Turnpike Troubadours and Wyatt Flores: Exploring the Red Dirt Tradition in “American Currents”

"My vision is having so many influences that just get bottled down into whatever my sound is," said Wyatt Flores at the opening of American Currents: State of the Music. "It's crazy that I'm getting to go from being a fan to getting to open up for [Turnpike Troubadours] at Red Rocks . . . they really changed everything."

Turnpike Troubadours celebrate their twentieth anniversary in 2025, but a few years ago, the band from Oklahoma appeared close to its end. In May 2019, the group announced an indefinite hiatus, following several months of canceled performances as frontman and primary songwriter Evan Felker struggled with alcohol addiction and saw his personal life splashed in the media.

A band in the rootsy Red Dirt music tradition, Turnpike Troubadours—Felker, Hank Early, R. C. Edwards, Ryan Engleman, Kyle Nix, and Gabe Pearson—release their albums on the indie label Bossier City and have never gained mainstream popularity or earned any major country music awards. But their intricate lyrics and raucous live performances have won them a fervent following. Their last three albums all reached the Top Ten on the Billboard country albums chart.

Fans were ecstatic when the band announced their reunion in late 2021 and then released a comeback album, A Cat in the Rain, produced by Shooter Jennings, in 2023. The group hit the road in early 2022 and has since maintained a steady touring schedule, including a 2024 concert at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre with fellow Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores as an opening act.

Flores, who was named to Rolling Stone's Future of Music in 2024, released his first full-length album, Welcome to the Plains, last October. The fourteen-track work offers a deeply vulnerable look into the young songwriter's struggles with mental health, complicated relationship with his birthplace, and unique vision of Red Dirt music. In this video, Flores performs Turnpike Troubadours' song "Kansas City Southern," recorded as part of Red Rocks' Trail Mix Sessions.

Turnpike Troubadours and Wyatt Flores are featured in this year's installment of the Museum exhibit American Currents: State of the Music.

Reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.or…