Before taking the stage at an over-capacity Cain’s Ballroom in downtown Tulsa on Wednesday night, Charley Crockett asked a favor of Evan Felker: Would the Turnpike Troubadours frontman mind playing “On the Red River” and “Pay No Rent” for him?
Given the
popularity of both ballads, it’s likely Felker would have played them anyway as he and Crockett shared the stage for nearly two hours in front of more than 1,700 fans. But the common thread in both songs — Felker processing death at different points in his life — weighed heavily on Crockett. He was not just at Cain’s to swap acoustic songs with Felker, as it turns out. Crockett was working through the trauma of losing his brother, Joshua, two days prior, and the death of Dolly Parton the day before. Crockett detailed his heartache in an emotional social media post the morning of the show.
Felker, of course, obliged.
“We were backstage a minute ago, and he was trying to con me into playing only slow songs,” Felker deadpanned from the stage — the obvious joke being that Crockett wanted him to steer clear of the well of Turnpike’s up-tempo anthems so he could show up Felker. Crockett laughed, but quickly turned sincere: “I asked him to play ’em because I need to hear ’em.”
Soon after, when Felker worked his way through “On the Red River” off Turnpike’s 2025 LP The Price of Admission— which he called “The saddest song I ever wrote” — Crockett stared at him without flinching. He sang along to himself, hanging onto every word of “Death doesn’t leave with the best part of you,” in the chorus.
Crockett’s roller-coaster of a summer has been well-documented. He released his Clovis album in July after falling out with its intended label, Island Records, and finding a new home for it on Atlantic Outpost, then celebrated with a series of sold-out shows across Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. Not long after, he dropped Twin Temple as an opener, setting off a series of social media throwdowns with, among others, Jack White. But it was clear at Cain’s on Wednesday that the loss of his brother and Parton had thrown Crockett into anguish more serious and personal than any musical drama.
So, just before picking up a headlining tour in support of Clovis that will last through September, Crockett took a night to bask in the shadow of his friend, Felker, who was instrumental in Crockett’s career rise a decade ago.
“It’s good to know that you are, in fact, taking requests,” Crockett told Felker after one of the ballads.
It was far from the only poignant spell of the evening. Felker — who has spent the better part of the last year reading the room, starting with Turnpike’s cover of Todd Snider’s “Just Like Old Times” not long after Snider died in 2025 — closed the show with a tribute to Dolly Parton. He sang Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind,” which Parton and Porter Wagoner made famous in 1967, seemingly at the spur of the moment.
The rest of the night was spent with the two men going back-and-forth, Crockett playing a heavy spate of originals off Clovis and his “Sagebrush Trilogy” from 2025, and Felker working through those high-tempo Turnpike standards he had joked about.
Venue co-owner Chad Rodgers invoked one of those songs — “Easton and Main,” which references the address of Cain’s — after the show.
“It was a special night,” Rodgers tells Rolling Stone. “Both artists have a deep history at Easton and Main.”
In the world of Americana music, there are not many artists to whom Crockett the spotlight, but Felker at Cain’s is on the short list. When Felker sang “Good Lord, Lorrie,” Crockett sang along again — this time, not to lift his spirits, but just because he’s a fan.
“This might be embarrassing for him, but we all know this is the greatest songwriter of our time,” Crockett told the crowd. When Felker shook his head, Crockett added, “even if he can’t take the compliment.”
“I can’t take that compliment,” Felker responded.
The praise between the two went both ways throughout the concert. Felker declared, “That’s a real good song, man,” after Crockett worked up “Image of a Woman” off Clovis.
The show ended one song after Felker’s Parton tribute. He invited friend and bandmate John Fullbright on stage to play guitar so that he could play harmonica on “Long, Hot Summer Day,” Turnpike’s standard set-ender, and Crockett sang the final chorus.
After the lights came on and staff began sweeping up cans and cups, one fan leaving the venue remarked aloud, “I came here to see Charley Crockett, but that other guy is pretty good, too,” without a hint of irony.
Both men left the stage with a wave, Felker bound for his Oklahoma home, an hour’s drive from Cain’s, and Crockett for the next stop on his tour.
Before parting, though, Crockett spoke reverently about the ballroom and the fans that had gathered. “If you were born west of the Mississippi,” he said, “you don’t care as much about the Opry as you do about the Cain’s.”
Setlist:
The Bird Hunters (Felker)
Time of the Cottonwood Trees (Crockett)
Gin, Smoke, Lies (Felker)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Crockett)
Pay No Rent (Felker)
Avoiding Mirrors (Crockett)
Good Lord Lorrie (Felker)
Image of a Woman (Crockett)
Before the Devil Knows We’re Dead (Felker)
Santa Fe Ring (Crockett)
On the Red River (Felker)
Last Night at the Alamo (Crockett)
Heaven Passing Through (Felker)
Ain’t that Right (Crockett)
7&7 (Felker)
The Death of Bill Bailey (Crockett)
Whole Damn Town (Felker)
One Trick Pony (Crockett)
Easton and Main (Felker)
The Life and Times of Billy McLane (Crockett)
A Tornado Warning (Felker)
Diamond Belle (Crockett)
The Last Thing on My Mind (Felker; Tom Paxton cover)
Long Hot Summer Day (Felker; John Hartford cover)
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose upcoming book, Sonoran Sounds, is set for release in March 2027 via Back Lounge Publishing.
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