Hal Ketchum

Five years ago, Hal Ketchum packed up his guitars and left Nashville, turning his back on a successful, 20+ year career in country music. He’d already sold more than 5 million albums, racking up a half-dozen Top 10 hits, including staples like “Small Town Saturday Night” and “Hearts Are Gonna Roll.”

Try as he might, though, Ketchum couldn’t stop his musical wheels from spinning. Before long, new songs began appearing. It was a rallying cry for Ketchum, who decided he wasn’t ready to give up music, after all. Those new songs became the foundation of Ketchum’s newest album, I’m the Troubadour, which finds him ditching the country rulebook in favor of a combination of folk, blues, and soul music instead, tying the whole thing together with the rootsy rumblings of his studio band and the same croon that helped make him a permanent member of the Grand Ole Opry and a regular presence on A Prairie Home Companion.