New Music | Turnpike Troubadours – Good Lord Lorrie

Turnpike Troubadours – Good Lord Lorrie

Nashville has this backwards notion that if life hands you a lemon, you’ve gotta write a song about lemonade. “Key his truck, that’ll make you feel better.” But that’s bullshit because the great country songs were always about lemons. Modern country has lost that melancholy streak, which I guess is why the real country music still comes from Bakersfield & Austin. And so the Turnpike Troubadours are poised to resonate. They’re from just north in Oklahoma, but Goodbye Normal Street is red dirt Texas country through & through. It’s stories about the struggle. There’s loose ends. And there’s regret. And the stories aren’t spun into redneck party oblivion. And in an era where there’s a serious national discourse about minting a billion dollar platinum coin to pay down our debt out of thin air, it’s a welcomed dose of reality. How novel, right?

Evan Felker is a serious storyteller, and Good Lord Lorrie a classic southern tragedy. There’s nothing that poisons a relationship like the disapproval of her family. And while everyone in that position doesn’t end up gambling their relationship away playing dominos in a double-wide trailer a Broken Bow, OK, the struggle of making it on your own & the pressure & isolation & the undertone of resentment present are all universal. But it’s Felker’s gift for description that really makes the song effective… it’s dense, but it’s not wordy… it all goes down pretty smooth, even the painful parts. “Guess her folks were right.” Most of the time they are.