Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Jeff Pojanowski. Jeff is a professor at Notre Dame Law School, where he teaches and writes about philosophy of law and legal interpretation. He also writes occasional columns for The Pillar. He has been living happily in Northern Indiana after escaping Washington, D.C., 15 years ago.
Jeff’s Music Pick: Turnpike Troubadours
This is a rarity for Political Beats, in which we present a show driven largely by our guest’s preferences. Jeff Pojanowski joined us previously for Pavement and Crowded House and by now we trust his musical judgement. For quite a while, he’s been selling us hard on taking up the career of Turnpike Troubadours for an episode. With the recent release of a new album, and additional endorsements of the band from others in our sphere, it seemed a good time to take him up on the offer.
We’re awfully glad we did.
The Turnpike Troubadours, hailing from Oklahoma, have become one of the leading purveyors of Red Dirt country music, featuring songs that are masterclasses in storytelling, instrumentation, and authenticity. Look, if you don’t like fiddle, you might be in the wrong place.
Formed in 2005 by frontman Evan Felker and bassist R. C. Edwards, the band’s early years were shaped by relentless touring. The first album, Bossier City, is almost more a collection of demos. The group wasn’t quite fully formed yet. But on Diamonds & Gasoline (2010), everything began to click into place. As the band matured, their songwriting deepened without losing its raw immediacy. Albums like Goodbye Normal Street (2012) and The Turnpike Troubadours (2015) would be highlights of any band’s career.
Felker’s songwriting stands out not just for its precision (though occasional lyrical duplicity can leave the listener wondering exactly what a song is about), but for its ability to evoke vivid rural landscapes. These are songs about places and towns that many Americans easily can picture in their mind. Musically, Kyle Nix’s fiddle and Ryan Engleman’s guitar work offered a dynamic counterpoint that always serves the song first.
The band’s career wasn’t without turbulence, of course. After the 2017 release of A Long Way from Your Heart, the band entered a hiatus amid Felker’s battle with alcoholism. Fans cheered the band’s 2022 comeback, marked by the release of the Shooter Jennings-produced A Cat in the Rain. It’s impossible to listen to songs on the record without putting them in the context of Felker’s troubles. It’s an album that likely had to be made, however, to bring the band to 2025’s The Price of Admission, a release that all three of your hosts come to praise.
There’s probably still a lot of music left in the tank for Turnpike Troubadours, and there’s no better time than now to jump on board to discover what you might have been missing.