Blog

*Als Songtexte.com PUR User kannst du entscheiden, welche Inhalte von externen Anbietern wie Youtube, Instagram oder Facebook auf Songtexte.com geladen werden. Alle Informationen dazu findest du in unseren Datenschutzbestimmungen. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God is good because he loves us and wants what’s best for us. His goodness is demonstrated through his actions toward us. In fact, we see evidence of God’s goodness every day. We see it in the sun rising each morning, in the rain falling from the sky, and in the flowers blooming in our gardens.If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.The following Bible verses about God’s goodness remind us that we serve a kind and loving Father, who is faithful to provide for his children in their time of need.

God has given us so much more than we deserve. He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, and he raised him from the dead. This means that we no longer need to fear sin or death. Instead, we can live with confidence knowing that God will take care of us.You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.We should thank God for every good gift we receive from Him, and ask Him for what we need. God is a gracious Father, giving good gifts to His children. These gifts include healing, protection, peace, joy, strength, wisdom, and many other blessings.

I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them.Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.CeCe Winans released a cover of the song on her live album Believe For It (2021). Winans’ version of “Goodness of God” received a GMA Dove Award nomination for Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year at the 2022 GMA Dove Awards.

Bethel Music released an instrumental version of the song on their album, Without Words: Genesis, on November 15, 2019. On April 10, 2020, Bethel Music also released an alternate version of the song on their second studio album, Peace.

CeCe Winans’s version of “Goodness of God” debuted at No. 22 on the Hot Gospel Songs chart dated May 7, 2022. The song also debuted number 45 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart dated May 14, 2022. “Goodness of God” peaked at No. 15 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart. The song was nominated for the 2020 GMA Dove Award for Worship Recorded Song of the Year. “Goodness of God” is a song by Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson, which was released as the third single from Bethel Music’s eleventh live album, Victory (2019), on November 1, 2019. The song was written by Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, Jason Ingram, Brian Johnson and Jenn Johnson. Ed Cash handled the production of the single. Bethel Music released the live music video of “Goodness of God” with Jenn Johnson leading the song during a worship service at Bethel Church through their YouTube channel on January 4, 2019. The lyric video of the song was released on January 25, 2019, on YouTube by Bethel Music. “Goodness of God” was initially released by Bethel Music on January 4, 2019, as one of four promotional singles from Victory (2019), in the lead-up to its release which was slated for January 25, 2019. Jenn Johnson shared with Fox News that the song had been inspired by the process of adopting her fourth child, as she had been singing impromptu into her phone while driving on a long country road about the faithfulness and kindness of God. The song was then developed from the impromptu recording. The radio version of “Goodness of God” was released in digital format on November 1, 2019. The song impacted Christian radio stations on November 8, 2019. On March 12, 2021, CeCe Winans released the audio video for the song. The lyric video of the song was released on August 3, 2022, on YouTube by CeCe Winans. CeCe Winans released the official music video for “Goodness of God” through her YouTube channel on September 14, 2022.

Our site uses cookies to personalize content, to provide social media features/ads and to analyze site traffic. We share information about your use of this site with our social media, advertising and analytics teams who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them. By continuing to navigate this site you are consenting to the collection of information via our use of cookies. For more information on our cookie collection and use please visit our Privacy Policy.

The Bible tells the story of God’s goodness throughout human history. In the beginning, the goodness and love within the Trinity overflowed and created the good world, culminating with the very good creation of humanity, who were created in the image of God (Genesis 1). God gave humanity the good gift of free will. Tragically, the first humans chose to exercise their free will to disobey God, resulting in brokenness, sin, death and separation from God — the very opposite of goodness (Genesis 3). However, God is good, and he always acts with goodness. Therefore, he responded to humanity’s sin with goodness and initiated a plan to make things right again.“God is good all the time,” and …. “All the time God is good.” On any given Sunday, this call-and-response refrain can be heard echoing within the walls of churches around the globe. While this simple proclamation may sound cliché, that does not change the bold truth it contains. God is good. And he is good all the time. There never is a time when God is not good.

Try it this week. Do something that benefits someone else without expecting anything in return. Start simple. Take out your neighbor’s trash. Volunteer to do that task at work that no one else on your team wants to do. Write your grandmother a handwritten thank you note for your Christmas gift. Look the teenagers at the drive-thru in the eye and compliment them. Choose to strengthen and improve life for those around you just as God has done for you.

This website does not fully support Internet Explorer. For a better experience, please consider using a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.Unfortunately, this may be one of the most overlooked attributes of God because people frequently accuse God of doing many things that are not good. Whether from misunderstanding, misplaced blame, or an instinctual response to suffering, humanity tends to miss God’s goodness and see only the brokenness and pain they think he ignores. However, recognizing God’s essential goodness is foundational to an accurate understanding of God’s nature, God’s work in the world, and God’s plans for humanity.

As you train to recognize God’s goodness, the Holy Spirit will help you become more like Christ and empower you to reflect God’s goodness to the world. You can also train to reflect God’s goodness by choosing to do good things, not in order to try to gain anyone’s praise or favor, but simply to reflect God’s goodness to others.Theologian James Bryan Smith defines goodness as “that which works for the benefit or betterment of another. That which is good makes us better, heals us, restores us, improves us, strengthens us and makes us right…” Because God is good, God will always act in alignment with his character. That means, God will always act with goodness in ways that make us better, strengthen us, heal us and restore us. As you track God’s goodness, you will train yourself to see God’s goodness when it is obvious, and then you will eventually be able to recognize it even when it seems to be hidden. On difficult days you can review your log and be strengthened (an aspect of goodness) as you remember God’s manifest goodness. The Bible repeatedly proclaims that God is good. God’s goodness is abundant (Exodus 34:6, Psalm 31:19). His goodness is always with us (Psalm 23:6). Everything good comes from God (James 1:17). He fills our hungry souls with good things (Psalm 107:8-9). He is good, does good, and gives good gifts to his children (Psalm 119:68, Luke 11:13).

People have been created by God’s goodness, as a reflection of his goodness, to do good. Being created in the image of God means that people have intrinsic value and worth. They have free will. They have been given the job of caring for God’s good world. They have the capacity to grow in Christlikeness, becoming more and more like Jesus, so that they, too, display godly attributes such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Action flows out of being, thus when people become loving, joyful, peaceful and kind humans, they behave in ways that are loving, joyful, peaceful and kind. As they do this, they reflect God’s goodness to the world.The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.

Over the centuries, God continued to guide his people toward healing in ways that improved and strengthened them. Then, when the time was right, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem and restore humanity (Galatians 4:4-5). Through his sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection three days later, Jesus cancelled the power of sin and death (Romans 8:2-3, Colossians 2:14), making a way for people to be restored to relationship with God and to live in relationships of goodness with others. When people accept Jesus’ gift of salvation, they begin the journey of growing in goodness. One day, Jesus will return with a new heaven and earth; once again, everything will be fully good (Revelation 21).”Good Lord Lorrie” is a song by Turnpike Troubadours. It is track #8 from the album Goodbye Normal Street that was released in 2012. The duration of this song is 05:01.And she told me that she loved me And I grinned and grabbed her hand and said, “I know” Let′s get from here, now darling if we’re going, let′s go on and go Well, Lorrie said her family used to have a little money And they still act like they do Well, your daddy don’t think I’m fit to sit in the same room with you And if I ever set foot in Sevier county, well your brother said he′d break my jaw And here I sit with the dark haired daughter of Southwest Arkansas And I′ve been learning that believing and that barely breaking even It’s just a part of life for you and me And I′ve been living with the loneliness, it’s got down in my bones I guess It′s just another phase of being free And I’ve been learning how to lose a thing I never laid a hand on all along Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong Well D-Queens dry so I bought us both a bottle in downtown Broken Bow Lorries got a buddy with a double wide trailer they were shaking dominoes And I had good intentions ′til I had too many, I was stupid I suppose You better put a little money where your mouth is boy and try to keep it closed And I’ve been learning that believing and that barely breaking even It’s just a part of life for you and me And I′ve been living with the loneliness, it′s got down in my bones I guess It’s just another phase of being free And I′ve been learning how to lose a thing I never laid a hand on all along Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong Well Lorrie said I wonder what we ever went through all this trouble for You ain’t half of who I thought you was and this ain′t fun no more And her words cut clean through drunk and dark and dimmin’ doorway light Well I′ve had all I can handle, hope you’re happy now, goodnight Guess her folks were right, guess her folks were right Mhmmm And I’ve been learning that believing and that barely breaking even It′s just a part of life for you and me And I′ve been living with the loneliness, it’s got down in my bones I guess It′s just another phase of being free And I’ve been learning how to lose a thing I never laid a hand on all along Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong Well good lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong When a band proclaims an ‘indefinite hiatus’ from making music, it usually means they’re gone for good. When the Turnpike Troubadours made the fateful announcement, it appeared they might go the way of Blink-182, OutKast or The Beatles. A band that once had the world in their hands, never to hit a stage together again. The band announced their reunion concert at the end of 2021 at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, and when ticket sales opened, prices immediately shot to over $400. Subsequent shows would crash venue websites and send Turnpike tickets into the stratosphere, all while the band was scheduling arenas across the nation. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Turnpike are currently the most popular independent country music act, all without releasing music in half a decade.Bassist RC Edwards, Lead Guitarist Ryan Engleman, Fiddler Kyle Nix, Drummer Gabriel Pearson and Multi-instrumentalist Hank Early make up the back end of the Turnpike Troubadours. But it’s no question that the heart and soul is frontman Evan Felker, who also writes the majority of Turnpike’s songs.

“I’d never really played with a clear head in my life,” Felker told Rolling Stone’s Josh Crutchmer. “Getting to do that and having that level of confidence is very fulfilling.”As a blazing instrumental and chorus takes the song to a close, it’s left to listeners to figure out why the song ends there, why Felker felt he’d said all that he needed to say.

Their very first project established the band as a force to be reckoned with in the independent and red dirt country sphere. Titled “Diamonds and Gasoline,” the album began with “Every Girl,” describing a boundless infatuation, followed immediately by “7 & 7,” in which a relationship turned sour has left the singer completely alone.The band’s second album, “Goodbye Normal Street,” cemented them as something more than a one hit wonder. On the song “Southeastern Son,” Turnpike takes on a common trope in country music—the American soldier. But rather than a jingoistic snap-track made for radio, the protagonist joins the military to find opportunities outside of his rural community and is immediately sent to the front lines. The song concludes with the singer writing a letter from Afghanistan to his mother. He looks at the moon and asks her to leave the porch light on for when he comes home.

Much the same would follow the Turnpike Troubadours. In 2016, fans expressed concern for Felker after he repeatedly appeared onstage too inebriated to perform. As the calendar advanced, Turnpike tour dates were plagued by cancellations, mysterious last-minute no-shows and offstage drama. Finally, after a disastrous performance featuring a disheveled, slurring Felker forgetting the words to his songs and wandering aimlessly around the stage, the aforementioned hiatus was made official and the Turnpike Troubadours went their separate ways, Turnpike’s 2017 track, “The Housefire,” features the same characters as “Good Lord Lorrie,” but takes a remarkably different tone. In the song, Lorrie and the singer have reconciled after their dramatic split. Even when a blaze engulfs the couple’s home, prompting a return to a tough life on the road, the singer resists his vices, determined to take care of his loved ones and stay on the straight and narrow. In “Good Lord Lorrie,” a concert staple and probably Turnpike’s most widely recognizable song, Felker spins a tale of a couple who run off together to escape disapproving parents. The rush of escape and young love turns slowly to resentment over difficult, paycheck-to-paycheck living, and the singer falls to whiskey as an escape. In the final verse, Lorrie leaves, seemingly for good, as the singer watches in a detached, drunken haze.

The members of the band went mostly dark in the following months, but the news that came pointed in the right direction. Early, Nix and Edwards started up solo projects. Engleman signed on as the lead guitar player for Reckless Kelly. Pearson got his college degree. Most importantly, Felker made the courageous decision to step away from music entirely and check himself into rehab.As the band released its junior project, a self-titled album, they began to make waves outside of Texoma. Leaving rural bars behind, Turnpike traveled to bigger venues around the country, playing festivals and opening for huge acts including Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert.

Turnpike Troubadours is an American Red Dirt group from Oklahoma composed of Evan Felker, R.C. Edwards, Kyle Nix, Ryan Engelman and Gabe Pearson. They are signed to Bossier City Records and have released three studio albums since 2007. Their 2012 album Goodbye Normal Street peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200. more »Her dark hair browns in the summer sun and she doesn’t try to keep her problems hid. And she sounds like a badass cause just her words’ll cut clean through drunk and dark and dimming doorway lights. With all we know she has to be hot as hell, right?

So I guess to paint a picture of Lorrie so far we have, she is from a middle class family near De Queen Arkansas and she has a protective brother. She has dark hair, glasses, sleeve tattoos , green eyes and she smokes. She likes to hang out at bars and dance some ( at least when Twist and Shout comes on). She is possibly dating Jimmy. She is calm and collected during emergencies and she is a mother. I’m sure I have missed some.That seems painfully obvious, now that you point it out. Kind of like the MLK reference. I’ve always thought there was a lot more to that song than first meets the eye.

I think it’s the abrupt switch from third to second person. Look at old Jim… Your time spent…. That led me to believe the narrator was talking about two different people, or a person and an animal.But we don’t really learn a lot about Lorrie specifically in “Good Lord, Lorrie” aside from a little bit of information about how she looks. Though just like all great songwriting, the lack of specificity for Lorrie stimulates the mind to create its own narrative and details around her as she acquires bits and pieces of personality traits attributed by the tidbits from the songs. That’s what makes Lorrie into someone real, someone familiar, and someone you care about, or are at least are intrigued to learn her fate beyond the few minutes of a song.

There’s always the possibility that the singability of the name “Lorrie” just makes it easy to use in songs. Not every name is lyrical or fits well in song. Lorrie works so well because it doesn’t have a hard syllable that’d end up awkwardly yelled on occasion in a live setting.Have always wondered about the reference to Lorrie. Fun to think about the reference but even better to get to know her through the music. Wish they would release a live album some time in the future.And before anyone goes there, I know I left a LOT of albums out, just naming some of my favorites off the type of my head in (I think) chronological order.The narrator of this song is potentially the narrator of the Bird Hunters too. He talks about grabbing his granddad’s Auto 5 in the housefire and in the bird hunters he has his hands around a Belgian made Browning. So has he settled down in Cherokee County and found Lorrie and are living a happily ever after?If this is the same Jimmy then it connects Lorrie to the song The Funeral and takes her character even a bit further. Pretty cool to keep the characters somewhat ambiguous. Also, cant freaking wait for this album to come out!

In The Bird Hunters Jim (I believe) says “if you’d have married that girl you’d have married her family, you dogded a bullet my friend”. Which seems to connect it back to Good Lord Lorrie when the narrator say “Lorrie said her family used to have a little money and still act like they do. Your daddy doesn’t think I’m fit to sit in the same room as you.” It seem like Jim knows about the issuses thereEvan told all of us exactly what he was doing when “Wrecked” came out. With that Tennessee Williams reference. All of his work was autobiographical and built upon recurring characters. Felker is a massive TW fan, and they both deal almost exclusively with microcosm
s of the human experience. Lorrie is consistent as are Jimmy and Dan. In “The Bird Hunter” the main character mentions dancing with a the girl on the Forth of July, that is a reference to the song “Kansas City Southern.”. I’ve always thought that The Bird Hunter” isn’t about Lorrie but was staring a new story about a new girl. I love that we can talk about song lyrics and what they mean to us. It’s a sign that the songs are literary and open to interpretation. Evan’s songs are great for this.

“Lorrie lit a cigarette and smiled and waved the smoke out of her face,” goes the song. “With her black hair brown from the summer sun, green eyes looked around the place.”Also, in The Funeral it says “Stage right enter Jimmy, just a counterfeit James Dean” which leads me to believe they are the same character as James Dean is referenced again.

Good luck on your year-end lists!! Between Old 97’s, Stapleton, Isbell, Tyler Childers, and now Turnpike’s there’s been some truly excellent shit in 2017. If Sturgill drops a surprise 2017 release I’ll fucking shit myself.Is Lorrie the subject of other Turnpike songs? Is she based off of a real person? How about Jimmy, who also shows up in multiple songs? What other characters might be recurring? In the end we still don’t know much about Lorrie, and that’s probably how it should stay, so that she can become whomever she needs to be to each of us, fulfilling an archetype and giving us someone to follow as we listen to wherever the next Turnpike Troubadours song takes us in time, place, mood, and character. We care about Lorrie, and are curious about her fate. And that’s what makes a new Turnpike song something more than just another recitation about people we don’t know.great article, The Mercury and Good Lord Lorrie are two of my favorite songs, and i always listen to them consecutively. Really looking forward to this album.

I’m not a TT expert like you guys (my son is), but my mind instantly went to Jim as the dog because of the “12 winters” reference. A bird dog can hunt well at 12, but he’s old. But maybe that’s how long the guy’s been gone. I never thought about that until reading all of this.Yet the song “Good Lord, Lorrie” and the new one “The Housefire” are mostly about the male character in the song, and his mental state amid tragedy. But these are just the bookends of Lorrie’s existence in the Turnpike Troubadour universe. We get the best glimpse of Lorrie herself when she shows up in the song “The Mercury” from Turnpike’s 2015 self-titled album.

So now we have a better snapshot of Lorrie—if this is the same Lorrie from the other songs that is—though Evan Felker never confirms this, deepening the mystery. Is Lorrie from “The Mercury” the one that emerges after the Felker character took her from her hometown in “Good Lord, Lorrie,” and the lovers fell out of favor? The Lorrie of “The Mercury” is sort of a badass, and a little rambunctious, perhaps uninhibited from her earlier incarnation after the heartbreak. And though Lorrie may seem like just another character who’s given a random name in a song, studious Turnpike Troubadours fans know Lorrie has a much deeper history with the band. Even novice Turnpike fans probably remember Lorrie in one of Turnpike’s most signature songs, “Good Lord, Lorrie” from their 2012 record Goodbye Normal Street. That song is kind of an epic, following the story of Lorrie being taken from her home by a rambunctious beau played by Evan Felker, only to have the relationship end in disaster. Felker’s lyricism has the uncanny ability to capture poignant moments in life in memorable and resonant phrases that ring nearly as potent as the moments themselves, and “Good Lord, Lorrie” is a prime example of that prowess. In 5 minutes, Felker is able to make you feel things for people you’ve never met, like Lorrie. It shouldn’t be a secret anymore that the singer and frontman for the Turnpike Troubadours is one of our generation’s greatest songwriters. Evan Felker continues to deliver, and as the lineage of his songwriting catalog continues to elongate, not only have his skills as a songwriter been verified, one particular revolving character has emerged for attentive listeners, making these songs even more compelling, and instilling them with a deeper, more involved narrative. In, Down Here, Danny is the one talking to the narrator of Bird Hunters about the same situation of him returning home after the failed relationship in Tulsa. For some reason I’ve always imagined that Lorrie is the female character referenced in “The Bird Hunters” song. Don’t really have any basis for that feeling, but I guess since she’s a recurring character it makes it easier to build her story using other TT songs, even though she isn’t mentioned by name. Bare with me here, but I was listening to 1968 while reading through some of this and I almost felt like it was talking about heartbreak from Lorrie instead of a war/battle like I’ve always thought. “When I heard you caught a bullet” could refer to the heartbreak he experienced. Then the “When the rounds were fired that April, you were on the balcony. When 10,000 teardrops hit the ground in Memphis Tennessee” could also refer to his broken heart as opposed to the idea of a war/battle. I haven’t really looked much into the lyrics of that song so I’m sure it’s incorrect, but it’s great how the writing of Felker gets you thinking. I love when writers link previous characters in new works.If you’ve read “The Dark Tower”series King links several novels through that universe.Seems like it makes it more fun for the audience,when you catch the reference.

In the first song released from the Troubadours’ upcoming album A Long Way From Your Heart out October 20th, a familiar female protagonist for many Turnpike Troubadours fans re-emerges. “Lorrie,” who has now made an appearance in numerous Turnpike songs, becomes the heroine of “The Housfire”—a song described quite well by the title.

I credit the character Lorrie for my discovering Turnpike a number of years back. It is my name and I happened to do an internet search one day to see if there were any songs with my name and sure enough Good Lord Lorrie popped up. I was hooked instantly. Thanks to this I was turned on to a new kind of country music I never knew existed.Thanks for your thoughts Rachel, my wife got me going on the baby is the dog thought. The good part is I’ve listened to the bird hunter 20 times since, that makes for a good start to my weekend !

Good point. Perspective is another dimension you can add that can make these moments and characters seem like something completely different than they might to someone else. And yes, knowing the actual answers would be the worst, and Felker shows deftness by making these characters real and believable to us, yet never really telling us who they are.That hadn’t really occurred to me until this conversation started yesterday and I started analyzing these songs down to details like that but that does make sense. Having a “Jim” dog and “Jimmy” human is too similar, Evan 🙂

I can’t figure out how you guys think Jim is the dog in The Birdhunters. There are clearly 2 people present, Danny and the narrator. I believe Dan’s statement “Look at old Jim, a dozen Decembers behind him no worse for the wear…your time spent in Tulsa, did not help your shooting, and look at the grey in your hair…” is directed at the same person. “Look at old Jim” goes from speaking in the second person as in “look at this guy” and then moves back to first person conversation to continue the ribbing about moving to the city. I am confused

Oh, me too. The line, “Ain’t nothing like your family to make you feel so damned alone,” rings so true to me. I feel like an alien when I go home to visit my family. Such a great, great, song.

Jim is the old English Pointer. 12 is old for a bird dog. Dan is telling the narrator to look at the bird dog still going strong despite all the wear of being a 12 year old hunting dog.This was a fun topic of discussion on Twitter yesterday. I definitely think that the characters in The Mercury, The Bird Hunter, and The House Fire are all connected (even the titles are like chapters in this book of songs) because of the recurring characters, the logging road, and the Browning. But then who is the narrator? Is it Jimmy? Is it Danny? Is it even the same narrator in all of the first person songs with those characters? And what is the timeline? Lorrie’s description in The Mercury does match “a burned out Betty Page” description of Jimmy’s companion in The Funeral, but it says “She might have been pretty if she were half her age” which leads me to believe The Funeral happens later in Jimmy’s life but that would have made The Mercury later too and that makes me think that The House Fire precedes both of those songs chronologically. There’s a line in The Bird Hunter that seems to come from Danny talking to the narrator saying “Look at old Jim, a dozen Decembers behind him no worse for the wear, and your time spent in Tulsa did not help your shooting, and look at the gray in your hair”- is Jim/Jimmy the narrator in that song? It also says “If you’d married that girl, you’d married her family, you dodged a bullet my friend” and in Good Lord Lorrie her family sounds kind of rough so maybe it is referring to her family in that song too. If so, that changes the story a little bit. I don’t know that I actually want all of the answers, and I don’t know that I believe Evan has gone this detailed with his storyline and we’re overthinking it, but regardless, it’s been fun playing detective. Maybe the new album will gives us some more clues.

While the song is constructed with a slightly unique structure, it is not enough to make the song a hit on its own. With a verse-chorus structure, but uniquely ending on a verse, “Good Lord Lorrie” sends the listener details about the story in the verses and delivers Felker’s raw emotions through the chorus sections.Every choice Felker makes in writing this song is related to his target audience. As was discussed in the album analysis of Goodbye Normal Street, the Turnpike Troubadours are a band for the every day American living through tough times in Middle America. This song is so effective because the character that loses Lorrie is incredibly relatable to the audience. Some listeners may even know the heartbreak of loving someone they cannot have due to social politics.

Felker puts the power in the hands (or rather ears and minds) of his audience in two distinct ways. First, he adds incredibly elaborate and detailed visual elements into the song to not only allow his listeners to hear the song, but to also create a lasting, real, and visual image. According to Thomas D. Mooney, editor-and-chief of the Lubbock based “New Slang Music”, details like “Lorrie lit a cigarette and smiled and waved the smoke out of her face” build upon themselves and help the audience create something more than just what is given.

Second, and along the same lines, Felker gives no insight on why this relationship went to hell. As listeners, we know the two characters come from different classes and family opinions are a factor, but until the end of the song, only hints in earlier lyrics lead us to believe that something is going to happen. And when Lorrie breaks, she does it with full emotion and no explanation. This effect from Felker gives this song, story, and genre of story telling a dynamic untouched by those before him. Felker provides no clue as to why the relationship blew up, leaving it to the audience to fill in the missing pieces.For the Turnpike Troubadours and Evan Felker, “Good Lord Lorrie” is about so much more than a messed up relationship. It’s about a life that so many Americans know and live. According to Trigger, the creator, editor, and head writer for “Saving Country Music”, the song “gives us all a situation and characters to relate to.” This ability to not only tell a story, but to bring the characters, setting, and emotions of the story to life is how the Turnpike Troubadours’ make “Good Lord Lorrie” a standout romantic tragedy song.Whether we do it intentionally or not, w
e as humans are attracted to things with which we know and feel comfortable around. For many Americans, the story behind “Good Lord Lorrie” is familiar, real, and hits close to home. Maybe Felker does not include the details behind the breakup because they are not important: the story about the unobtainable, whether it is love, work, or money, is what people know and can relate to.In some ways, “Good Lord Lorrie”, off of the Turnpike Troubadours’ 2012 album Goodbye Normal Street, is an incredibly unoriginal song. A classic tale of forbidden love ending in heartbreak: a theme that dates back hundreds of years and one that has been remade, restyled, and rewritten a countless number of times through every form of media. From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to James Cameron’s The Titanic, the romantic tragedy appears in entertainment everywhere.

Evan Felker paints a familiar picture of a roller coaster ride relationship with a couple Oklahoma rebels. “Lorrie” is a recurring character in the group’s songs.

It’s probably worth noting that Evan Felker is not the only writer in the Turnpike Troubadours. Bass player RC Edwards has also penned multiple tunes, sometimes with Felker, and sometimes on his own like the song “Morgan Street.” Jonny Burke is someone both Evan and RC Edwards have written with for Turnpike records. Former Turnpike member John Fullbright also appears in songwriting credits. One of the band’s biggest songs “Long Hot Summer Day” is an old John Hartford tune, while “Doreen” was actually written by Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller. Jamie Lin Wilson wrote “Oklahoma Stars” with Evan Felker. But that doesn’t exclude the possibility that all the songs still don’t sit in the same universe, and were either written or selected to do so, especially since Evan Felker does still own the lion’s share of the band’s written material.

Here’s a wild card: Jimmy is the antagonist in “Winding Stair Mountain Blues.” Anytime I listen to it I just think of the bad boy brother figure Jimmy is made out to be. Maybe a stretch but I think it subtly fits in the “Lorrie-Jimmy-rifle” universe.It’s gotta be her in the Birdhunter, right? She had the snotty, stuck up family and It’s said that he dodged a bullet by not marrying her because of her family.

I am a very late comer to the TT and this thread is old but I would like to propose a hypothesis about Lorrie and I don’t know where else to do it. Here goes: Evan’s father is a cowboy by occupation I am told. This group is from OK, land of cowboys. Every cowboy’s favorite movie is Lonesome Dove. Lonesome Dove The movie is based on the Larry McMurtry book of the same name, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in the early 1980’s. Lorrie is a major character in the book. She is Gus’ girl and the dream girl of every other cowboy in the movie. She is “every girl” they have ever known. She is so beautiful as to be unattainable but so broken inside as to be un-understandable – a complete mystery. Lorrie is a call girl at the local saloon when the movie opens. In some sense every cowboy’s dream girl is Lorrie.I’ve personally been more curious to find out where Jimmy’s arc goes. Hopefully we’ll learn more about both of them on the next record, should there be one.

I hear Lorrie in “The Shape” which was on their first CD “Bossier City”. She is clearly the girl, the narrator (Evan) calls on a payphone, and says he’ll use his last bit of gas to go see. I think this “could” be Lorrie’s starting point song-wise..The protagonist of Housefire has a kid with Lorrie; it would be very odd for that not to have been mentioned in Birdhunters, given the context of the song.

Just goes to show what a talented songwriter Evan is. Not just a narrative in one album but through all their albums. Hopefully he can overcome his demons and come finish the story.In the funeral, “she” looks like a burned out Bettie Page. In the Mercury, Lorrie has raven hair and sleeve tattoos. I think that’s describing the same person.

If you’re looking for something to ponder to help get you through the prolonged hiatus Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours are currently in the midst of, an industrious YouTuber has just posed an interesting theory.Lorrie is not the only recurring character in the Turnpike Troubadours universe though. There’s also Jimmy, who appears directly in the songs “The Funeral” and “The Mercury.” There’s “Doreen,” who has her own song, and may appear in others. And appearing in multiple Turnpike Troubadours songs isn’t just relegated to people. There’s also the Browning Auto 5 shotgun that appears in both “The Bird Hunters” and “The Housefire.” This is all the genius of Turnpike’s frontman and primary songwriter Evan Felker, who has proven over the years to be one of our generation’s most inspired, inspiring, and industrious songwriters.

OR…maybe they’re just not talented enough to come up with something original with each song and they have to keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Possibly? Nah, they’re genius’s