Turnpike Troubadours have signed with Andrew McInnes‘ TMWRK for management ahead of the group’s 2022 reunion tour. TMWRK’s Sydney Clark will serve as day-to-day manager for the group, while longtime agent Jon Folk with Red 11 Music in Nashville will continue to book their live performances.
McInnes tells Billboard that he and TMWRK senior vp Paddy Scace were introduced to the band by David Macias at Thirty Tigers and that they eventually agreed to manage the six-person group after meeting the members in Oklahoma. He said Scace will manage the band’s touring business, while the staff at TMWRK will work with the group to develop a strategy around their independent record label, Bossier City Records.
“They’ve always released their own records, and we excel at that business,” McInnes tells Billboard. “We have managed some of the biggest and most celebrated independent artists active today, and I think they were immediately attracted to having someone that can handle just about every part of their business along with deep relationships outside of their sphere.”
That includes broadening the creative team around the band and finding new opportunities for live concerts and events.
“They’re keenly aware of what markets are their strongest and what markets they have to put in work,” McInnes says. “And for a band that’s been around for a long time, they’re still very willing to put in the work. Patty and I were surprised that they’d never played the Ryman [in Nashville] or the Newport Folk Fest. We are in regular conversations with a lot of these people already and I think we’ve built a lot of trust as a company with a lot of promoters and specific festival buyers. We’re able to work hand in hand with their booking [agent] Jon to get exactly what the band wants and divide and conquer, and they’ll get the best possible experience working with us because of those things.”
It was hard for Turnpike Troubadours fans not to feel hopeless after the band’s 2019 announcement that they were going on “indefinite hiatus.” Indeed, most of group’s 60-plus, story-rich songs exist in a world without many happy endings. After 13 years leading the group, co-founder Evan Felker seemed to be coming undone due to addiction, tabloid intrigue about his recent divorce and brief relationship with Miranda Lambert and rumors that the group had been pleading for Felker to get help.
It was a rock-bottom existence for the Oklahoma-born singer/songwriter, who started his career on the Red Dirt Road circuit that connects the state’s honky-tonk scene with venues in North Texas, named after the clay of Oklahoma’s great Red River and made famous by outlaw country artists like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Two years after disappearing, Felker resurfaced during a charity benefit for Old 97s frontman Rhett Miller and later revealed that he was nearly two years sober, had married a second time, to Staci Nelson (whom he met when she worked as the band’s accountant), and was now the proud father of a young daughter.
Turnpike Troubadours linked up with TMWRK, which also manages Diplo, Sturgill Simpson, Dillon Francis and Animal Collective, after the band dropped their old manager Cory McDonald. Around that same time, they began planning the reunion shows, which are now slated to kick off in April with a concert at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa.
Dates for their 2022 tour can be found below:
April 8 @ Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK
April 9 @ Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK
April 22 @ Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, TX
April 23 @ Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, TX
May 6 @ John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes, TX
May 14 @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO
May 15 @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO
June 24 @ Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton, OR
June 25 @ Gordy’s HWY 30 Music Festival in Filer, ID
July 15 @ Under the Big Sky Festival in Whitefish, MT
July 31 @ FloydFest 2022 in Floyd, VA
Aug. 4 @ Windy City Smokeout in Chicago
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Tagged: Andrew McInnes, business, entertainment blog, Management, music blog, Signings, TMWRK