There's a Lot of Love on Josh Turner's New CD

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and one of country’s most respected new artists of the past couple of years, South Carolina born Josh Turner, has love-- and his new album-- on his mind. The album, titled YOUR MAN, is due in stores Jan. 24 and available for pre-order now at opry.com. Put the project in your CD player, and love will probably be on your mind before too long, too.


“It was important for us to include some straightforward love songs on this record,” Turner says. Fans had told Turner they missed that on his first album, the gold-selling LONG BLACK TRAIN featuring the wildly popular title track for which Turner earned two standing ovations during his debut Opry performance. Thus, love is the central theme on a number of YOUR MAN cuts, including the title track now being heard on country radio from coast to coast. The hit-maker says his wife Jennifer inspired “Angels Fall Sometimes,” complemented on the project by other lovestruck ballads including “No Rush” and “Gravity.” The album’s first cut, “Would You Go With Me,” is a driving acoustic number that reminds you of something Ricky Skaggs would love to have delivered to country radio during his days as a mainstream country hit-maker. The tune’s lyrics test Turner’s beau’s devotion: “Would you go with me through fields of clover? ... If I gave you my hand, would you take it and make me the happiest man in the world?”


Not that Turner has seen one too many chick flicks or that the album is all about love. There’s something for everyone. There’s the Don Williams favorite “Lord Have Mercy On A Country Boy” that Turner played as an anthem for recalling his days of “hunting, fishing, and exploring” back home following his move to Music City. Like the song says, Turner quotes, “I live in the city, but don’t fit in.”


And there’s humor. “I’m a jokester,” the frequent Opry guest laughs, explaining that it was important for him to include in the album lighter fare such as “Baby’s Gone Home To Mama” and “Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln,” the latter telling a tall tale about Turner buying one of his musical hero’s used cars and motoring around the streets of Nashville.


While there’s no truth to the Lynn vehicle story, Turner does have another classic Loretta tale to tell. It seems that for several months prior to meeting Turner, upon meeting every other new male country singer, Lynn would say, “I love that song ‘Long Black Train.’” The Coal Miner’s Daughter finally met the artist truly responsible for “Train” at an awards show last spring and told him of her adoration for the song, but only after telling Keith Urban the same thing earlier in the night.


Two of Turner’s other heroes make appearances on the new record. John Anderson joins in “White Noise” about white guys making honky tonk music, and Opry member Ralph Stanley joins Turner on “Me And God,” with the guys from Diamond Rio adding harmonies. Turner says the music of the Stanley Brothers is some of the very first music he recalls ever having heard, so making music “with Dr. Ralph was quite an honor.”


All in all, Turner says he feels he’s made the record he was intended to make at this point in his career. “We learned how to capture that Josh Turner sound,” he says, “and it’s heard throughout the record.”

A record he hopes you’ll love.

by Dan Rogers

 --For more information on Josh Turner visit his official site.