Album Review – Josh Turner’s “I Serve a Savior”
This article has been updated.
It isn’t just the steel guitar and twang that has been bled out of the sonic profile of the modern versions of today’s country music. It’s a host of legacies that have been left by the wayside like a trail of hastily-discarded clothing articles leading to country’s bedding down with pop in a passionate tryst. Gospel music once was a proud foundation of country. From the hymnals of churches to the field songs of former black slaves, the chanting, praise, and salvation of Gospel constituted one of the everlasting cornerstones of country.
So did the greatest singers of a generation, who would be sought after with zeal, and plucked out of the countryside to be set in front of microphones and shepherded to stardom—singers like Josh Turner, whose voice carries with it a signature tone that warms you like the hearth of your childhood home, and can deftly handle the most deep and difficult registers of the human voice, awakening spiritual salvation simply by its sound.
Also missing from much of today’s country music is a passion for the material being presented. Since songs are often written or co-written by others, orientated for radio, and presented in the fashion producers dictate as opposed to the artists themselves, the performers feel no real ownership in the sentiments, or how they’re being conveyed. They’re simply vessels. Josh Turner didn’t write many of the songs that appear on I Serve a Savior, but that’s not the point of this album. It’s to capture Josh Turner’s passion for praise music that he’s illustrated throughout his career, and to this end, it is a success.
Don’t exclusively think of I Serve a Savior, or really any Gospel album simply as a religious exercise. Don’t overly secularize it either. But understand listening to someone singing passionately about their faith is not proselytizing, it’s an expression of personal belief and heritage, often with themes that can touch anyone, including non-believers, or those of other denominations.
Josh Turner does a great job on I Serve a Savior to make Gospel music that is accessible, not just from the passion that you can feel coming through his performances, or his voice that puts signature touches on old standards such as “I Saw The Light,” and the super low tones he perfects on “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” But the twangy, almost Outlaw arrangement of “Amazing Grace” makes for not just another version of a song performed scores of times, it’s Josh Turners version.
This album also has some sleepy and unremarkable moments that you will might pass over unless you’re a dedicated Gospel music fan. A song like “Great Is Your Faithfulness” is a little too straightforward to allow them to rise above other versions of this song. When making a record of Gospel standards, perhaps you don’t want to get too crazy on each track, and turn away the primary constituency.
Josh Turner’s future in country music is just about as unsure as Gospel’s. His version of country, like so many of country’s traditions, has been lost in the shuffle. He’s had to compromise at times to keep his career on a major label going. But on I Serve A Savior there is no compromise. He gets a moment to do something he’s been waiting almost 20 years to do, which is to combine his faith with his gift for music, and his passion and sincerity shows through in the results.
7.5/10
– – – – – – – – – – –
January 2, 2019 @ 12:22 pm
I am not a very religious man but his voice alone will make me buy this album.
January 2, 2019 @ 12:28 pm
His last release didn’t include any songs that allowed his vocal capabilities to shine. This record really allows you to appreciate just what a generational singer Josh Turner is. His voice was made for Gospel.
January 2, 2019 @ 1:01 pm
Great review Trig, thanks! Are you sure he didn’t write the title track? I though I read that he did…
January 2, 2019 @ 2:08 pm
If wikipedia serves well, he wrote three of the tracks: “Long Black Train,” “Me and God,” and “I Serve a Savior” (co-written with Mark Narmore, a longtime collaborator with Josh). The first two are previously released and here live from Gaither Studios. The title track is new.
January 2, 2019 @ 2:23 pm
Yes he wrote it with Mark Narmore. Changed the review to reflect that.
January 2, 2019 @ 1:07 pm
“I Saw the Light” has been around for almost seven decades, and it will be here for a lot more.
Luke, Taylor and Blake will barely be remembered in 2040…
But I bet lots of folks will know I saw the light.
This, I think, is the strength of the great Country songs.
Folsom Prison Blues, Jolene, Paradise, Once A Day, Good Hearted Woman.
There’s a lot of older songs that have held up.
Very few songs from the last DECADE have even had a life outside of their release.
How many Country songs from the 2000s can anybody really get behind?
VERY few.
not that there aren’t some gems, but they are few.
January 2, 2019 @ 2:30 pm
Songs written to chase trends are almost ALWAYS disposable F2S….but yes …solid observation . They are dated by sonics , most certainly .This is the primary reason why , as you point out , there are no recent ‘ classics ‘ or standards …..and none that would stand the test of time
More importantly though , a hallmark of superior songwriting is timelessness ….no trendy , hip phrases or slang, no reference to current trendy fashions , places , or even people ( icons excepted , of course ) . Another near-forgotten hallmark of GREAT writing is the lack of professional, experienced writers . Most acts are expected to write or co-write their own stuff and if they are not ( as most appear not to be ) familiar with the classics , they can only regurgitate what they are fed by current mainstream and label-folk . Trend .
With very very few exceptions , the past 10-15 years have given us buckets and buckets of music ….and no standards
January 3, 2019 @ 1:39 pm
I think “Long White Line” has a good shot at becoming a standard. And of course the Stapleton Tennessee Whiskey is already one, though obviously it ain’t new.
January 2, 2019 @ 7:39 pm
In all seriousness, how do you think the world will reflect on the 2000s and 2010s of country music in another 20 years? The legacy of 90s country has really shown up in recent years with certain artists celebrated while others forgotten. Who becomes remembered and who is forgotten in this generation? I feel like history is on the side of FGL, Jason Aldean, and Luke Bryan, but in reality we just don’t know.
January 3, 2019 @ 10:49 am
Joe …..The litmus test for longevity and long-term impact by an artist is , in my own and I believe most journeyman performers’ opinions, very often found in club-goers music requests for bands and DJs …not on radio . INVARIABLY those requests are still for the classic Country acts who cater to a live ( enerrgized ) audience with material that is DANCE-CENTRIC . I know and work and have worked with many many country acts and this is the consensus time and time again . If I had to list the 10 most popular song requests we hear , Aldean , FGL or even Luke Bryan would not make that list . Here’s an idea of the most popular club requests we hear no matter the age group
1 Boot Scootin Boogie
2 Chatahoochie
3. Honky Tonk Man ( Dwight , usually )
4. Somebody Like You
5. I Like It I Love It
6. All My Exes
7. Fishin In The Dark
8. almost anything by Strait
It has always been interesting to musicians how the dance factor in contemporary country music ( bro ) has been all but completely ignored . No one dances to FGL’s biggest ‘hits’ and no one asks for them. NO ONE has ever asked us for anything by Aldean or Rhett . And on it goes . This is a huge reason we have no modern day country standards -in-the-making .
January 6, 2019 @ 8:07 pm
Off the top of my head it would be hard to come up with more than a dozen truly classic country songs of commercial relevance.
Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning by Alan Jackson has the trademarks of such a song, Give It Away, Traveller, Humble and Kind, The House that Built Me and Long Black Train would be on the short list….
January 2, 2019 @ 1:12 pm
I’ve been enjoying this album since it came out. I really like the harmonies of “I Pray My Way Out of Trouble” with Bobby Osborne.
January 2, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
I was wondering if you’d review this, knowing there is a glut of great (and not so great) albums out there, waiting for you. I’m glad you did and I think you framed it perfectly.
As a gospel/hymns album in country music today, I Serve a Savior helps to fill a massive hole. As someone very familiar with these songs, I love what Josh Turner has done with “Amazing Grace” – which starts in a very traditional, almost sleepy, way and transitions into a slow burner that builds to the final, triumphant verse with electric and acoustic guitar solos – and the swampy, driving “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” He also takes the familiar “I Saw the Light” and puts his own stamp on it, making it fresh without messing up what makes the song a classic. And while he doesn’t do anything special or unique to “How Great Thou Art” and “How Great Thou Faithfulness”, both songs are solidly performed, carried by Turner’s voice.
What the album lacks, though, are another song or two. The album is 12 tracks, but two of those, “Doxology” and “The River (of Happiness),” are both short and feel more like filler, while we get live versions of “Long Black Train” and “Me and God,” both of which fit well here, but are previously released material. The album’s 42 minute running time feels short and I feel wanting when the album ends. (I, for one, would enjoy hearing Turner sing “Life is Like a Mountain Railroad.”)
The music here is sharp and decidedly country with lots of steel and fiddle. But the highlight is Turner’s deep voice. These aren’t just songs to sing, but songs that are important and hold meaning. These are songs that Turner knows and holds to and one can sense that in his singing.
I can fully support the 7.5/10 (though I may have gone higher with an additional track or two.) As someone who knows and appreciates the old hymns, I’m finding “I Serve a Savior” is a worthy addition to my library.
January 2, 2019 @ 2:03 pm
More Gospel: The Shotgun Stacys feat. Gretchen Wilson, Gwen Sebastian & Jessie G – “I’ll Fly Away”
With all the new male “talents” like Bitches Tenpenny or Kane Brown ruling the charts…Josh Turners “country” radio career is pretty much over. Josh Turner singing gospel on the other hand…
January 2, 2019 @ 2:21 pm
Glad you reviewed this, Trigger. I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard it as soon it was released. As a religious guy and fan of Josh Turner (and born in the same county in South Carolina), I was certainly disposed to like this album, but I also have rather low expectations for gospel releases. They can be forgettable, especially particular hymns. “Amazing Grace” is the obvious example. I have often told people that we need a ten year moratorium on “Amazing Grace,” during which no one can record it. Heck, a twenty year moratorium would serve us well. I’ve just heard it too many dang times. But Josh and this arrangement gave it new life — likewise for most of these tracks. The whole album sounds fresh and convincing, not a mere side project or money grab. And there’s great variety. There’s some standards but also lesser known songs, plus his own three compositions. Also, his wife and oldest son wrote “The River of Happiness.” Well done, Josh.
January 3, 2019 @ 7:06 am
Wade Bowen’s version is stripped down, really good stuff. The whole album is quite good.
January 2, 2019 @ 2:33 pm
Trigger …..another superbly insightful review . And as always …fair .
Way to kick off the New Year and a big thanks for your commitment to the music .
Happy 2019 and continued success .
January 2, 2019 @ 3:18 pm
Okay, so… NOT my favorite version of I Saw the Light.
Too rehearsed and repetetive, the minor moments become predictable and his vocal hitches are overdone.
This is a thrashing tune designed to be gone all out on and this performance is a little too straight-faced and rehearsed.
January 3, 2019 @ 11:37 am
It’s a matter of taste, but I prefer gospel (and country) music to be a little rough around the edges. The cracks let the humanity slip in.
January 3, 2019 @ 1:28 pm
Sturgill Simpson’s old band Sunday Valley used to do a hell of a shit-kicking cover of I Saw the Light. Unfortunately, of the recordings I can find on YouYube, one is a great performance with terrible audio (recorded live with a 2007 era cellphone) and the other has good audio, but Sturgill’s guitar is turned WAY down and is kind of a ho-hum performance.
January 3, 2019 @ 2:18 pm
Hanks original recording would difficult to describe as a “thrasher”.
January 2, 2019 @ 4:30 pm
My favorite rendition of “I Saw the Light.”
Everything is better as a mid tempo bluegrass song.
January 2, 2019 @ 4:55 pm
Country use to be more wholesome than it is today. Putting a little more family friendly values back into the genre is a must. Hopefully the rest of country music wakes up, but if they don’t at least we still have Josh Turner.
January 2, 2019 @ 5:08 pm
Hank Williams was an alcoholic. George Jones, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings all had problems with hard drugs at various times. Spade Cooley beat his wife to death. Ira Louvin was such a mean drunk his third wife shot him multiple times after he beat her.
Country has long presented itself as wholesome, but let’s not pretend the artists of the past didn’t engage in plenty of bad behavior.
January 3, 2019 @ 5:02 am
This makes them no different than any other artists in any other genre at any other point in music history. The difference is, and I think what Patrick was getting at, is that all of these folks you mentioned flew under the banner of a genre that at least associated or aligned itself with a section of American life that had the pretense of Judeo-Christian culture–even if it was a thin veneer. I’m not saying there isn’t room for edgier artists–its a big tent but with standards.
But for every artist mentioned there, there are countless artists, including Josh who don’t revel in the rebellious way of life and their music reflects that and that’s ok. The point is that traditionally, country music was borne out of and for many years, flowed with the cultural stream of the heartland. I appreciate the musical legacy and artistic influence of men like Jones, Cash, and Waylon but personally, I can’t identify with their lifestyle and identify more with artists like Josh Turner and other “wholesome” artists. There’s room for both.
January 3, 2019 @ 11:32 am
Artist like Hank Williams may have lived risque lives, but they knew this behavior was for behind closed doors, not entertainment for the masses. Having personal demons you struggle with and promoting drug use and promiscuity on what is supposed to be a family-friendly spot on the radio dial are two separate things.
January 3, 2019 @ 9:33 am
Of course several country artist as the ones you have mentioned above did not live very wholesome lives. My point was that their aren’t many of the good guys left in country music. Sadly Josh Turner is one of the last few of a dying breed.
January 3, 2019 @ 11:28 am
I think Spade Cooley stomping his wife to death is on a different moral plane from people succumbing to alcohol or drugs.
Gospel music may be the flip side of honky tonk music, but both are on the same record. Both categories of song depict a fragile human’s attempt to cope with the weaknesses and disappointments in this world. One of the most spiritual of all singers, Judee Sill, was a heroin addict.
And it’s not unusual for traditional country musicians to perform both kinds of music. The Delmore Brothers, for example, recorded both “Old Mountain Dew” praising moonshine, and “No Drunkard Can Enter There,” urging people to give up drinking. Most of the major country stars of the 40’s-60’s recorded at least one gospel album. The Louvin Brothers recorded almost as many secular as sacred songs. Couldn’t find a single religious / gospel song by Spade Cooley, though.
The overall stance of traditional country music is not simply for or against drinking, but against hypocrisy: “The Lord Knows I’m Drinking” (Ernest Tubb, Cal Smith, or Hank Thompson); “Outlaw’s Prayer” (Johnny Paycheck); “I Judged a Man” (Porter Wagoner); “No Earthly Good” (Billy Joe Shaver and Kris Kristofferson).
Contrast traditional country drinking songs with modern bro country / country pop, where drunkenness is a pleasurable end in itself. Now that’s immorality.
January 2, 2019 @ 5:47 pm
Never actively listened to Josh before, but started streaming him when I saw this review. Lots of good music and a great change of pace from some of the other stuff I’ve been listening to. Will have to add him to the rotation. Amazing Grace versions, like whiskey songs, are far too many but I did like his version as described.
January 2, 2019 @ 5:47 pm
It wasn’t too long ago that I could turn on country radio and didn’t have to worry too much about what my kids would hear. Not the case anymore. Country music use to have certain standards and even though there were songs with sexual content or mild profanity it wasn’t anything like today. The morals of country radio have took a nose dive.
January 3, 2019 @ 7:02 am
Great review! This album slowly became one of my favorite releases last year. I am a religious person and i was really moved by this project. Most importantly you could sense the passion Josh had for this album. Simply like was mentioned, his voice was made for gospel. Nice to see a MCA Nashville artist succeed for a change. Now if theyd only let Gary Allan make the album HE wants. And best version of Amazing Grace ive heard by far!
January 3, 2019 @ 9:43 am
Great review Kyle.
Also,there is a DVD of this same gospel project.I purchased it,have not yet had the chance to review this,but can hardly wait to see it.
January 3, 2019 @ 11:27 am
He really does have an amazing voice.
And that version of Amazing Grace is crazy. Never imagined someone would do it that way.