Chris Stapleton Rocks 'Austin City Limits,' Turnpike Troubadours Waste Perfect Opportunity

by Julian Spivey
Chris Stapleton and Turnpike Troubadours, two of the best acts currently in country music, graced the “Austin City Limits” stage for the longtime PBS musical series’ season finale on Saturday, Feb. 17.
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It was a fantastic combination for the finale showcasing two acts that might be the very best of the genre now – Stapleton, who’s dominated the country music album charts over the last three years, and the Turnpike Troubadours, the finest band in red dirt country music being broadcast on network television for the first time to a wider audience.

Ultimately, Stapleton was his tried and true self performing a fantastic selection from his first three albums and unfortunately the Turnpike Troubadours kind of punted on their biggest chance to gain an audience yet.

Stapleton’s six-song televised set kicked off with the charging “Hard Livin’,” from his From A Room: Vol. 2 album that was released in December. Surprisingly it was the only performance from that album. Even more surprising is the fact that he only performed one song off From A Room: Vol. 1, released early in 2017, as well with the rocking “Second One to Know.” The other four performances from his set came off 2015’s excellent Traveller album, including the title track. I had assumed Stapleton had performed on an episode of ‘ACL’ a couple of years ago when he burst out with Traveller, but apparently, he hadn’t. Had I known this prior to viewing the episode it wouldn’t have surprised me that his televised (the artists play longer sets and the show edits them down to fit an hour-long format typically featuring multiple acts) set was heavy on stuff from his debut.

The highlight of Stapleton’s set for me was “Fire Away,” which I believe to be his greatest song thus far. It’s a helluva heartbreaker, but so beautiful at the same time. It’s everything a classic country song should be.

Among the other highlights of his set were “Whiskey & You,” which he performed solo without his band, and “Tennessee Whiskey,” which ended his set.

We’ve seen Stapleton on TV quite a bit, especially lately. There was a week at the beginning of this month in which he performed on “Saturday Night Live,” the Grammys, “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” in an eight-day span. He’s used to the spotlight.

Evan Felker, the front man of the excellent Turnpike Troubadours, isn’t exactly as experienced. And, I couldn’t help but believe that it showed and was an unfortunate detriment to the Troubadours – making what I’m certain was their network television debit.

Before I go any further I feel it necessary to add this disclaimer: the Turnpike Troubadours are the best band in modern country music. They may also be the best live act in modern country music (though Stapleton and Eric Church give them a run for their money on a bigger stage).

I didn’t feel that their six-song ‘ACL’ set showcased the brilliance, especially live brilliance, of the Turnpike Troubadours. I placed this fault squarely on Felker – who may well be the best songwriter in modern country music, as well.

Felker just seemed downright nervous the entire set. The televised set began with “The Housefire,” from the group’s excellent A Long Way from Your Heart album released last fall. It’s a terrific story song and Felker’s reading of it on the show just seemed lackluster. I was hoping this fact wouldn’t continue throughout the band’s set, but unfortunately it mostly did.

The rest of the Troubadours performed as great as ever on the showcase, but Felker just didn’t seem like he was all the way there. The group’s set featured three songs off their latest album including “A Tornado Warning” (my favorite track off the album) and “Something to Hold on To,” which ended the most recent season of “Austin City Limits.”

The other three songs in their set were fan-favorites “Every Girl,” “Diamonds & Gasoline” and “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead.”

It was nice to see Grammy-nominated Oklahoman singer-songwriter John Fullbright sit in with the band for their ‘ACL’ set. Fullbright was an original member of the Troubadours and co-wrote some of their best early songs with Felker like “Every Girl.” I look forward to Fullbright releasing a new album on his own sometime soon.

It is my hope that anybody tuning in to this episode focuses more so on the fantastic lyricism of Felker and the fantastic musicianship of the band and not so much on the lacking performance of its front man.

I’ve seen the Troubadours live four times and they really are the best and way better than they appeared on the broadcast. Please don’t let that affect how you feel about them if this was your introduction. 

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