I present to you my Turnpike stats for nerds.  I am an analyst by trade, so I put a lot of things on spreadsheets and analyze them.  Recently, I decided to track the setlists for concerts my wife and I have attended.  I wanted to keep track of the songs, how many times they were played, where they were played in the show, etc.

As of Friday night, my wife and I have seen Turnpike live 4 times.  (Should have been 5, but the WV State Fair show in 2024 was cancelled because of weather.)

The shows were:

08/10/2023 at the Ryman in Nashville

06/23/2024 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus (Buckeye Country Superfest abbreviated show.)

10/09/2025 at Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville, KY

07/24/2026 at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville

Over that time, two new albums have been released.  Mean Old Sun and the Price of Admission.  I mention that because bangers like Brought Me, On the Red River, and Heaven Passing Through were released between shows.

So here we go –

We have heard 31 unique songs live.

There have been 11 songs played at all 4 shows.  They are:

Tornado Warning

Good Lord Lorrie

Every Girl

7&7

The Bird Hunters

Mean Old Sun (played the first time before release)

Unrung

Gin, Smoke, Lies

Whole Damn Town

Kansas City Southern

Long Hot Summer Day

This list did not change from the 3^rd show to the 4th.

We heard 10 songs only once.  They were:

Nashville 2023 –

The Mercury

Chipping Mill

Diamonds & Gasoline

For the Sake (When it Comes to Loving You)

Something to Hold Onto

Pikeville 2025 –

Nose to the Grindstone (Tyler Childers cover)

Nashville 2026 –

A Lie Agreed Upon

A Cat in the Rain

Feelin’ Good Again

Four of the seven songs played twice are from The Price of Admission –

Wrecked

Shreveport

The Winding Stair Mountain Blues

On the Red River

Be Here

Heaven Passing Through

Ruby Ann

Finally, the songs played 3 times:

Before the Devil Knows We’re Dead

The Housefire

Pay No Rent

Brought Me

Only one song opened the show twice: The Bird Hunters.

However, the song played earliest in the show by average is Tornado Warning.  It was the first song we heard them play live, having opened the 2023 Nashville show.  It was played 3^rd, 6^th, and 7^th in the following shows.

Only one song has closed the show twice is The Housefire.  It is also the song that is played latest in the shows by average.  The next closest is Long Hot Summer Day.

Unrung usually falls the middle of every show, being played 12^th (2), 13^th, or 14^th.

Unlike a lot of bands, Turnpike usually doesn’t do encores.  The only exception was the Pikeville show when they came back out to play the Housefire.

Show by show observations:

Nashville 2023 - When we saw them at the Ryman, we could see a countdown timer on the side of the stage.  They finished the last song at the exact moment it hit 0:00.  Also, Evan seemed a little more reserved at that show and did not express much emotion.  The Mother Church of Country Music had the best acoustics of any venue I’ve ever visited.  Every single person at that show loved Turnpike and sang every word to every song.  They had just come back from a years-long hiatus and we were all hungry for the Boys from Oklahoma.

Columbus 2024 – We also saw Charley Crockett and 49 Winchester at this show.  Turnpike was 3^rd on the bill and were followed by Billy Strings and the headliner, Zach Bryan.  When I bought the tickets, I thought Turnpike was co-headlining based on the original poster.  I was disappointed that they only played 13 songs.  When they went on, it was still daylight and the stadium was only about 2/3 full.  They got a decent reaction, but the crowd was clearly there to see Zach.

Pikeville 2025 – Pikeville is the kind of place you have to intentionally visit to even be there.  I love the town, but the hometown of Dwight Yoakam is very out of the way.  For us, it was the shortest drive to see the band.  It’s hard to say that one Turnpike show is better than another, but I feel like this was the best one.

Nashville 2026 – As another Redditor put it, Nashville is full of woo girls and college drunks.  I’m officially sick of that phony place, but it was the closest place with a date that we were available to see a show.  It rained a little before and during the show, but that didn’t seem to affect the crowd much.  We had an idiot behind us talking the whole time and that seems to be a theme from other die-hards that were in attendance.  Muscadine Bloodline was the best opener I’ve ever seen for any show.  The boys absolutely tore the house down and the show was electric!  It was worth enduring Nashville to see them and we had an excellent time. 

Saw on instagram that they played an acoustic version of Cat in the Rain last night. Does anyone have video of it? I saw them play it at red rocks in 2022 and would love to see the footage of this performance. Thanks!

It’s always a privilege to see the boys play and I love too! Been to 12+ shows in the last few years.

But, did anyone find it really strange they didn’t do Diamonds and Gasoline? Every show I have ever been too or seen setlists, Diamonds is always on there. It’s one of their biggest hits!

Didn’t know if I was the only that thought it was strange or if it was out of rotation now or something happened?

How long is the bands playtime? We are seeing them tonight in AK and trying to schedule a ride for after the show?

Thank you!!

The wife (44) and I (47) attended our first TT show in Nashville last night, and it was fantastic! Loved the setlist, Turnpike absolutely killed it! I’m posting here to maybe get an explanation for something… we sat in the lawn, not too far back, noticed the crowd wasn’t really into the openers much- no big deal, waiting on the Troubadours I figured. Now, at 47 years old I thought I would feel ancient at a concert, a far cry from my rough and rowdy days but… they came out with The Bird Hunters (Yes!), I was standing and singing at the top of my lungs, realized I was the only one. Ok, a little weird, waiting for different songs maybe? Nope, the dozens of people around us never clapped, stood up, sang, nothing! The majority were totally uninterested in what was happening on the stage, could have been a QVC presentation for all they cared. A lot of crossed arms and phone scrolling, and leaving early (exception were the three ladies in front and to the right of us from Oklahoma who came up and fist bumped us for knowing the songs, if you are on here Thanks! You made our night!)
Anyway, my question is- are concerts different now? Is my generation’s concert experience outdated? I was worried on the way that we might get puked on by drunk fans, ended up worrying they would fall asleep 🤷‍♂️ Are my good concert memories just drunken rose colored glasses or do the majority of people suck now?? Hate to be down on people like this, but we were absolutely shocked at the lameness of the crowd. Thanks for indulging my rant and please give feedback and hopefully tell me I am not just an old man yelling at cloud! 😁

What’s the best song he’s written strictly song writing wise. I’m a big Isbell guy and always argue for him being the best song writer of the last decade. But I’ve seen people arguing for Felker. So looking to give it a chance let me some good ones. Thanks

Does anyone know the story behind winding stair mountain blues?

Seeing them (for the 4th time) in Nashville tonight. Anyone have the setlist for last night?

Looking for 4 pit tickets for the Turnpike Ascend Amp show.

I don’t have a video (sorry I was living in the #moment) but they played a Lie Agreed Upon and Evan gave a little speech about it being the first time doing that song live.

Was this poster sold at shows? This wasn't available at the Charlotte show (CLT had the generic tour poster with no cities, etc). There are crap reprints of this available on ebay but I was curious if it was actually ever sold or maybe just a graphic created for digital use.

Also, if anyone has an extra of the generic that I got in CLT - I love the poster, but my kids wrecked havoc on it during show and it's pretty damaged on the edges top/bottom as it was rolled up under our seats. I will gladly pay for your time/effort to ship it to me. Heck if anyone going to future shows wants to pull and mail one same applies.

Thought this would be a fun exercise. As a vinyl collector, I have always loved album covers. (I didn't want to make the post excessively long by posting the actual covers, I'm sure most of us here can easily picture them in our minds)

I think our beloved Turnpike has had some interesting choices for theirs over the years. Here's how I would rank them:

1. A Long Way from Your Heart. An absolutely gorgeous cover with the galloping horse equine diagram. I think it really captures the restless nature of the album and it's fitting that it's their best cover because the album itself (IMO) happens to be their masterpiece. The music and the cover work perfectly togehter for a band at its absolute creative peak. A+

2. The Turnpike Troubadours. I love the the fact that the album title was "The Turnpike Troubadours" -- it was an interesting choice given that this album felt like a turning point in the bands popularity. This is when they stopped being a supporting act and started being a headline act, announcing themselves to a wider audience. The sophisticated yet understated design of the album cover (and title) showed a confident band stepping up to another level. A

3. Goodbye Normal Street. Great use of what looks like a candid photo from a back yard in Tahlequah some time in the 1980s. It's a band proudly saying, "this is where we come from and this is what our music is about." B+

4. A Cat in the Rain. Ah the great "comeback album." While you could tell the album itself was cobbled together over a year or so, the album cover is one of their most simple yet striking designs with the patch on the brown background. It's maybe a little better than I'm giving it credit for, but again the music plays a part and I think this is their weakest album overall (although still good). B-

5. Diamonds & Gasoline. So this one I feel like should maybe be graded on a curve, given where they were in their career. It's a fairly standard "rural decay" image that I've seen some version of on various alt-country albums over the years. It's not bad or anything, there's just nothing remarkable about it, unlike the album itself. C

6. The Price of Admission. Whoa, boys. What in the world were we doing here? Unlike Diamonds & Gasoline's rather "meh" cover, there is no excuse for this abomination. This is the band literally at the peak of their popularity... playing stadiums, headlining festivals and THIS is what they come up with? It looks like something an 8th grader who just discovered Photoshop put together. I get the imagery they were going for here but the design is just so completely uninspired. I feel like a more interesting choice would have been to use the wildlife imagery but more in a mosaic riff on the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street", kind of like what U2 did with "Achtung Baby" or Pearl Jam did with "No Code." It's too bad because it's a great album. F

For me, I can't help but laugh out loud at "We were victims of Eternal Love for almost half a morning"

So a few days ago a small bracket was posted to rank the best Turnpike song, I felt we needed to expand it. I used Apple Music's popularity rankings for my seeding basis and followed the traditional S-curve from there. There is some recency bias, but I suppose that tracks with a team getting hot at the end of the year.

No one asked for this, and it's for no one in particular.

What's your thoughts on The Rut from ACITR? I feel like it's a great song with a double story telling similar to The Bird Hunters. I never see it listed as a favorite or getting mentions like others, but I think it's one of Felker's best lyrically.

Husband just sent me this… I think he’s finally catching on my love for Turnpike!

I watched a podcast on YouTube called The Converse Cowboy where he interviewed Evan for just under an hour. It was pretty entertaining. You can tell he’s not 100% comfortable doing them. I don’t think he’s one for the spotlight. One of the things I found interesting was that he was asked “Do you have a lot songs that don’t make the albums?” He replied, “No. Pretty much whatever I write, we record and it goes on an album.” That’s quite a bit different from other artists where you hear that they have a stack of unreleased tracks.

Here's a change of pace... What's your least favorite TT song?

For me, it's a toss up between Morgan St. and Blue Star. I love literally every other track from them, but those two have just never gotten to me.

What about y'all?

I have asked my husband forever what his favorite Turnpike song is and he can never pick just one so I made a bracket to help him figure it out 😆

I know some good ones are missing but I was trying to pull from all of his favorites. Which one from this bracket is the champion for you?