Jason Isbell Says Evan Felker’s Comeback Spurred Him to Join Turnpike Troubadours’ Arena Shows
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The Turnpike Troubadours are coming home again for two nights, and so is “King of Oklahoma.”
Turnpike will play January 19-20 at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, joined by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Together, they represent two of the hottest acts in independent music and two of the most talked-about albums of the past year. Isbell’s Weathervanes was released in June, and Turnpike’s A Cat in the Rain dropped in August.
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“For us, there’s not anything like an Oklahoma crowd,” Turnpike frontman Evan Felker tells Rolling Stone. “So, it’s fun to get to share it with someone we like as much as Jason.”
Charles Wesley Godwin will open both shows.
While the setlists are to be determined, it is hard to envision Isbell passing on the chance to play “King of Oklahoma” — one of a handful of all-out rock jams from Weathervanes — in the state that inspired the song, especially after Felker joined Isbell on stage in July at the Newport Folk Festival to perform the tune. Often reluctant to take on an arena gig, Isbell tells Rolling Stone the chance to share the stage with Felker, whose sobriety spurred the Oklahoma-based Troubadours’ comeback in 2022 as well as A Cat in the Rain, was too appealing to pass up.
“I like Evan a lot, and I like his story,” Isbell says. “From the start, they were doing things themselves. They had their own label imprint early on. As a band, they write great songs, and Evan in particular is a really good songwriter.
“And I like the fact that he got sober and made a comeback, you know? He got his life together and got his band together and reemerged stronger than ever. I think that’s a super-positive thing, and something that I support wholeheartedly.”
Isbell’s fierce independence and public embrace of his own sobriety leaves plenty of common ground with Felker, but these two bands sharing the same stage has been rare outside of festivals. A 2018 show near Kansas City featuring Isbell, Turnpike and the Old 97’s was the last such twin bill, but Felker told Rolling Stone earlier this year that Turnpike’s move into arenas affords the band the chance to connect with their contemporaries more than ever before — Isbell aside, recent Turnpike openers include the Avett Brothers, Dawes, Old Crow Medicine Show, Blackberry Smoke, and Morgan Wade.
“Some of these are my favorite bands in the world,” Felker says. “I feel funny because I always wanted to play with them, I just thought that I was going to be the one opening.”
Both Turnpike and Isbell have signed on for dates on Zach Bryan’s 2024 stadium tour. For Isbell, the arena and stadium slots are chances to see how his show — scaled up in production since the Weathervanes release — plays in such a setting.
“We’ll turn all the amps up, that’s the plan,” Isbell deadpans. “I don’t get to do it very much. But, honestly, now we have a bigger show, which makes me really happy about this, and that’s why I’ve agreed to do some of these with Turnpike and some of the stadium shows with Zach next year.
“We’ve got a bigger band. We’ve got a bigger production. And the new record has some songs that I feel suit themselves pretty well to that kind of an environment. It’s not something I’m going to do permanently, but in service of putting together a really good night for people who are coming to the shows, I think every once in a while, it’s worth it.”
The Troubadours and Isbell, along with names like Tyler Childers, are at the forefront of a watershed movement in Americana and independent country, as demand has driven their concerts to arenas and the largest amphitheaters. In the wake of Weathervanes, Isbell recently released a 10-year anniversary edition of his seminal record Southeastern. His acting debut, in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, hits theaters in October. He credits a direct connection between artists and fans for the momentum independent music has now.
“I think that a lot of people who are really talented and really hard-working have gotten to the point that they’re pretty exhausted with the traditional music business machine,” Isbell says. “And due to the way the business has sort of splintered, and the way people listen to music now, it’s a lot more possible for artists to promote themselves rather than go by the traditional program.
“I’ve kind of always thought this in a way, but you can find your audience if you go out and play enough shows and go to enough cities. You don’t have to pander. You can actually do the music that you want to do, and if you survive the touring, you can find your audience.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author of the 2020 book Red Dirt: Roots Music Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, at Home Anywhere and the 2023 book The Motel Cowboy Show: On the Trail of Mountain Music from Idaho to Texas, and the Side Roads in Between.
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