Houstonians packed the lawn at White Oak Music Hall Saturday night for the long-awaited return of Turnpike Troubadours with support from Oklahoma Natives Cody Canada & the Departed.
Opening the Bayou City show was Cody Canada & the Departed, who drew their own packed crowd. The lawn was already proving tricky to navigate thirty minutes into the show, especially for those double and triple fisting cold beers in the 85+ degree Houston heat. Plenty of girls and guys alike could be seen trying to find a beat to dance to and posting the evidence to their Snapchat stories. A mix of cowboy boots, Pink Floyd shirts, tattoos, trucker hats, un-buttoned button-downs and even a few brave cowboys standing strong in jeans and belt buckles highlighted the nature of the reach of both bands.
A few songs into their set, frontman Cody Canada took the microphone to thank the crowd for showing up and led into the next song with the introduction of “We’ve got some new songs, but we know you don’t wanna hear that shit so we’re gunna play the old shit”, followed by a sigh of relief and a girl saying “finally, someone gets it”.
The set was filled with tributes to fellow Oklahoman Jason Boland with guest singer Drew Cooper dropping in on a song. Canada, the former frontman of Cross Canadian Ragweed, rolled the years back and played “Boys from Oklahoma” which the crowd either sang or puffed along to with some superiorly rolled Texas joints.
Coming back from a 2019 touring hiatus later coupled with Covid restrictions, Turnpike Troubadours took the stage right at 9:15 in the humid evening, with the crowd welcoming the band with overwhelming cheers. A man a few feet behind called out “Fuck me up with that fiddle!” As they started their first chord.
Any album was up for grabs, with the Troubadours playing songs off of 2010’s “Diamonds & Gasoline” to the 2017 release of “A Long Way From Your Heart”, at times getting overpowered by the singing crowd. Claims of “Goddamn I’m happy” and “I’m in heaven” could barely be heard being yelled between friends.
Frontman Evan Felker proved to be a working man on stage, opening his mouth only to lead the crowd in an almost two-hour sing-a-long and give shoutouts to Cody Canada & The Departed, his newborn daughter and his fellow bandmates.
Their unofficial, unlisted anthem, co-written with Jonny Burke, “Get High, Get Drunk, Get Loud” continued to get a rise out of the crowd with “Long Hot Summer Day”, “Something to Hold onto” and “Gin, Smoke, Lies” keeping the energy going. The band even debuted their new song, “Cat in the Rain”, so the crowd could take a breather.
With signs of the performers winding down and the crowd showing no signs of stopping, chants for one more song, with a few requests thrown in, began and ultimately were appeased with “1968”. Friends in the crowd put arms around each other’s shoulders rocking side to side, reciting
“Well you’ve been a long time gone. Good to see you my old friend”.
A special thank to Katie Bergeron for showing me around White Oak Music Hall.
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