Creative writing was his strong suit.
The Turnpike Troubadours have some of the most well-written songs in country music, if you ask me. From poetic love songs like “Pay No Rent” and “Diamonds and Gasoline” to the profoundly heartbreaking songs like “Empty As A Drum” and “The Bird Hunters,” their catalog is full of lyrical masterpieces.
And now they are being recognized for their prominent songwriting, having become a country-music mainstay.
However, die-hard Turnpike fans know that it was a long road to get back to where they stand today. The group spent years defining their sound, but it all went on hold when they took an indefinite hiatus in 2019. After sudden cancellations and several on-stage drunken incidents, the band took a break while Evan Felker got his drinking habits under control. While most fans never lost hope… There was a point where we didn’t know if Turnpike would ever take the stage again.
But the band got back together in 2021, releasing their first album since reuniting, A Cat In The Rain, in 2023, followed last year by their sixth studio album, The Price of Admission. The record received high praise from both fans and critics alike. Marking the second release since the band returned from an extended hiatus, The Price of Admission proved to many (myself included) why Turnpike is ultimately one of the greatest bands in the history of the genre, featuring some all-time tracks from the group such as “Heaven Passing Through,” “On The Red River” and the severely underrated, “Ruby Ann.”
With the hope that we could be getting a new Turnpike record this year, many fans are wondering what kind of songwriting we can expect.
During a recent conversation with The Converse Cowboy, Mike Roberts, Felker touched on his songwriting, saying he felt creative writing was the only thing he had ever excelled at. This answer makes sense given Felker’s talent for putting pen to paper and crafting lyrical stories.
Roberts led the conversation with Felker, asking him whether there was a moment when he knew music was what he would pursue professionally. While Felker felt he would have found a way to make music work regardless of a lightbulb moment, he saw his school excels as a sign that his future was in music.
“Well, you know, if you’re me and I think I told you this, but I couldn’t… I didn’t excel at anything else. I was a pretty smart kid, up until I really had to put in some work. Then I was so mad that it wasn’t easy, that I was not a very good student—I was too temperamental for it.
And then along came sort of creative writing, and it was something I stood out at because my mom read to me or whatever, I had that interest… I went that route. I always felt like, ‘Well, I have an aptitude for it.” And I had teachers that said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be good at this. If you like it, you should do more of it.'”
Mike Roberts and Evan Felker then riff off each other about how his talent for natural writing is similar to that of a basketball player or other professional athletes. They are born with attributes that make them more likely to succeed in those areas.
But even with the natural talent that Felker has with creative writing, he’s more than just a songwriter. He’s a performer, a guitar player, a band leader, and more. Roberts then asked Felker whether there were aspects of being a musician he needed to work on to develop his talent in areas that were more challenging than others. Felker shared that while some areas do require more work than others, they all go hand in hand and require a lot of effort overall.
“I wouldn’t want to discount myself and the work that I’ve put into it, because I have put in a bunch. You know you always feel like it should be more. But inclination toward writing is something that’s neat sounding, I would have done that anyway, so you know, it wasn’t ever work to me.”
Writing was never work, and the rest fell in line. But it still took a lot of work to get to where Turnpike is today… but you what they say about doing something you love.
This entire interview is well worth the watch. Check it out while you’re here:
