Turnpike Cousin Project RC & the Ambers Announce New Album

Sorry, I can’t turn you onto any new music from the Turnpike Troubadours at this turn, but I can offer you the next best thing. Turnpike bass player, songwriter, and beating heart RC “Rooster” Edwards has been working a side hustle for some years now called RC and the Ambers with singer and long-time Turnpike friend Amber Watson. First hinted about back in March, they have a new album on the way, and now we have the details and the first song.

Big Country will be released on September 10th, and will feature nine songs written or co-written by RC Edwards, another written by Turnpike Troubadours steel guitar/accordion player Hammerin’ Hank Early, and a cover of Hank Jr.’s “The Blues Man.” Also appearing on the album will be Turnpike fiddle player Kyle Nix and Turnpike drummer Gabriel Pearson. Hank Early produced the record, and plays multiple instruments on it as well.

“I can promise you, it sounds nothing like a Turnpike record,” Hank Early told Saving Country Music back in March. “We are both extremely proud of it and can’t wait for you to hear it.”

The album includes a song many Turnpike Troubadours fans have probably heard live before in “Drunk, High, and Loud.” And though RC Edwards is the primary songwriter on the album, the first taste we get from the record is the satirical “Oklahoma Beach Body” written by Hank Early about life in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. The band was out near the Illinois River in their hometown of Tahlequah recently shooting a video for the song. Big Country was recorded in Tahlequah at a home studio.

Though RC and the Ambers have been around for years as a side project, the band has taken on new emphasis for RC Edwards and Amber Watson since the Turnpike Troubadours hiatus. Amber Watson has been a close friend of the Turnpike Troubadours since the very beginnings of the band. At one point Evan Felker was sleeping on her couch in Tahlequah as the band was just getting started.

Also involved in the band are Justin “JT” Kay, Nicholas Pitre, and Lance Roark.

TRACK LIST:

1. Big Country (Edwards)
2. Oklahoma Beach Body (Hank Early)
3. Compass (Edwards)
4. Fall Out of Love (Edwards)
5. Gravy and Biscuits (Edwards)
6. Oologah (Romance at the Iron Horse) (Edwards)
7. Astronaut (Edwards, Burke)
8. Drunk, High, and Loud (Edwards, Burke)
9. The Blues Man (Williams)
10. The Assassination of Ned Christie (Edwards)
11. Let The Whiskey Do The Talking (Edwards, Burke, Watson)

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