Josh Turner's "Your Man" From "Way Down South"

In 2003 a handsome 25 year old man with the seductive baritone voice released the song Long Black Train and although not a Top 10 hit, the song “stalled” at 12, it’s gospel message of avoiding temptation hit home with over a million people as Josh Turner’s album of the same name went platinum. With the platinum album, Turner was then nominated for many country awards. While he failed to win any, MCA Records, Turner’s label, sent him into the studio to record his follow-up album.

Two years later, that album, “Your Man” was ready to be released. However something funny happened on the way to stardom, the title track for the album literally took months to climb the charts. Released in the summer of 2005, the song didn’t hit the Top Ten at country radio until February 2005, right around the time the record was released. As I sit here writing this review, the sultry, romantic song has just become Turner’s first Number One hit. The album has also been certified Gold for sales of 500,000 copies. At this point you may be asking, as I did recently, if the rest of the album reaches the quality of the title track.

In a word. Yes.

But better.

For the most part.

With searing dobro, mandolin and banjo, “Would You Go With Me” opens up the record with a down-home exuberance that showcases what happens when traditional and modern country sonic values are mixed. There’s a slightly Celtic sound to the whole thing that makes the melody stand out, maybe even more than Turner’s silky smooth baritone that melts many a woman’s hearts (perhaps some men too). The second track on the record is another up tempo cut. “Baby’s Gone Home To Mama” is a cute, if clichéd, ditty that country music’s been known to have from time to time.

Channeling Conway Twitty, Josh Turner serves up an über romantic torch ballad “No Rush.” It’s a track that finds Turner speaking the verses while singing the choruses. The instrumentation is hushed and reserved and lets Turner’s voice do all of the work. However “great” a record is, there’s usually a couple “dud” tracks and right in the middle of this record, placed directly after the title track are “Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln” and the offensive good-old-boys “White Noise,” a song written by Turner with John Anderson. It actually says “just some white noise coming from some white boys…take me where the honkeys are a tonkin’.” It’s just the kind of song that country music shouldn’t be about nowadays. Perhaps it’s just Turner and Anderson’s reaction to the whole Muzik Mafia/Big & Rich/Cowboy Troy mixing of country, rock, rap, r&b and gospel thing. Whatever it is, it’s not a song that should see the light of day as a single.

Turner’s next track on the record, “Angels Fall Sometimes” is a nice reprieve that’s co-written with Mark Nesler and Tony Martin. It’s a smoldering “I don’t know how lucky, she’s my inspiration” country song that’s been written before but somehow doesn’t sound plagiarized. Another traditionalist, Alan Jackson, made a nice remake of Bob McDill’s “Who’s Cheatin’ Who” and Turner Takes McDill’s “Lord Have Mercy On A Country Boy” (made popular by Don Williams) and nicely updates the track. Will it be a hit, only time will tell but it’s a nice album track nonetheless. Father Ralph Stanley joins Turner on the self-penned Me And God. Showcasing Turner’s strong morals and love of God (something that leads Turner to demand that his band and crew live a clean, sober lifestyle like he does), the track could very well be this album’s “Long Black Train.”

“Gravity,” another Turner co-write (With Mark Namore) is a loving tribute to his first child and how children make their parents grounded in life, IE Gravity. The album closing track is the southern-fried bluegrass meets R&B of “Way Down South.” A partner of the previous albums autobiographical Backwoods Boy, this self-penned track is a nice closing track for the record.

While many country artists suffer from the “sophomore slump,” (a fate that almost happened to Turner when his label merged with Dreamworks and they were deciding on whether to keep Jimmy Wayne -he of the two Top 10 hits and 2 other Top 30 hits- or Turner -he of the Platinum album and two Top 30 hits), Turner somehow avoids such a fate. Sure, there’s one really rough spot on the record but Turner acquits himself with the rest of the album after that. That rough spot keeps “Your Man” from being a classic record but it certainly doesn’t mean that any fan of modern country music shouldn’t pick this record up. 3.5 stars rounded down because of the serious miss-step.

Because You Want To Know

1. Would You Go With Me
2. Baby’s Gone Home To Mama
3. No Rush
4. Your Man
5. Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln
6. White Noise (With John Anderson)
7. Angels Fall Sometimes
8. Me And God
9. Gravity
10. Way Down South

Produced by Frank Rogers
Released January 24, 2006 by UMG Recordings Nashville (MCA Records).

Download These:
“Would You Go With Me,” “No Rush,” “Your Man” and “Gravity.”