Turnpike Troubadours To Release New Album “A Cat in the Rain”

This story has been updated.

The Turnpike Troubadours will release a new album called A Cat in the Rain on August 25th. It will be their first new album since 2017’s A Long Way From Your Heart, and the first album since the band’s hiatus between May 31st, 2019 and April 8th, 2021. It comes at a time when the band has been on a meteoric rise in popularity, including selling out large venues and being booked as headliners at numerous festivals.

The news was confirmed on Tuesday morning (5-3) by an announcement posted on the band’s website that went live at 6:00 am. Shortly thereafter, either the website crashed due to the traffic coming to the site for more information, or the announcement was taken down. Either way, turnpiketroubadours.com was later serving a 404 error as opposed to the announcement.

Since the message said that the single “Mean Old Sun” was “available now” (which it currently isn’t), the announcement was likely meant to go live on Friday (5-5), and was displayed to the front-facing internet on accident. Nonetheless, the proverbial cat was out of the bag, and the announcement was being shared on social media, along with outlets like Whiskey Riff running with the information.

UPDATE: The Turnpike Troubadours website has since come back up with the announcement, and the availability of “Mean Old Sun” has been changed to May 5th.

Saving Country Music can confirm that Cat in the Rain is being released by Bossier City Records in conjunction with Thirty Tigers, and that the session was produced by Shooter Jennings.

The debut single for the album “Mean Old Sun” initially leaked via TouchTunes on April 14th before promptly being taken down. The song is likely to be released on Friday (5-5) at midnight EDT, if not before. The band debuted the song live at the Stagecoach Festival last weekend, which was streamed on Amazon Prime.

The name of the new Turnpike Troubadours album is taken from another new song that frontman Evan Felker debuted in Houston on May 7th, 2022. There is also a song on the album co-written by Turnpike bassist RC Edwards with up-and-coming Oklahoma songwriter Lance Roark.

Formed in 2007 in Talequah, Oklahoma by frontman and primary songwriter Evan Felker, and bassist and songwriter R.C. Edwards, the Turnpike Troubadours went from a group of guys getting together to play some music for fun, to one of the biggest and most successful independent country bands in history. Joining them along the way in the most long-lasting lineup of the band has been fiddle player Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engleman, and drummer Gabriel Pearson. “Hammerin’ Hank Early” also joined the band in recent years on steel guitar, dobro, and accordion.

Known for crafting sensible melodies underpinned by substantive lyrics, and imbuing traditional country with an energetic attitude, they are a band most everyone can enjoy, and have so to the tune of becoming one of the biggest drawing and best-selling acts in Texas/Red Dirt of all time.

A Cat in the Rain is now available for pre-save.

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