Single Premiere: Tommy Goodroad, ‘Linger’
Get an exclusive first listen to the Midwest country act’s new track, dropping May 20, which puts an unexpected honky-tonk spin on a classic 90s alternative radio hit!
Tommy Goodroad. Photo credit: Graham Buss.
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.”
Tommy Goodroad & The Highway Birds. Photo credit: Isaac Dell.
The Single
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.”
Tommy Goodroad. Photo credit: Isaac Dell.
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.”
Get a first listen of “Linger,” and then buy and stream it starting May 20!
Song Credits
Written by Dolores O'Riordan and Noel Hogan of The Cranberries
Recorded by Colin Loynachan at The Swamp Recording Studio in Plymouth, MN
Mixed by Henry Charles Breen
Mastered by Justin Termotto
Musicians
Tommy Goodroad - acoustic guitar and vocals
Nick Bates - electric guitar and background vocals
Cooper Gatzmer - bass
Peter Briggs - pedal steel
George Adzick - mandolin
Samuel Stroup - drums and cymbals
Upcoming Tour
The band has an extensive tour of the Midwest and South with Wisconsin country act Boy Howdy coming up, featuring a variety of local openers. (It starts June 1 at the Eagles Club in Minneapolis with emerging country artist Molly Brandt opening.) Follow Tommy Goodroad on social media (see below) to find out where you can see them live!
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the primary music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
