Full album stream: Josh Turner

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. Turner's 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.

"I've really learned a lot," Turner reflects. "We were listening to my first record the other day, and I couldn't believe how much my voice has matured and grown from that time."

That much maturation comes as a surprise to many music fans. In his first go-round, he earned a unique place in the sonic marketplace with his rich, masculine resonance. Yet that same voice is even more full-bodied on Your Man than before, awash in earthy wisdom and experience. The sound reflects numerous points of growth for Turner: increased confidence, a better picture of his distinctive place as an artist and a firm understanding that his destiny is tied in great part to his willingness to go to the mat for his work.

"I love fighting for my music," he insists. "I'm out there trying to make a positive impact on people in any kind of way I can, and I like music that makes you think."

In that regard alone, Your Man is a winner. The album covers a range of emotions—from romantic devotion to spiritual intimacy to ethereal silliness—while 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 Miner's Daughter is even referenced in the title of the inexplicably weird "Loretta Lynn's Lincoln." If that weren't 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. Sumner's performance on an Elvis Presley hit.

The depth of heritage and emotion are present, in part, because Turner was in no rush with the album. He recorded the first six songs before Thanksgiving 2004 and then took an additional six months to write or find five appropriate cuts to fill out the project. It was another sign of his increasing maturity and his insistence on quality.

"I'm really patient," he observes. "Sometimes we get caught up in looking at our competition and saying, 'Man, he's already got his album released' or 'Man, his album's gonna be released before mine.' But I don't want to get caught up in that. I just want to make sure that when my album comes out it's the best that it possibly can be."

The presence of one of Music Row's hottest young hit-makers, producer Frank Rogers, didn't hurt. Rogers has produced nominated material for the likes of Turner, Brad Paisley and Darryl Worley, and he had a vision of Turner as an artist of consequence.

"He's from Sumter, South Carolina, and I'm from the Florence area, which is not far away," Turner notes. "So, he and I have a lot of similarities. We're both big country music fans, and on the first record, he produced all of my vocals, so he got to really understand my voice. He's very musical. He knows how to work with the band, knows how to make me comfortable and just knows how to make a great country record."

One of country's aged hit-makers also helped Turner add another dimension to Your Man. Eddy Arnold, who once strung together 67 consecutive Top 10 singles, took an interest in Turner and was more than happy to share his time-tested insights. Arnold is still making an impact on popular culture—his "Anytime" is the first song heard in the Ray Charles biopic Ray, and he co-wrote one of Charles' strongest records, "You Don't Know Me"—so Arnold's observations contain obvious value.

"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.