For all the outstanding talent showcased at Universal Music Group’s lunchtime event at the Ryman Auditorium during Country Radio Seminar in February, Josh Turner’s performance arguably stood out as the most surprising of all.
It wasn’t because of his voice, one of the most identifiable in the business. That tooth-rattling bass was as familiar as it was impressive, prompting Jennifer Nettles to quip during Sugarland’s appearance at that showcase, “I was sitting there thinking, ‘Is there a subway under the Ryman? No, that’s just Josh Turner warming up.’”
The surprise stemmed more from Turner’s stage presence. He had stepped into the national spotlight in 2001 with a stunning performance on the Grand Ole Opry of “Long Black Train,” a Turner composition whose serious, spiritual essence was reinforced by the chilling depth of his resonance and a tendency toward shyness in his early interviews.
But the Josh Turner onstage during CRS was anything but serious. He introduced his upcoming single, “All Over Me,” a summertime romp written by Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip, and spent as much time talking as he did singing and displaying a sense of humor with an impression of Ralph Stanley covering Nelly’s hip-hop hit “Hot in Herre.”
When invited several weeks later to reflect on this more expanded persona, Turner replied, seriously, “If you ask a lot of my family, they will tell you that behind the scenes I am very withdrawn and kind of introverted and just real quiet and laid-back.”
Then, with a comic flair, he added, “Normally, it’s because I can’t get a word in!”
“But ever since I was a young boy,” he continued, “my way of expressing myself has been onstage. When I’m up there, I can speak freely. Nobody is interrupting me and it’s kind of a rhetorical conversation in a way.”
Turner’s upbeat side is featured more prominently than ever on his fourth studio album, Haywire. With five of its 11 songs written or co-written by Turner, it debuted in February at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The first single, “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” by Jim Beavers, Darrell Brown and Jonathan Singleton, spent four weeks at No. 1 just as Haywire was released. The album gives plenty of exposure to the upbeat side of Turner’s personality through the chugging title track, a Turner composition, the work-and-love saga “Friday Paycheck,” penned by Turner and Mark Narmore and the tongue-in-cheek romp “Eye Candy,” which Turner wrote with Shawn Camp and Pat McLaughlin.
This move into a somewhat broader spotlight says as much about changing times as the artist’s newer directions. During the period he recorded Haywire, from the fall of 2008 through June 2009, much of America and in particular the Country Music fan base was struggling with multiple challenges: the mortgage meltdown, Wall Street’s near collapse, a contentious election and stubbornly unyielding unemployment figures. Turner had no intention of piling anything with as stern a message as “Long Black Train” into the mix during those uncertain times.
“I wasn’t in the mood to sing any sad songs,” he explained. “I wanted to lift people up. I wanted to get people out of their seats, get them to dance and move around and just forget about all the baggage and all the negativity that’s going on in the world. So that first single, ‘Why Don’t We Just Dance,’ was kind of the song that all the other songs centered around.”
This strategy also made Haywire a perfect candidate for one of UMG’s recently introduced deluxe-packaging albums. In addition to the 11-song standard version, the company’s MCA Nashville imprint simultaneously released a second version with four bonus songs, including live performances of “Long Black Train” and “Your Man,” plus the ability to download the “Why Don’t We Just Dance” video and an on-camera interview with Turner about making the album.
In part because of the shyness Turner exhibited during early stages of his career, the label believed that this bonus material would give fans a firmer grasp on him as a complete artist, much as the crowd at the Ryman experienced during CRS. Ken Robold, Executive VP and GM, Universal Music Group Nashville, felt the interview footage “would entice consumers to get more of a connection with him.”
The live bonus tracks targeted two goals, to cement Turner’s hitmaker status for fans who know his name but had not connected him with those previous singles and to demonstrate his personable, outgoing demeanor onstage.
“We felt there was a bit of a missing link with his live performance,” Robold observed. “Even though you can’t visually see him on these audio tracks, there is a lot of audience feedback on both of these tracks. You get the sense, even from an audio perspective, that he’s comfortable onstage and comfortable interacting with the audience.”
It took some work to achieve that comfort level. Turner was petrified the first time he performed in public, singing Randy Travis’ “Diggin’ Up Bones” at 14 when his mother signed him to perform at a church function. He also never toured the club circuit as a young performer, a proven vehicle for grooming entertainers, though he has certainly made up for that through headlining his own shows as well as opening for other artists, the most recent being Alan Jackson on his “Freight Train” tour.
Perhaps most significantly, Turner admits that he wasn’t necessarily born with an entertainer’s temperament. “I don’t like crowds,” he confessed. “I don’t like being in loud places. When I’m away from the stage and the business, I’m in a quiet place. I love my solitude. I love my alone time, whether it’s cutting grass or hunting or fishing or whatever it may be. It just gets me closer to the Lord and to the Earth and to myself. It’s time for me to think and look for the inspiration for the next song and pray about things going on in my life.”
Fortunately, there’s a distinction between performing for and being immersed in a crowd, and Turner has learned to take some risks by exposing his lighter side in the one-way conversation that ensues in most concert settings.
“The real, true Country Music fan and the real American are waiting to see the true artist,” Turner said. “They’re wanting to see my art. They’re wanting to see my soul. They don’t want me to get up there and put on a façade and try to be something I’m not or try to be cool. I just try to be real and true and organic and brave.”
That approach certainly worked at his CRS appearance, where he showed off not only his funny bone but also his knowledge of R&B. Written by Shawn Camp, Billy Burnette and Brice Long, “No Rush,” from his 2006 album Your Man, earned him comparisons to Barry White. He collaborated with R&B singer Anthony Hamilton on “Nowhere Fast,” written by Hamilton and Kelvin Wooten and included on Everything Is Fine from 2007. Haywire revisits this territory on the old-school-flavored “Lovin’ You on My Mind,” by Tim James, Kendell Marvel and Chris Stapleton.
“My school system was 50 percent white and 50 percent African-American,” the South Carolina native recalled. “It wasn’t just the white culture I was exposed to growing up. I grew up loving traditional Country Music and bluegrass and gospel music. And then, when I got into middle school and high school, I started listening to all the current R&B sounds that all of my friends were listening to — and I loved it. I knew that it was a different style of music, but at the same time there was a lot of soul in that music too. It was just a different kind of soul.”
With all of these elements in the mix, Country audiences are experiencing insights into more varied elements of Turner’s soul. While the classic Country influences, conservative core values and richly-textured voice are as prevalent as ever, his unique humor, his growing ease in public and the subtle reminders of his appreciation for other types establish Haywire as a transitional milestone as well as a well-crafted and perfectly-timed landmark in his catalog.
