Turnpike Troubadours - A Long Way from Your Heart 2LP

A decade removed from their debut, the Turnpike Troubadours are the definition of a working band. Every year they tour, with records arriving at regular intervals, each new set offering a refinement of the weathered, rangy Americana they unveiled on 2007's Bossier City. A Long Way from Your Heart, the band's fifth album, doesn't depart from this tradition, feeling like a familiar favorite upon its first spin. Such coziness is deceptive, as A Long Way from Your Heart is hardly a retread of its 2015 predecessor, or any of the other Turnpike Troubadours albums for that matter. For one, it's a lighter affair than the group's eponymous 2015 LP. It's fleet on its feet and bright in its outlook, letting humor sit alongside the heartbreak, pairing the easy-rolling "Old Time Feeling (Like Before)" and dusty twang of "Pipe Bomb Dream," finding space for loose-limbed blues and galloping bluegrass. The Turnpike Troubadours navigate these shifts in style and tone with such grace, it takes some clos