Tommy Goodroad

Midwest country charm meets vintage vignettes in the upbeat new music video for Tommy Goodroad’s latest single, “Keep ‘Er Moving.”

From the opening acoustic notes and into the hard-hitting electric guitar, Goodroad is seen getting into a killer old school Cadillac that would excite any and all car enthusiasts. He then picks up his bandmates – The Highway Birds – one by one, as they’re seen taking a bath, lifting dumbbells by the side of the road, birdwatching, and trunk-chilling (naturally the drummer), and out on the open road they go to let loose and keep the spirit of rock and roll alive.

The video charms viewers with a playful look into the life of beers, bros, and bass drums, as they pinball their way through places like St. Louis, Nashville, Lexington, and much in between.

Goodroad pokes fun at the truths and hardships of being an independent band on the road, with lines like, “Met a midwestern girl, wants to two-step with the band / I said baby if we put you on the guest list, we won’t get paid.” While he likely wouldn’t mind the company, it’s business first.

At its core, “Keep ‘Er Moving” is a love song for the art of making music and being on the road making memories with the boys. With a hard-driving cosmic country twang and rootsy instrumentals, Goodroad and co. depict their experience of a modern band cruising the endless highways with high spirits. “In a rusty old van with a couple guitars in the back / But we’re riding through your city like we’re cruising in a Cadillac.”

The video wraps up with a lively performance from Goodroad and his cohorts for a two-steppin’ good time havin’ audience that loves to let loose just as much as they love their country western honky tonk band. As they graduate from empty dance floors to playing for “the whole damn town,” “Keep ‘Er Moving” is a reminder to do what you love and love what you do. And it’s always more fun with friends.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Goodroad settled down in Chicago for college and quickly fell into step with the rhythm of the city. After personally recording, producing, and releasing his debut album, Swimming in the Clay, in 2021, Goodroad has been playing shows around the country in true cowboy fashion.

“Keep ‘Er Moving” is his first single since wrapping up a Midwestern/Southern USA tour this past year, and it doesn’t seem this modern day honky tonk disciple has any plans of hitting the brakes. - Music Mecca

In a world filled with overproduced and underwritten country music, it’s always a breath of fresh air to hear a singer-songwriter as authentic and sincere as Tommy Goodroad. In his new single “Goodbye for Good,” he shows just what a genuine approach to Americana music in 2023 can sound like. He sings over a simple and understated line-up of classic folk and country instruments including Upright bass, a small kit drummer, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and a quintessentially twangy electric guitar. This sounds like a lot of players, but the space left between each of them and the discipline of the players is wildly admirable. It’s no wonder Goodroad has elected to name the EP after them. Go check out “Tommy Goodroad and The Highway Birds” for more masterful midwestern-tinged folk.

“Goodbye for Good” is the closing track from Tommy Goodroad’s new EP, Tommy Goodroad and The Highway Birds. Written by Goodroad, the song chronicles the life of someone reeling from lost love and attempting to distract themselves from it, whose days of menial chores and indisposition fade into seasons of loneliness. It was recorded at Ohmstead Collective in Chicago by Seth Engel, and features Goodroad’s “top-notch band” The Highway Birds, delivering weepy pedal steel and fiddle interludes and warm electric guitar fills,” says Goodroad. - Glide Magazine

The hits of Irish band The Cranberries still permeate American pop culture, with the late Dolores O'Riordan's unmistakable vocals often signaling that a direct-to-streaming show or film is set in the 1990s.

Chicago-based country singer Tommy Goodroad recognizes the band's storytelling depth with a cover of "Linger" that adds enough twang to sharpen the original's edge into something that's more Dwight Yoakam than alt-rock. - Wide Open Country

With a country twang fit for a Texas roadhouse, Tommy Goodroad lassos the ear with his newest single, “Fifty Degrees in September.”

A singer-songwriter from Minnesota and now based in Chicago, Goodroad uses his music as a commentary on the people and places of the Midwest, while maintaining a natural and gritty sound. His June 3rd single, “Fifty Degrees in September,” embodies this regional country feel in his nostalgic lyrics and resonating instrumentation.

Seasonal change and change of heart are paralleled in the new single’s chorus, with the lyrics, “’Cause it’s fifty degrees in September / Put the AC in the closet upstairs / I got nothing to do but remember.” As he reflects on the nuances of a relationship gone astray, he continues, “The love in her sway / The way that she’d say / ‘Smile cause spring’s in the air,’” further expressing the longing that love breeds.

Goodroad’s previous album, Swimming in the Clay, further establishes his folksy country style through the acoustic finger picking, upbeat strings, and impressive vocal range that accompanies his songs like “Lillian” and “If The Wind Picks Up”. With his Midwest-inspired music and cowboy charm, he possesses damn near all the qualities one could want from a modern country singer.

Comparing the Midwestern atmosphere to relationships is one of Goodroad’s lyrical strengths throughout his discography. He harnesses his knack for natural imagery in his latest single, putting a spin on the tragic tale of lost love.

While “Fifty Degrees in September” portrays the frigidity of a broken heart, Goodroad’s rich vocals and full band presence creates a warm sound that is reminiscent of a summer afternoon. You’ll most certainly never grow cold to his new single while on long drives down country roads, or just kicking back on a lazy day. - Music Mecca

The opening pedal steel line for Goodroad’s latest single “Fifty Degrees in September” is close to damn near perfect and can make any unsuspecting casual listener decide to stick around for the remaining three minutes and 58 seconds. Fortunately, the remainder of the song manages to hold its own as well, due to Goodroad’s confident, believable vocal delivery and a band as solid as a Minnesota pond in February. It’s tough to make a classic-sounding country recording that doesn’t come off as a throwback while still saying something new. “Fifty Degrees in September” finds that sweet spot with ease. - Glide Magazine

Chicago venue Empty Bottle hosted its second annual Thee Best Western fall block party on Saturday (10/1), featuring vendors, food, games, a dunk tank, live music, and more. The live music part of the festivities was headlined by Steve Gunn (days before his set opening for Pavement in Brooklyn) and also included sets from Louisiana's Spllit and Chicago bands Floatie, Gabacho, Fran, and Tommy Goodroad. See pictures from the whole day by James Richards IV below. - Brooklyn Vegan

Tommy Goodroad is a relative newcomer to the country music scene, having formed his band The Highway Birds in just about the most challenging time you could pick to launch a music career: June 2020. Originally from Minneapolis, Goodroad now resides in Chicago (as does one of his bandmates, pedal steel player Peter Briggs—the rest are Twin Cities–based) and divides his time between the two cities.

“We don’t get a lot of rehearsal time together,” Goodroad says. “For our last recording session we had three days to rehearse and then we recorded both songs in one day. That's how we do shows, too; we just practice for one to two days before we play.” It’s kind of stressful, he admits, but worth it to have the band he’s assembled. Besides Briggs, three members are high school friends (bassist Cooper Gatzmer, mandolin/fiddle player George Adzick and drummer Samuel Stroup) who agreed to take the leap with him and start a long-distance band during lockdown.

His other bandmate, lead guitarist and backup vocalist Nick Bates, is Goodroad’s older brother—a country artist in his own right who performs under the name Northbound 35. “He’s been my idol from a young age,” Goodroad says. “He’s the main reason I got into country music.” Though they’re both dedicated country artists now, the brothers’ varied musical background includes Bates’ extensive punk rock experience and Goodroad’s brief stint as a rapper. “I think a hint of that comes through in how I phrase things rhythmically in my lyrics.”

Goodroad began immersing himself in the likes of Colter Wall and Tyler Childers in high school, and fresh out of college started The Highway Birds with the goal of adding Midwest stories and settings to the largely Southern genre. “When I first got into country music, I noticed a lot of imagery I didn’t fully relate to, so I feel like this gap needs to be filled,” he says. “I want to talk about snow, and it being so cold it stings to breathe in. I love how cold it gets in Minnesota and I wish there were more people singing country songs about Midwestern winters.”

Given all of that, Goodroad’s new single is an unexpected departure: a cover of The Cranberries’ 1990s smash hit “Linger.” I’d heard it live a couple times before, so I was thrilled to be able to debut it. As someone who was just starting college when the song came out, the original is deeply ingrained in me. Goodroad’s version works remarkably well thanks to his tight band and creative arrangement, and he sings it straight from the heart; this is no parody or pastiche.

Even though I’d never have predicted that song would work with a honky-tonk vibe, the more times I listen to it, the more perfect it seems. It’s like these lyrics were begging to be in a country song all along: “I swore I would be true / And honey so did you / So why were you holding her hand?” And the chorus’s plaintive lament could’ve been written by Hank Williams or Dolly Parton: “I'm in so deep / You know I'm such a fool for you / You got me wrapped around your finger …”

How did a twentysomething country artist with punk and hip hop in his background choose this particular song? Goodroad explains that in his high school, as schoolmates tried to impress one another with their musical taste, the song became somewhat trendy. (Oh how that does my Gen X heart good!) “But I just loved it; I think it’s so pretty and so well-written,” he says. “It’s one of my favorite songs outside the country genre.”

On a tour in November 2021, his pedal steel player Briggs heard “Linger” on the radio. “We were riding in different cars and he texts me saying we should do a honky-tonk version of it,” Goodroad remembers. “I’d thought about it before; I think the idea of turning something that's not a country song into a country song is really exciting. So I was like, ‘Well now that you said it, we have to do it!’” The two soon began brainstorming the arrangement.

“For me it was easy because it’s four chords and I just brought it down to a key I could sing in,” Goodroad says. “I had to ask a lot of Peter though, because he's basically doing the whole string section on pedal steel, and our version is super syncopated, while the original is very straight rhythmically. So he had to learn it and then figure out how to swing it. Once we got over the hump of turning that theme into a honky-tonk thing it was fairly easy.” (One more twist happened shortly before recording: Bassist Gatzmer got an upright bass that they decided to use in the song. “Cooper had never played upright on any of our other recordings, so we were a little nervous about that, but it ended up working out really well.”)

Although they’re in the beginning stages of planning a second album, Goodroad hasn’t decided whether “Linger” will be on it. “We definitely will be releasing more music, but it’ll probably be a while before we have another album,” he says. “We’re focusing on singles and touring right now.” - Adventures in Americana