FESTIVAL RECAP: Troubadour Fest’s First Trip to College Station Hurt So Good

In its fifth edition, Troubadour Fest planted its feet in College Station and knocked it out of the park.

The first Troubadour Fest happened in November 2021 in Celina, Texas, a little under an hour north of Dallas. Pat Green headlined with Josh Abbott Band, Stoney Larue, Cody Canada & the Departed, and Kyle Nix & the .38s rounding out the bill. In 2022, the fest expanded to three stops in Georgetown, Tyler, and a return to Celina. The Panhandlers, Gary Allan, and the Randy Rogers Band headlined each fest, respectively. Now, in 2023, the festival landed in a new spot, the brand new Aggie Park across the street from Kyle Field in College Station. I will admit, I was hesitant to go, mainly because I was afraid I’d be forced to drink the Texas A&M Kool-Aid and would leave saying, “Hey, maybe this school isn’t so bad after all!” Lucky for me, I don’t plan on filing for a transfer but I did have a great time at my first Troubadour Fest.

For starters, the lineup is the best I’ve ever seen assembled for any iteration of the festival to date. It was headlined by Midland and also featured one of the fastest-rising groups in the Texas scene Shane Smith and the Saints, grand returns to College Station from Charlie Robison and Uncle Lucius, and newcomers Treaty Oak Revival who have been making waves across the scene with their rowdy blend of country and rock. Second, music only takes up the top half of the poster and the last half of the day. The other halves are taken up by numerous BBQ restaurants from around the state. The College Station fest featured 34 restaurants including Wolfforth’s own, Evie Mae’s (more on them later) and each restaurant had free samples for everyone that purchased either a VIP or a Music + BBQ ticket.

I’ll go over some overall praise too, I think Aggie Park was the perfect venue for something like this. The BBQ and concert area were separated by trees and both felt like they could coexist. The backdrop to the BBQ area was amazing as well with the view looking back towards the gate being an entrance for Kyle Field. While the festival sold very well and the VIP tickets had been sold out for months leading up to the fest, it never felt too cramped or too full. Despite wearing a Texas Tech shirt and hat in College Station, everyone I talked to was super nice and you could tell everyone was there for their love of music. Also, a giant thing for me, while lawn chairs were allowed in, there was a strictly enforced no-chair zone at the front and everyone in chairs was pretty chill with people walking through their area. My last bit of overall praise also addresses the only negative I had with the festival and how it was organized. There were bars all over the park, most with short lines and quick service but the fact that this fest took place at the end of May and didn’t allow in reusable bottles or have free water stations kind of sucked. However, in the VIP area, water was free and outside of it, I believe it was only $2 so not as bad as it could’ve been.

My Dad and I got to the park around 12:15 PM after walking around Kyle Field and checking out the campus since neither of us have ever really been to College Station before. VIPs were let in at noon, getting an extra hour of BBQ samples before the BBQ + Music ticket holders were let in at 1 PM. Our game plan was simple: 34 restaurants, 3 hours, we had to sample 11 restaurants per hour which doesn’t sound bad when you consider the portion sizes. We made good time, hitting 10 booths within the first 45 minutes and knocking out another five in the next 15 minutes. However, after that is when things started getting rough for me. Note to self for future trips, only take a bite or two of every sample. My final tally was 22 out of 34, my dad trudged on and hit 30 out of 34, mad props to him.

My favorite bites of the day were:
– Hurtado’s Brisket, Chorizo, Potatoes cooked in tallow, all on a bed of grits
– Evie Mae’s Chuck Flap Burnt End with a Brussell Sprout slaw
– Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue’s Pork Belly, Sausage, and Carrot Soufflé
– Interstellar’s Brisket Garlic Bread

and at the top of the list for me:

– Brett’s BBQ Shop’s Brisket, Sausage, and some of the best Banana Pudding I’ve ever eaten in my life

The music started early too. Rachel Laren took the stage at noon so I unfortunately could not catch her set but I did get to see her open for Kat Hasty at The Blue Light last month and that was good enough for me. Graycie York took the stage after her and brought an hour of solid tunes and some pretty hilarious banter. One of my favorites being her introducing a song by saying that she had written it with her dad, adding, “He unfortunately can’t be here with us today…he’s not dead, he just had other things to take care of.” Braxton Keith followed her and his set was an absolute blast. I’ve known Keith’s name for a little bit but had never really checked his music out until a day or two before the fest but his stage presence, his energy, and his voice all blew me away. The next time he comes through The Blue Light while I’m in Lubbock, I will definitely be in attendance.

By 3:30 PM, most of the BBQ vendors had run out of samples and most of the crowd had started shifting over to the main stage for Treaty Oak Revival’s opening set. This was my second time seeing the group and the first of probably three times I’ll see them this year. Their shows are always a ton of fun. When I saw them at JAB Fest last year, JR from The Red Dirt Rebel made mention that the last time they had played The Blue Light they had knocked the PA out and during their JAB Fest, they seemed determined to tear the stage apart. Every story I’ve been told and every video I’ve seen shows the band being full of chaos and hell-raising but their set at Troubadour Fest seemed pretty tame. I’m not saying they just stood there and sang either. Lead singer Sammy Canty and lead guitarist Lance Vanley were still flailing themselves around the stage, the songs rocked a bit harder live, and Canty showered one beer all over the crowd and poured another one directly into bassist Andrew Carey’s mouth. Was it as wild as I thought it might be? Definitely not. Was it still a good time? Absolutely. Maybe I’ll finally witness one of their crowd’s beer showers for the song No Vacancy next time I catch them.

After a quick set change, it was time for one of my second most anticipated set of the day, Uncle Lucius. Hailing from Austin, the band brought some groove and at times funk to the Texas Country scene. Kevin Galloway’s voice is super rootsy and killer and the band was never afraid to throw horns or some swampy sounds into their music. Putting out three albums from 2009 to 2015, the band gained a ton of attention for their song Keep The Wolves Away from their 2012 album And You Are Me. It’s a true story of Galloway’s father nearly dying while trying to clean up an oil spill in Galveston and it’s a pretty harrowing tale. Galloway’s writing is beautiful and the instrumental is perfectly haunting. The band gained a pretty steady and passionate following but in 2018, Galloway decided to call the band quits with two final shows at Gruene Hall. I was certain I wouldn’t ever be able to see them live. Then, last year, the band took to social media to announce their return to the stage and say that they had been recording new music. Part of their rollout of shows was Troubadour Fest and I’m so happy I was finally able to see them.

The band’s set was fantastic and you can tell that Galloway and company are so happy to be back on stage. Everyone in the band was so talented and could absolutely shred on the instruments they played, I didn’t catch the keyboardist’s name but he blew me away multiple times with some of his extended solos. The one-two punch of Gulf Coast Gypsies and Pocket Full of Misery to open the set was also really fun. While they may have drawn one of the smaller crowds of the day, they easily had one of the most engaged and passionate crowds. Whether it was the scream along to the last two choruses of Ain’t It The Same or the twisting and grooving I saw tons of people doing to The Light, it was such a nice feel-good set in the middle of the afternoon. However, I do want to say that of all the “I’m only here for one song” casual fan crowds I’ve ever seen, the mass entrance and exodus for Keep The Wolves Away near the end of their set was pretty sad to see.

Speaking of returns to the stage, Charlie Robison took the stage after another changeover. I got to see him for the very first time last month at Two Step Inn in Georgetown and his set was easily one of my favorites of the entire weekend. He was on fire, his band was on fire, and everything about the set was just fantastic…which is why I can’t help but feel a little disappointed about his set in College Station. Don’t get me wrong, Robison and his band were still good and getting to see his entire set this time was nice but the beginning of the set was a mess. During the set change, it seemed like his sound crew could never get Robison’s stage monitors completely dialed in without them feeding back. Once they got it to a level that was manageable enough but not completely fixed, he was already set back almost 10 minutes. Once he got on stage, he ran through Good Times, El Cerrito Place, and Bar Light before he had to stop again to get his guitar tuned and fixed his monitor issues again. Robison commented on it himself saying “I apologize for the f*cking circus going on up here,” but I guess his stagehands found a magic touch because they never had to fix anything again and his set was smooth sailing from there. If you haven’t been able to Robison on his comeback run, I think you should judge it on how much you enjoy his music. If you’re like me and grew up listening to him and love a majority of his catalog, you’ll probably have a good time. If you’re just going to hear My Hometown and New Year’s Day live, you might not get as much out of it. For a golden hour set though, I loved it.

Once the sun fully set, it came time for my most anticipated set of the day and the biggest reason I wanted to go to this fest whether I went as media or as a fan: Shane Smith and the Saints. There are a lot of reasons for that but I’ll sum it up real quick. They are an incredible live band, they make awesome music, and this was their first show since they sold out their first headline show at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. The anticipation in the crowd before they took the stage was so thick, you could probably cut it with a knife. The band took the stage at 8:30 and after tuning, they launched into their signature intro that Smith said in a podcast the band has been opening their shows with ever since they would do 4-hour sets on 6th Street in Austin. It’s Promontory from The Last of the Mohicans with a bit more of a rock edge to it that transitions perfectly into their song The Mountain from their 2015 album, Geronimo. It’s such a high-energy start to their show and the energy never dipped down once for their full hour and 15 minutes.

Whether it’s the faster moments like The Mountain, Parliament Smoke, and Feather in the Wind, which is an absolute beast of a song live, or the more mid-tempo and, dare I say, heavier songs of their set like Hail Mary, Hurricane, and Fire in the Ocean, everything they played was played with a certain fierceness and energy that’s undeniable. I’ve always somewhat compared Smith’s stage presence to BJ Barham of American Aquarium with the way they both play their music like there’s no tomorrow. Always giving 110% and always keeping everyone in the crowd locked in and energetic. From their intro to the final outro of Heaven Knows, this set was easily the best one of the day. This set lived up to all my expectations and then some. The band is back at Cook’s Garage this September, Diamond Rio is opening up the show, and I cannot recommend scooping up tickets enough. It will be worth every penny you pay for it.

Smith and the Saints could’ve easily headlined this thing, sold just as many tickets, and drawn just as many people as the fest did but there was still one more set after them, one that actually was kind of polarizing from the conversations I heard around the park and in lines: Midland. Before their set, there were people raving and thrilled that they were back in College Station, one person in front of me in line to get in had never even heard of the group before, and worst of all, there was a person in front of me in the VIP section that would not shut up about how the band was corny and industry plants. So much so that when festival founder and organizer Chase Colston came on stage to introduce them and said they were from Dripping Springs, the person yelled out, “NO THEY’RE NOT!” Something I usually always bring up when artists and bands get accused of being industry plants, no one would care if artists were industry plants or not if their music sucked, I personally don’t buy the theory. If I could knock them for anything, they do definitely lean into the cheesiness of 70s and 80s country but they still write some damn good songs and earworm hooks and it’s hard not to like them. I told my Dad on the way out that each time I’ve seen them (this was my third), I get halfway through their set and tell myself “Man these guys are so cheesy,” but when the show is over, I remind myself that that’s most of the reason why they’re so good and so fun to see live.

The band’s old-school flair always goes over extremely well live. Whether it was lead singer Mark Wystrach twirling around near the drum set during the solo of Fourteen Gears, bassist Cameron Duddy dropping to his knees and sticking his tongue out in the middle of Mr. Lonely, or the band’s fashion as a whole, everything about their shows and their aesthetic feels vintage. I will say if there’s anything you can knock the band on, some of their songs feel a bit more toned down live than their studio versions, the biggest examples being The Last Resort, Burn Out, and Drinkin Problem. That’s not to say they’re bad, they just don’t hit as hard. It balances out though because songs like Out of Sight, Mr. Lonely, and 21st Century Honky Tonk American Band absolutely rip live. While they may not have been the best set I saw, they were still a killer headliner and I look forward to being able to see them again at some point down the road.

Overall, I had a great time at my first Troubadour Fest but it might be worth it to go in as soon as VIP gates open next year because I definitely could’ve used a nap in between stuffing my face and going straight into the festival portion of the day. I also want to point out that it’s pretty astonishing how quickly this festival has grown. It’s barely been a year and a half since their first festival had Pat Green headlining, someone who would probably take Charlie Robison’s slot if he played the College Station edition of the fest. I’m excited to see this festival keep growing and I hope I can be invited back next year when the festival returns to Aggie Park on May 18.