New artists dream about the kind of results Josh Turner achieved with his 2003 debut, Long Black Train. Spurred by its haunting, gospel-inflected title track, the album sold a million copies and brought Turner a pair of nominations from the influential Country Music Association, plus a Top New Artist nomination from the Academy of Country Music.
That debut, however, was merely a prelude. Turners sophomore project, Your Man, demonstrates an increased maturity, a better-honed sense of his strengths and a more specific portrait of the singer as both an artist and a man.
In that regard alone, Your Man is a winner. The album covers a range of emotionsfrom romantic devotion to spiritual intimacy to ethereal sillinesswhile paying overt allegiance to many of the musical figures who inspired him. Two of his biggest influences, honky-tonker John Anderson and bluegrass pioneer Ralph Stanley, make guest appearances; a Don Williams hit, Lord Have Mercy On A Country Boy, gets reworked; and the Coal Miners Daughter is even referenced in the title of the inexplicably weird Loretta Lynns Lincoln. If that werent enough, Turner pays tribute to Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride and even trucker-ballad specialist Red Sovine. In fact, the last notes Turner sings on the album are an unintentional tribute to a country-gospel master, as the singer recaptures the way on down line from the late J.D. Sumners performance on an Elvis Presley hit.
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Added by Insight on May 18, 2007