“See, Texas and Oklahoma Can Get Along”: Charley Crockett Offers to Give Up 2026 Grammy Nomination for Turnpike Troubadours

Once again, this year’s Grammy nominations caused quite the controversy within the country community - for 2025, the issue was the absence of the Turnpike Troubadours’ career-defining album Price of Admission.

Especially in the first year of the distinction between Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album with separate awards, it seemed certain that Turnpike would receive their fair share of nominations. However, as the names were announced, the Oklahoma legends were missing from every category.

It’s been a good year for country music, and the nominations reflect that: Charley Crockett with Dollar a Day, Margo Price with Hard Headed Woman, Zach Top with Ain't in It For My Health, and both father and son Willie Nelson and Lukas Nelson with Oh What A Beautiful World and American Romance respectively are all phenomenal albums, making up this year's Best Traditional Country Album category. But as it turns out, it’s not just the fans that think Turnpike should’ve been in the mix too.

Taking to social media this weekend (Sunday, 16th November), Charley Crockett has announced that he is volunteering to give up his Grammy nomination to Turnpike, outlining that they "not only earned the right with Price of Admission, but for which without [Evan Felker] [he] might not have ever even shown up on the map”.

Accompanying his announcement with an endearing story about the first time Crockett and Felker met, the Texas artist explained that the Turnpike frontman helped him really get his foot in the music industry door, “I was standing out at Gruene Hall handing out CDs on a street corner ‘cause I couldn’t get into the show. Handed a guy a CD, his name was Evan Felker. I didn't know who he was at the time, but he was the frontman for the Turnpike Troubadours. He took it home and listened to it with his then girlfriend, now wife. Lo and behold, his agent Jon Folk called me up and started booking me”.

There might not be a larger act of respect than giving up your Grammy nomination to the artist that started it all for you in the first place. While Crockett’s 2025 album Dollar a Day is absolutely worthy of the accolade, Turnpike’s is too - so we can all thank Crockett for doing what we only wished we could and giving the red-dirt band the appreciation they deserve.

Best put in Crockett's own words, “Evan Felker’s the best damn songwriter of all of us. See, Texas and Oklahoma can get along.” However, Felker's response on social media saw him thanking Crockett for the kind words but seemingly rejecting the notion: “Any good thing in your world feels like a win for us my friend. Thanks for the kind words but y'all earned every bit of this. It didn't happen overnight and nobody did it for you”.

With Felker signing off his message with "love and luck," it seems that we might have to wait until the Grammy awards are decided to see the outcome of this heartwarming story.

For more on Charley Crockett, see below: