gasoline album on this website and had them infamously play River Jam for barely more than tips and beer, we’ve been all aboard the Turnpike train.  Through hills and valleys, break ups and make ups.  A Cat in the Rain was fine, but we were all so starved for new Turnpike content at the time of its release that just about anything would have satiated us.  With a couple years of living with that record, it is still fine, but still ranks as my least favorite of the collection.  But your least favorite Turnpike record is still miles beyond whatever most artist’s best album might be.  That background hung over my first few spins of Price of Admission.  That and the ongoing emotional recovery of the big Boys from Oklahoma weekend.  Interestingly (and perhaps smartly) enough, Turnpike did not play one new song from this album in the set I saw them perform Saturday night.  Turnpike songs need to be digested, dissected and lived with.  You can recognize its brilliance at first blush, but it’s really that 37th listen that drives home exactly what Lorrie has done. 

Right off the bat with Price of Admission, Evan Felker hits you with the emotional gut punch of “On the Red River”.  Ostensibly a tribute to his departed father, Felker pulls lyrical allegories galore as he paints the cycle of life with brushes of rural Oklahoma that anyone can attach their circumstances to.  As someone who has lost his own father, this track is especially poignant and heavy.  Yet, entirely beautiful. The melody will sneak up on you, but the words are what will stick in your heart and head even as the track has long rolled over to a new one.  

Back on the Red River, not hard to remember

When your daddy wouldn't ever get old

When I saw the world from up on your shoulders

I remember the view, when you live like we do

Death doesn't leave with the best part of you

I’m not going to go track by track, but I will say that the opening salvo of “On the Red River” sets the tone for the entire project.  This is a mellow, melancholy, reflective group of songs.  Ryan Engelman twangs in all the right ways and places, but he’s never fully unleashed to rip things to shreds.  Kyle Nix delivers a few of his best recorded fiddle solos. The production of Shooter Jennings feels more at home this time than on Cat in the Rain. But, it still seems to lack the raw, unpredictable intensity of the first few records.  That doesn’t mean this is a bad album.  In fact, it’s really quite good.  It’s just not what you may be used to hearing from Turnpike.  The entire affair is polite.

Which makes songs like “Forgiving You” and its strong Charlie Robison vibes an amazing listen. The verse melody evokes Robison’s “Loving County” and the chorus channels the same brazen vigor. 

The strongest song on the album is perhaps “Heaven Passing Through”.  Washing X’s off your hands, sharing cigarettes and dreaming of the future posit this story firmly in the lens of starry eyed teenagers.  The third verse throws some mystery into what happened to the characters and if we may have met them in a Turnpike song from earlier in the canon.  

“Ruby Ann” loosens the reins more than most of the tracks here. Fittingly, it is a RC Edwards/Lance Roark co-write and treads sonic familiarity with the early Turnpike records. “I’ll love you ‘til the morning if you hold me through the night” is about as good as a country lyric can get. 

Like with any record of this scope, it will take many, many listens to fully grasp all the details and peel back all of the layers.  The lyrics are poignant, the production understated and the stories layered, intertwined and deep. It’s like any form of good art.  Be it a book or a film project.  Sometimes you have to read it more than once or pause and rewind to catch what you missed in a scene.  

Felker and the gang have created a universe that requires your full attention.  Even obsessives will miss little clues upon the first several listens.  Turnpike songs and albums usually don’t become fully appreciated until they’re lived in.  The Troubadours have given you a lot to work through with this one.  You will find a piece of yourself, someone you love or something you believe in with each track. 

As this hits publish, I’m off to circle back to the top of the tracklist to hang out with my dad.