Episode #95 featuring Tylor Ketchum of Tylor & The Train Robbers

Tylor Ketchum joined the podcast crew at Landmark Saloon in Portland to talk about his band’s awesome 2019 and their plans for the year ahead. Photo by Anne Marie for Local Hero Media.

Stream or download Episode 95: Episode 94 featuring Tylor Ketchum

Finding the right balance of work life and family life is a challenge most folks face every day, and for working/touring musicians, the struggle is very real.

For Tylor Ketchum, music and family have been intertwined since he was a young boy in Eastern Oregon picking up a guitar first owned by his uncle and then his mother. As he’s grown into a career as a country music songwriter and a band leader, family has remained at the heart of the band’s mission and at the root of his artistic vision.

Joining our team for Episode #95 of That Much Further West Podcast ahead of Tylor & The Train Robbers’ show last week at Landmark Saloon in Portland, OR, USA, Tylor shared stories about the evolution of the Boise, Idaho-based band and how the focus on family has allowed it to become one of the hottest hard-touring acts in alt-country.

The Train Robbers feature a rhythm section made up of Tylor’s brothers Jason and Tommy Bushman (bass and drums, respectively). The band’s terrific lead guitar player, Johnny “Shoes” Pisano, is Tylor’s father-in-law. And much of the subject matter in Tylor’s songwriting comes from his family history and the joys and struggles of trying to make it in the music business with the full-fledged backing of the people closest to him — his family.

Tylor Ketchum and his trusty Gibson J45, performing live at Landmark Saloon for Episode #95 of That Much Further West Podcast. Photo by Anne Marie for Local Hero Media.

For this episode, Tylor talks about the impact of heavy touring, the splash made by the band’s stunning 2019 album “Best of the Worst Kind” and how networking across the country ironically has made it easier to keep things close to home and hold on to the things that matter most.

He also shares a couple of solo acoustic performances that delighted our team and the folks who gathered at Landmark ahead of the band’s killer show that night.

So give it a listen. Here’s a list of the songs on Episode #95 of That Much Further West Podcast:

Fumblin’ For Rhymes, Tylor & The Train Robbers
Storyteller (Live At Landmark), Tylor Ketchum
Good At Bad News (Live At Landmark), Tylor Ketchum
These Eyes (Live At Landmark), Tylor Ketchum
Best Of The Worst Kind, Tylor & The Train Robbers

50 Podcast Picks from 2019

Have we seen the last of the Turnpike Troubadours? Here’s hoping for a revival and return to form in 2020 for the Oklahoma Red Dirt legends.

Stream or download 50 Podcast Picks from 2019: 50 Podcast Picks from 2019

After a maddening period that saw at least half a dozen stop and starts (cancelled shows, shaky performances, etc.), the Turnpike Troubadours — the rising Oklahoma-based band which seemed destined for big things — finally suspended all group activity in 2019. Some members turned their focus to other projects, while mercurial frontman and main songwriter Evan Felker retreated underground, leaving many to speculate that his personal problems threw the group’s future into jeopardy.

But late in the year, a new single by Felker emerged from Austin, TX, USA, where veteran singer-songwriter and producer Bruce Robison pinned down Felker to perform a few tunes in the studio for his burgeoning Next Waltz multimedia project. The song and video (see below) for “Whiskey In Your Water,” with Carrie Rodriguez singing a dual vocal, shows Felker in fine form and hints at exactly why he is so beloved by fans of the Troubadours and why concern for his well-being remains at the forefront of their thoughts.

We decided to kickoff our 50 year-end podcast picks with the tune in hopes that we haven’t seen the last of Felker and possibly the Turnpike Troubadours as a unit. It’s one of the songs from artists who made a big impact on the ears of our podcast producers in 2019.

Along with a bunch of great new discoveries this year, our podcast picks are highlighted by several career-best moments by some of our favorites, including many from friends and folks who have been guests on our show in the past.

So give it a listen with an ear toward finding your next favorite Americana or Roots act. We bet herein lies the fix you’re looking for in 2020. Here’s the playlist:

Whiskey In Your Water, Evan Felker with Carrie Rodriguez and The Next Waltzers
What You Don’t Know, Caroline Spence
Cordelia, Drunken Prayer
Good at Bad News, Tylor & The Train Robbers
Cheap Silver, Mike and the Moonpies
The House That Built Me, Tanya Tucker
Hey, Heartbreaker, Matt Woods
Things Like This, I See Hawks In L.A.
Big Black Chain, The Jackson County Kills
56 Fury, Rodney Crowell
Walk Through Fire, Yola
Jesus & Elvis, Hayes Carll
All Your’n, Tyler Childers
Ian McLagan, Drivin’ N Cryin’
Downtown, The Cactus Blossoms
Doubt, Clara Baker
Cocaine Country Dancing, Paul Cauthen
Giving Up, Tim Barry
California State Line, The Long Ryders
Emmanuel, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings
Mississippi Nuthin’, Shovels & Rope
So Long To The Traveling Kind, Tom Vanden Avond
Strange Shadows, Aaron Lee Tasjan
Colorado, The Quaker City Night Hawks
Sam’s House, An American Forrest
That’s How I Feel, Dori Freeman
Kind Days, John Calvin Abney
Rolling Stone, Whiskey Myers
Letter To Madeline, Ian Noe
Division Lines, Fernando
Back Into This Church, Ron Rogers & The Wailing Wind
Ruby, Strand of Oaks
Right At Home, Daystar
Old Black Magic, Josh Ritter
The Imperial, The Delines
Hard Time With The Truth, Kendell Marvel
Wake Up Call, Rich Layton and Tough Town
Wildflowers & Wine, Marcus King
The Dream Is Dead, M. Lockwood Porter
Fenceline, Anna Tivel
Excuse Me, Charley Crockett
Blue Earth County, Silver Lake 66
Sad Songs, Kassi Valazza
East October, John Moreland
Just Trying To Love, The Lonesome Billies
Old Soul, The Highwomen
Where The Buffalo Roam, David Quinn
Beautiful and Kind, Ryan Bingham
Turn Off The News (Build A Garden) (Acoustic), Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real

March Podcast Picks

Tylor & The Train Robbers are set for a big year in support of their new album, “Best of the Worst Kind,” due in April.

As lineups for the Northwest’s big summer music festivals are being revealed, a familiar name continues to pop up, included among several impressive billings.

Tylor & The Train Robbers, the Idaho-based country rock four-piece fronted by singer Tylor Ketchum, is on the bill at three of the festivals on the That Much Further West Podcast radar: The Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton, OR in June; the Wild Hare Country Festival in Canby, OR in July; and the Braun Brothers Reunion — the annual three-day event hosted by members of Reckless Kelly and Mickey and the Motorcars — in Challis, ID in August.

Here in Portland, OR, USA, we won’t have to wait that long to catch Tylor and the band. They have back-to-back shows scheduled, headlining March 12 at Landmark Saloon and opening for fellow Idahoans Jeff Crosby & The Refugees at Mississippi Studios on March 13.

The shows will provide a great preview of the Train Robbers’ new record, Best of the Worst Kind, due for release on April 26. We open this month’s podcast picks with “Hide Your Goat,” one of a dozen fresh cuts that make up the new record. We’re stoked to be able to share the tune and to catch the band as they roll through town.

Clara Baker’s new record, “Things To Burn,” hits the streets March 8.

Speaking of hot releases, we also share a tune from the new record by avant-folk artist Clara Baker, who celebrates the release with a show at The Old Church in Portland this Saturday, March 2. Born of the bleak, frozen woods of the Midwest, “Doubt” illustrates Baker’s ability to mix measured, lyrical expression with lush instrumentation and arrangements reminiscent of Bon Iver.

Maybe it’s inspiration from Baker, who knows why? But we get pretty folky with this month’s picks, including great songs by Taylor Kingman, James Low, M. Lockwood Porter and Emma Hill. We also were influenced by some of the great shows we’ve witnessed recently, including recent Portland performances by Blackberry Smoke and Drunken Prayer.

We also include great new songs from Robert Ellis, Hayes Carll and Son Volt, and re-stamp our country card on the strength of some fine tunes from Little Sue, Miller & Sasser, Whitney Rose, Dee White, Charles Wesley Godwin and wrap it with a stunning new tune from breakout Country Soul singer Yola.

It’s all there just for y’all, so crank it up!

Here’s the track list for our March Podcast Picks. Enjoy!

Hide Your Goat, Tylor & The Train Robbers
Mind of Its Own, Miller & Sasser
I’ll Keep Ramblin’, Blackberry Smoke
Ain’t No Grave, Drunken Prayer
I Called You Up To See If You Were Dead, Taylor Kingman
Down To You, Little Sue
The Stars Don’t Care, The James Low Western Front
Doubt, Clara Baker
None’ya, Hayes Carll
The 99, Son Volt
Stumbling Toward The Dawn, M. Lockwood Porter
Just Good Night, Michigan Rattlers
Going To California, The Lil’ Smokies
Don’t Knock On My Door, Emma HIll
Nobody Smokes Anymore, Robert Ellis
You Don’t Own Me, Whitney Rose
Crazy Man, Dee White
Coal Country, Charles Wesley Godwin
Ride Out In The Country, Yola