‘Heaven Passing Through’ by Turnpike Troubadours - Lyrics & Meaning

Sending Turnpike Troubadours fans into a frenzy on the weekend before release date, a mysterious billboard was spotted in the group’s home state of Oklahoma, simply stating "The Price of Admission New Album Streaming April 11th” with the group’s name emblazoned across the top.

However, there was an understated official announcement of the album on social media following the teaser, and… radio silence. No pre-release single, no big rollout campaign, no promotion.

The only taste of ‘Heaven Passing Through’ was a short snippet accompanying the announcement of the album art–but even that didn’t tell us what the track was.

The Price of Admission has been a rapid release, but now that it’s here, we have 11 new Turnpike tracks to dive into and add into their phenomenal discography.

With the Oklahoman group posting a photograph of that now infamous billboard with the caption “Big weekend ahead”, perhaps we’ve got some more explanation, and some more excitement lined up.

With Turnpike frontman Evan Felker being the sole songwriter of the track, ‘Heaven Passing Through’ was likely to be a classic before it even started.

As the song begins with some pretty acoustic guitar picking before Felker’s vocals come in, a steel bends sweeps in to introduce us to the passionate chorus–one that might become a bit of a mantra for Turnpike fans. When Kyle Nix joins in on fiddle, the band fills up nicely and the song gets warmer and warmer.

In contrast to some of the more lively honkytonk leaning songs, the percussion on ‘Heaven Passing Through’ stays gentle throughout, just restrained enough to keep the song rolling.

To pair with the recollection of a few of life’s treasured moments, we’ve got no big changes, no unexpected guitar licks and no extra drum fills throughout the song. It’s a peaceful one.

“The sawmill lights, they shone so bright, you could barely see the stars
But we caught a couple falling out on a blanket in the yard
You’re winding down from a late shift down at the nursing home
It feels so good to be up late to pretending that I’m grown"

With their knack for detailed locational writing, we’re invited into a still evening looking up at the stars.

“Sawmill lights” place us in the rural country, likely in Oklahoma where many of Turnpike’s stories are set. Our two characters, perhaps Felker himself, can just about see the stars and as the night goes on, the two set to dreaming of the future.

When you’re young, the thought of being a “real grown-up” seems to be all we strive towards, but as the song progresses, Felker seems to suggest that might be a mistake.

“Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through"

The sentiment that ties The Price of Admission together is summarised in this simply powerful chorus: "Finally living in the here and now" is what we should be aiming for. As difficult as it can sometimes be to not feel like every inconvenience, problem and issue is entirely personal, ultimately, “the world don’t turn around you”. That’s not something to take personally, it’s just a fact.

The most important thing we can do is to recognise the moment at hand and find all the value within it, appreciate it wholeheartedly and treasure it, because before you know it, that moment will be gone.

The good news: there’s another on the way.

“We washed the x’s off our hands at the honky-tonk
We two stepped pretty bad and pretended we were drunk
We shared cigarettes and talked about what we would do
I knew no matter what I did I’d never be with you”

Even after a night at the honky-tonk, some questionable two-stepping and a couple of drinks, conversations turn to what will happen in the future, as they inevitably seem to do. However, as the final line seems to be pretty definitive, Felker knows that his two-stepping partner isn’t the one who he’ll be heading into the future with.

Whether he’s starting to realise he should be holding onto the “here and now” more tightly, or if he’s thinking more seriously about the future as we’re told to do, we’re not yet sure. It could even be that his mind is wandering back to who he was dreaming under the stars with when he was young.

"Now we stare up and I say the constellations that I know
You repeating them back but you don’t care you’re only three years old
It’s nice to see the world the same as someone
It feels so good to be up late pretending that I’m young"

In a full circle moment, Felker is back to stargazing and watching the beauty of nighttime settle in. This time though, he’s with someone else–perhaps his own little girl as he explains the constellations to her. But at “only three years old”, you don’t need to find the deeper meaning in anything, you don’t need to dig into the scientific names for constellations or the ways in which we can try to explain the galaxy–they’re just stars, and in that moment, they’re there.

Going from starting the song looking towards getting older, to ending it with seeing the world through the eyes we have when we’re young, it’s just one final reminder that we shouldn’t be wishing away the “here and now”.

The future will come, but all in its own time.

"Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a the thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through"

With The Price of Admission being a surprise release, announced on April 7 and lined up for a April 11 release, Turnpike Troubadours have said very little about the song or the album.

In fact, they haven’t said anything at all.

Perhaps they want to leave this album up to interpretation before diving into their own personal stories and background to the collection. Hopefully we’ll get some thoughts from the red-dirt group themselves about ‘Heaven Passing Through’ soon, with live dates lined up throughout the year some of the new tracks are bound to end up on setlists.

The Oklahoma boys are even heading over the the UK this summer, surely they’ll be bringing some more stories with them.

The sawmill lights, they shone so bright, you could barely see the stars
But we caught a couple falling out on a blanket in the yard
You’re winding down from a late shift down at the nursing home
It feels so good to be up late to pretending that I’m grown

Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through

We washed the x’s off our hands at the honky-tonk
We two stepped pretty bad and pretended we were drunk
We shared cigarettes and talked about what we would do
I knew no matter what I did I’d never be with you

Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through

Now we stare up and I say the constellations that I know
You repeating them back but you don’t care you’re only three years old
It’s nice to see the world the same as someone
It feels so good to be up late pretending that I’m young

Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a the thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through

Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a thunder cloud following you
Don’t take it personal the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it's Heaven passing through

––

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