Album Premiere: One More Last Chance – Tim Turophile (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I have to say that even before I get to the music, anyone who has taken the stage surname of “Turophile” is someone I warmed to straight away, for I am also one, and we acolytes of the fermented curd should stick together. (We both love cheese.) But this is a music review, not an article for a food and drink magazine, so let’s move on.

Born into the sixth generation of Texas cattle ranchers, the son of a preacher and a rancher’s daughter, and a self-made businessman, if there were any better credentials for someone to make not only country, folk and Americana-infused music but music that echoes from and for the cultural heart of rural, Texas, I am yet to hear about them.

“Interstate” sets the stall out perfectly, a restless blend of country and rock, a road song that neatly encapsulates the pace of life on the road, the rootless existence, that life spent in those liminal spaces between lives and locations, and a song forged from driving beats and drifting steel guitars. A theme that then tips over into the slower, more reflective “Hum of the Highway” that follows.

And if a life on the move is one of the many themes found running through One More Last Chance, “I Wanna Be Levon Helm” is the song that defines the attitude of the man behind it. Not for Tim Turophile, the bright lights, the fame, the fortune, and that feeling of making music for all the right reasons, just as his titular hero did. This country-gospel piece oozes the sound, the style, the charm, the finesse of The Band jamming with The Staple Singers and what it says is simple – make music for the joy it brings, make it to inspire others, make it for the betterment of those around you, make it even when no one is listening, make it to enrich the world. Profit is rarely about money! (Take note, young ‘uns.)

The above is neatly summed up in the reason this album was made. “I’ve been writing for myself my whole life. It’s like I painted a picture, hung it on a wall, and now I’d like others to see it.” Turophile says. “This album isn’t about proving anything. It’s about getting these songs out of my head and into the world.”

Heartache, loneliness, and longing are also emotional threads that run heavily through the album as it weaves its way through the lives of its small-town denizens, narrates the stories of everyday people, and “The Miles Between Us Now” sums those feelings up perfectly, that emptiness, those times when you can feel your heart beating, and almost breaking, in our chest, when every song that comes on the radio seems to sum up exactly where you are and what you are thinking.

“All Over Now” doubles down on this feeling, adopting a more traditional country sound. The drums beat out a funereal march, acoustic guitars strum along to the pace, mandolins sing sorrowfully, and steel guitars weep. And as if to take these melancholic feelings to their logical conclusion, “Virginia” is the most heart-aching piano ballad you will ever hear.

“Dust on Your Chevy” ends with a conflicted tale of freedom. Is the protagonist here free because they are happy that way or because they have nowhere else to be? Are they searching for something or themselves? Is this a life they have chosen or one that circumstances have forced upon them? Does the narrator hold the answer for them, or will he be just one more person swept along in their wake?

One More Last Chance is an album full of reflection and regret, but also of rebirth and fresh starts. Although these new lives have been forced upon the characters in the songs, although they are not generally in a good place right now, a glimmer of hope, a silver lining, is implied that better days await them.

This is a great album, one that doesn’t seek to follow fads or fashion; it doesn’t rely on pop trends or walk the alternative path to keep up with the zeitgeist. This is music that was always the zeitgeist before the term ‘zeitgeist’ was invented. This is music by, of, and about our own lives and the lives of those around us; this is the music that has always existed. Call it a modern take on country, call it music made in the spirit of folk music, call it Americana, but whatever you call it, you must call it your next musical purchase!