"He's given me a lot of advice," Turner says, "but the one thing that stuck out in my mind when it came to making this record was when he told me, 'You go and record some love songs, because that's what people relate to.' He said, 'The relationship between a woman and a man relates to people better than anything else.' I wanted to capture that on this record, and we have a good handful of those kinds of songs. I think they're paying off already." Those ballads include "No Rush," which fans have adopted as the "Barry White country song," and two songs-"Angels Fall Sometimes" and "Gravity"-that Turner wrote in celebration of his wife.
Born and raised in Hannah, South Carolina, Turner got his first exposure to music at the Union Baptist Church. But his introduction to country music came through his father's mom, who acquainted him with Southern gospel quartets, country stars Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb, and bluegrass legends The Osborne Brothers and The Stanley Brothers.
"Ralph Stanley has such a unique voice, and he's really carved a niche for himself," Turner says. "He's kept mountain music and bluegrass music alive, and introduced a lot of new fans to that kind of music, and I was one of those people from a very early age."
Turner had no intention of being anything more than a fan until he reached the age of 14. At that point, his mother signed Josh and his two siblings up, for $25 each, at a church fundraiser called April Fools For Christ. Under the rules, each was required to look foolish in a public manner unless they shelled out $25. None of the kids had $25, and that lack of cash proved quite fruitful for Josh's development.
"My brother had to impersonate Steve Urkel (from "Family Matters"), my sister had to do a tap dance, and mama paid for me to do 'Diggin' Up Bones' by Randy Travis," Turner recalls. "I did not want to do it. I was just petrified. That was the first time I ever sang a country song in front of a crowd. Of course, I was singing to a track, and a lot of people that night thought that I was lip-synching to Randy's version of the song. There was a huge applause when I got through, and that was when the light went off for me. 'If that's the way this feels, this is what I want to do.'"
As Turner approached the end of his high school years, he was dating a girl who attended a different high school. She told her choir director about his interest in a country music career, and the instructor in turn suggested he attend Belmont University, a school with a music business program located just a few blocks from the hub of Nashville's entertainment industry. After taking some preliminary classes at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, Turner transferred to Belmont, where he became a vocal performance major. Through a classmate, he was introduced to music publisher Jody Williams, who signed him to a songwriting deal with MCA Music. Williams would, in turn, arrange a meeting at MCA, which ultimately led to a recording contract. At Belmont, Turner also met his future wife, Jennifer Ford. Josh and Jennifer married in June 2003, four months to the day before the release of Long Black Train, and she's become a backing vocalist and piano player in his road band. When Belmont honored him in September 2004 with its Curtain Call Award, he expressed profound joy over his collegiate memories: "I told them I got more than a degree out of Belmont. I got a record deal and a wife." After his initial success, Turner was empowered on the second album. He explores more emotional avenues and utilizes the lower end of his identifiable bass/baritone range more frequently. Though it sets him apart from his contemporaries, he's careful not to turn his signature into a novelty. Instead, he's picked material in which his basement tones are a natural enhancement to the messages he's conveying. "When I go down in the lower register, that's just kind of my thing and my style," he explains. The phrase that really describes my kind of music is South Carolina Low Country, which is actually a region in South Carolina, around Charleston and Hilton Head and Beaufort. I kind of took that phrase, South Carolina Low Country, to describe my music." Still, Turner's voice is ultimately an instrument that communicates the deeper influences in his world. His wife, his musical heritage and his deeper understanding of his art all make their presence felt through inspiration or expression on Your Man, an uncommonly seamless sophomore effort. It's clear that calling his award-winning first album a "debut" was right on the mark: It was merely an introduction to an inspired and evolving artist.
(Bio courtesy MCA Nashville)