''Goodbye Normal Street'' is a 2012 studio album by the American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

band

Turnpike Troubadours Turnpike Troubadours is an American country music band from Tahlequah, Oklahoma founded in 2005. They started their own imprint, Bossier City Records, in 2007 and have released five studio albums. Their self-titled 2015 album peaked at number 17 ...

. The band's third album, it was released in May 2012. All of the songs were written or co-written by band members RC Edwards and

Evan Felker Evan Duane Felker (born March 24, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Okemah, Oklahoma. He is best known as the lead singer of the band Turnpike Troubadours. Early life Felker was born in Okemah and raised in Wright City, ...

. Many of the songs are either biographical or semi-biographical. It was the band's first album to chart in the ''Billboard'' 200 and the Billboard Country Albums charts.

Release

The album, released in May 2012, was the Red Dirt bands' third studio album. It is named after a street in

Tahlequah, Oklahoma Tahlequah ( ; ''Cherokee'': ᏓᎵᏆ, ''daligwa'' ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-cen ...

, where many of the album's songs were written, although one of the band's members compared the name to beginning to go out on the road as a band by saying "any normalcy we had is pretty much over with". Eric Woods at the ''Abilene Reporter-News'' noted that the title was prophetic of how the band members' lives became abnormal as they went on tour. Personnel for the band at the time of the album was

as lead singer and guitarist, RC Edwards on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

, Kyle Nix on the fiddle, Ryan Engleman as the lead guitarist, and Gabriel Pearson on drums. The album was produced by Wes Sharon at the 115 Recording studio in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

Content

Genre-wise, a reviewer for the ''

Times Record News ''Times Record News'' is a daily newspaper established in 1907 in Wichita Falls, Texas and owned by Gannett. From 1976 until 1997, the ''Times Record News'' was part of Harte Hanks chain, when Scripps acquired the paper. ''The Times Record ...

'' described the album as

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...

with some

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern roc ...

tendencies. All of the songs were written or cowritten by band members. Much of the album had biographical or autobiographic tendencies. Edwards wrote "Morgan Street" about a bar that the band formerly played in, while the military-themed songs "Blue Star" and "Southeastern Son" were penned by Felker as "character pieces" about people that he knew. Felker also stated that he wanted the album to provide a "real band-playing" feel, rather than the auto-tuned and perfectly metronome-aligned music that he felt was common on country radio. One reviewer described "Gin, Smoke, Lies" as a "funky, bluegrass groove", while another stated that "Quit While I'm Ahead" included Cajun themes. The character of Lorrie from "Good Lord Lorrie" has since appeared in several of the band's later songs. Reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine, writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

, noted that the album contained more elements of

Texas country music Texas country music (more popularly known just as Texas country or Texas music) is a rapidly growing subgenre of country music from Texas. Texas country is a unique style of Western music and is often associated with other distinct neighboring s ...

than the band's previous album, "Diamonds & Gasoline". Erlewine also compared Felker's writing to

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

and

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

Reception

Don Chance, writing for the ''Times Record News'', described the album as "one of the best albums from a 'not-Nashville' band I've heard in a long time, while praising the performance and variety of "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead", "Call a Spade a Spade", "Wrecked", "Good Lord Lorrie", and "Gone". The album was the band's first to chart on the ''Billboard'' 200 and Billboard Country Albums charts, reaching number 57 on the former and number 14 on the latter. By September 2012, two singles from the album, "Gin, Smoke, Lies" and "Good Lord Lorrie" had reached the top 10 in Texas regional charts.

Track listing

Source:

References

{{reflist 2012 albums Turnpike Troubadours albums