Josh Turner Speaks Out Over Delays in New Music
In mid November of 2015, Saving Country Music took a deep dive look into why it has taken so long for MCA Nashville-signed traditional country artist Josh Turner to get new music out to the public. Turner released the debut single from the new album called “Lay Low” all the way back on September 15th of 2014. His last record, Punching Bag, was released in June of 2012. A private listening party was even held for the new record on November 3rd of 2014, with the idea that the album would be released in early 2015. However here it is early 2016, and there’s still no release date or word on when the new album may be coming out.
Unfortunately, in the vacuum of any hard information on what is happening with Josh Turner’s career, fans have been left to only speculate. Turner himself hasn’t said much on the subject either, except for in September of 2015 when he said, “I’ve been working on this record for about 60 years now, it seems like anyway. Nobody is more ready to get it out there than me. We’re hopefully going to have a new single out in the next month or two, and hopefully we’ll get it out sooner than later. I’ve been going back in, making some last-minute changes and making sure everything is right.”
However in December, Josh spoke to the Albuquerque Journal, and went out of his way to reassure fans that the delays were not on his end, and once again he explained that the lack of new music is out of his control.
“If it were up to me, I would have had an album out in 2013,” Turner says. “There have been a lot of business issues that have popped up and I’m just pushing forward. The new music is there and I want to get it out to my fans … The fans have been pretty anxious. Then I have to remind them that this is a business and there are a lot of things that I can’t control.”
The music for Josh Turner’s new album is done. However his label, MCA Nashville, appears to be doing everything the can to either drag their feet, or ignore Turner, until either he decides to record more commercially-acceptable music, or some other resolution can be found that will assure MCA’s bottom line is protected. When artists find themselves in these such scenarios, it sometimes can be a career killer, while frustrated fans are left in the lurch, and an artist is not allowed the free flow of his music to the public.
READ: Hey MCA Nashville, Where’s The New Josh Turner Album?
Josh Turner’s music deserves to be heard by the public. MCA Nashville should either release the music, or release Josh Turner and his album to seek a more compatible label and willing partner in his career.
January 8, 2016 @ 10:57 am
Again proof UMGN are the worst. Similar to what they have done to Kip Moore and Gary Allan
January 8, 2016 @ 12:25 pm
Wasnt Jamey Johnson also on MCA? That label is doing their best to push Curb aside as the worst label for artists to be a part of.
January 8, 2016 @ 11:14 am
A voice like that shouldn’t be expected to sing such bullshit.
January 8, 2016 @ 7:08 pm
Lurve it. 😀
January 8, 2016 @ 11:34 am
MCA (UMGN) and company are out of their gores. Why mess Josh up with bull crap with EDM bro-country crap. Josh Turner should run his own label instead of singing garbage which isn’t his style of music. Good Grief!
January 8, 2016 @ 12:01 pm
Josh Turner was my favorite artist when I was a child, he was the first artist I ever saw in concert, the oldest autograph in the Fuzzipedia archives, and for a period when I was like eleven I listened to the “Your Man” album daily. That said, his recent works, “Punching Bag” notwithstanding have not delivered the same emotional effect, and for that matter the “Long Black Train” album just didn’t do it for me, even though as a kid I loved the song all to pieces. I tried using “Everything is Fine” for several different papers in ninth grade, one of them sucked, the other got rejected by a teacher who not only couldn’t spell my first OR last name but in essence hated my perspective and way of doing things.
John Turner Live at the Ryman is a great album that really proves how authentic and honest to Country Music the man is. And my favorite song of his, which used to be “White Noise” way back before I’d ever heard of Charley Pride, I think now is “Pallbearer” (Marty does some of the most expressive mandolin work I’ve ever heard) or “Longer the Waiting.”
My least favorite used to be “No Rush” because it was so slow but now it grew on me. Still not crazy for “Baby’s Gone Home to Momma” though.
January 8, 2016 @ 1:25 pm
The longer the waiting is my favorite also.
January 10, 2016 @ 9:23 pm
That song is basically an ancient sailor ballad. Just beautiful and its break before the conclusion suggested a possible radio attempt.
January 8, 2016 @ 12:20 pm
=(
Well, at the very least he is sticking to his guns and ensuring that when the music DOES surface, it won’t be compromised from his intentions.
It is infuriating UMGN is shackling him and other artists on their roster as is, but I’d rather hear new music that maintains an air of authenticity than have output that is only conditionally released because Turner conceded the staring contest, dropped to his knees and vowed for his overlords to “do their worst”.
January 8, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
You couldn’t pay me enough to be a a mainstream artist. Indie all the way!
January 8, 2016 @ 2:13 pm
I doubt that, everyone has a price
January 9, 2016 @ 8:39 am
Fuckin A right man, just give me a number
January 8, 2016 @ 12:47 pm
Man I just don’t get these big labels. It’s good to see Josh taking a stand. Hopefully he can put the album out his way, and very soon
January 8, 2016 @ 12:57 pm
This is really frustrating. It’s not as if going full bro or EDM is a guarantee that you are going to have a hit, anyways. It hasn’t been for several other artists. Think of two of his label mates: Gary Allan and David Nail. Both went EDM with their last singles. Both flopped and alienated fans. And there is no word on when either of those guys’ albums are going to be released either, is there? What the heck are they doing on that label?
I’m assuming King George and Vince are the only artists on that label with creative control.
January 8, 2016 @ 3:00 pm
While I get your overall point, Gary Allan’s most recent single most certainly wasn’t EDM (it was more bluesy and vaguely Motown-influenced).
David Nail’s current single does have EDM influences, though even “Night On Fire” is mostly run-of-the-mill Hot Adult Contemporary more than anything.
At any rate, both songs are mediocre compared to what they’re capable of.
January 8, 2016 @ 3:13 pm
Im probably confusing my terms…bro, metro, metro bro, R and B, EDM. But yeah, I am a fan of both and disappointed.
January 8, 2016 @ 3:28 pm
I hate to say this, but I’d rather David Nail gave the suits their one song an album if the rest of the album is absolutely fantastic, like I’m a Fire was, and even if we don’t like the stylistic choices forced upon him with “Whatever She’s Got” and “Night’s on Fire,” both are significantly better than most songs like them and are even enjoyable to some extent. “Whatever She’s Got” is pure catchiness and “Nights on Fire” showcases his vocal ability in the chorus. And if you’ve heard “Fighter,” the supposed title track, you’ve already heard a song that needs to reach the general public.
January 8, 2016 @ 9:32 pm
All I can say from David nail is “the sound of a million dreams” yet look what happened to that. It was a crime.
January 8, 2016 @ 12:59 pm
fuck MCA records. Worst record label ever after Curb. They’re a bunch of idiots. Josh Turner, Gary Allan and David Nail are three artists that always deliever quality music within their albums and MCA is ruining their careers.
January 8, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
Or how about Kip Moore, who ended up scrapping a whole second album to make Wild Ones?
Curb Records has officially passed the torch to MCA as the new country music hell.
January 8, 2016 @ 2:25 pm
I think the Saving Country Music commenters have just helped write an upcoming story for me. Thanks in advance.
January 8, 2016 @ 5:22 pm
MCA is the new Curb Records. Curb records #2 (MCA) is holding Gary Allan, Josh Turner, David Nail like they did for Kip Moore and George Strait. Look at Red Bow did to Chase Bryant, Broken Bow to James Wesley, and Big Machine (Republic) did to Greg Bates. Big Machine is almost as bad ask about Steel Magnolias, Maddie & Tae that took a while for their cd’s to come out. Steven Tyler, Eli Young Band, and Drake White for their cd’s.
January 8, 2016 @ 6:27 pm
I’m really sad that Greg Bates didn’t get to put out his debut record. He wasn’t as pretty as the bro guys he was debuting with but he had much better songs and vocals. He tried while the bro trend was too strong though and it looks like Mo Pitney is the one traditionalist sliding through now that the tides have changed.
January 8, 2016 @ 9:22 pm
Kip Moore was actually supposed to record the album at the studio across the street, but his team made a mistake.
January 9, 2016 @ 3:21 pm
Atlantic Records and RCA are also country music anti-christs. Look at how Atlantic forced Brett Eldredge to hold back his album for years until he had a good commercial hit and made him scrap excellent songs. “It Ain’t Gotta Be Love” is probably Brett’s best song, but it was indefinitely scrapped after it peaked at only #46. It cannot be purchased anywhere as they pulled it from iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. Another great song of his “Shades” never made it on an album either. He also had other good songs that were to be on his “Bring You Back” album, but they were all scrapped for some shitty songs FORCED by Atlantic Records. WTF do they know about country music anyway? Most of their artists are pop or a/c.
A big middle finger to RCA as well, for ruining Josh Thompson’s carrer as well as Jake Owen’s career with Days Of Gold and “Real Life”. We all know Jake is a great artist, but Days Of Gold was garbage and the new album is facing serious delays due to the lead single only having moderate success at #17.
January 8, 2016 @ 1:49 pm
Since when is David Nail considered good? Guy isn’t even remotely country and there isn’t one song of his that I like. I would call him soft rock or adult contemporary ha
January 8, 2016 @ 2:15 pm
So people aren’t allowed to like David Nail because you don’t like him?
January 8, 2016 @ 2:18 pm
I thought his first two albums showed a lot of potential, but then he took a step back. Fair point that he isn”™t really country. His music would probably fit better with the likes of Shawn Mullins, Counting Crows, Train, Five for Fighting, etc. But there isn”™t a commercial space on the radio for that music anymore, so country is where he is. I love several of his songs (“Mississippi” “Turning Home” “Sound of a Million Dreams”), but the single he released last year was awful, awful, awful. Electronic dance beats replaced the piano.
January 8, 2016 @ 3:14 pm
Nail has showed genuine signs of substance and promise, mostly prior to the “I’m a Fire” era.
Nail has among the stronger vocals in mainstream country/”country” music, bar none. “The Sound of a Million Dreams” was a brilliant single, and the album was also quite solid. “Turning Home” was a solid single as well and he has had plenty of deeper cuts on his first two albums that place his potential front and center.
Since releasing “Whatever She’s Got” to radio, however, I think he has receded. I did like “Kiss You Tonight” for what it was (a misty-eyed, middle of the road, power-pop leaning anthem that, much like Kip Moore, isn’t remotely country but still of quality on its own), but outside of that “I’m on Fire” sounded way too sterile, safe and lacked the same emotional accessibility.
“Night’s On Fire” has the right idea going in terms of the lyrical description, but it is marred by overproduction and an annoying, unnecessary “Whoa oh oh oh!” cadence.
January 8, 2016 @ 11:43 pm
You are overlooking Burning Bed, arguably the best song he’s ever released.
January 11, 2016 @ 5:56 am
I’m not into that sissy pop bullshit hence why I don’t like David Nail.
January 8, 2016 @ 6:49 pm
Charlie Rich, Ronnie Milsap, and Glen Campbell weren’t exactly country, but they were country.
January 9, 2016 @ 10:16 am
I have David Nail’s 3 cd’s and most of his songs were good. I like most of his singles that he released so far.
January 9, 2016 @ 3:12 pm
David Nail is great. I’m not sure what you are smoking but he’s definitely a talented guy. Maybe not real country music, but pop country.
January 11, 2016 @ 5:57 am
I’m just not into the sissy pop bullshit that he likes to make
January 10, 2016 @ 7:24 pm
I love traditional country music as much as anyone, 9 times out of 10 I’ll choose that over pop country. You’ll miss out on a lot of good music if that’s all you listen to though.
I checked out David Nail’s music after reading so many comments about him on SCM. His music didn’t strike me as particularly country, but I was blown away. He’s a great singer and the songs themselves were high quality. Some people say “it’s all about the song”. There’s some really good songs on the albums I listened to.
I haven’t gone back to those albums because as I said, 9 times out of 10 I’ll take traditional country music.
January 8, 2016 @ 2:17 pm
oops. deleted this and reposted as a reply to another comment. Sorry
January 8, 2016 @ 3:38 pm
If he indeed releases an album without corporate greed jingles, I will buy it.
If the record company forces him to defile the album with horseshit, I won’t buy it.
They can either have $12 or $0 from me.
January 8, 2016 @ 7:58 pm
I have no clue what his contract is but he has a large enough fan base to start his own label and be successful. Hopefully it comes out soon and he gets out .
January 8, 2016 @ 9:37 pm
He does but will they pony up the money for a pro level album? Even chely wright had to raise $175k for her album (which she successfully did). I would hope so. To start a label is another ballgame unless it’s on a tight budget. Toby Keith wrote a check for 5 million for his at the time.
January 9, 2016 @ 2:10 pm
Courtney Patton only needed $17.5k according to her kickstarter. The sound quality on her album and Jason Eady’s album along with others sound just as good as the top of line recording studios. Would the 175k be for advertising?
January 9, 2016 @ 5:02 pm
You can make a fairly good record for about $10,000. Where most of us would accept it and be happy with it. It will be nowhere as clean as a professional level one. Many major label albums would cost about 20-25k a song. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done otherwise or on a different budget.
I think chely just decided that was a good number. Various incentives came with different levels, which cost money. If I remember correctly at the time she raised the top 10 in music money on Kickstarter. There’s a whole other bunch of messes talking about crowdfunding sights. With that particular one had she not raised her goal all that work would’ve been for nothing. Where as a gofundme or indiegogo will still get the amount raised just pay the company their cut. Then have less to work with.
You have to also remember with Toby Keith talking about running a label. Have to have employees to do the day to day and promotions. Simply a top 30 song alone is 3/4 of a million, and up to double that to reach the top echelon of the charts. That’s one single.
January 8, 2016 @ 8:46 pm
Glad the Randy Rogers Band is out of there is all I can say
January 9, 2016 @ 1:37 am
David Nail is not a country artist, but he has cut a ton of amazing songs: Brand New Day, The Secret, Burnin Bed, Half Mile Hill, Catch You While I Can and i could go on and on.
January 9, 2016 @ 4:10 am
I need to hear some real country music
January 9, 2016 @ 6:41 am
Maybe you’ll start to sing some then!
January 9, 2016 @ 10:18 am
How’s Gwen?
January 9, 2016 @ 6:33 am
That is pretty funny…. that apears to be actual country singer, reality/talent show TV star Blake Shelton posting here.
Hi Blake!
January 9, 2016 @ 3:11 pm
No. You can put your name as anything. It’s not Blake, trust me.
January 9, 2016 @ 7:47 pm
Here’s an idea for a marketing plan to revive Josh Turner’s music career.
Turner needs a constituency, an audience that is passionate about something his music represents. The problem is that most mainstream listeners these days are not passionate about traditional country music, especially if it does not come from an old legend like King George. Instead, I look at the amount of populist frustration that Donald Trump has tapped into in recent months, and I think there is an opportunity for a traditional artist to be marketed as a voice for disaffected Christians and conservatives. Turner could become the voice of frustrated evangelicals and conservatives, just as Taylor Swift built a career in the 2006-2009 time frame as the voice of anxious adolescent girls.
How to accomplish this? Record lyrics and make statements in interviews slamming Obama and Hillary. Speaking out against the homosexual agenda, abortion on demand, and the erosion of religious liberty. Speaking out against illegal immigration and gun control. Remake the video for “Long Black Train” with unflattering images of Obama, Hillary, and Nancy Pelosi. Make it go viral on social media with the millions of Americans whose favorite movie was “The Passion of Christ”. And I think his country career might rise like a phoenix from the ashes.
January 10, 2016 @ 1:01 am
While that would work, does Josh Turner really give you the asshole Christian vibe? To me, he comes off more as a live and let live and love one another kind of Christian, in other words the correct kind of Christian. If you ain’t hurting anybody, he won’t say anything about it. As for the “homosexual agenda”–that doesn’t even exist, and religious liberty has not been threatened in any way, shape, or form.
The educated in this country simply don’t tolerate hateful rhetoric anymore, and that’s a good thing. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but you cannot govern an entire country based on your religious principles and you cannot force your beliefs on other people. It’s that simple. When uneducated white people and Ben Carson figure that out, this country will be much better off.
January 10, 2016 @ 1:14 pm
No, he doesn’t give me the asshole Christian vibe, and he doesn’t need to. He could simply be a soft spoken, concerned Christian and father who believes that traditional values and sticking with the ideas that made our country great will bring happiness to millions of Americans. He could record confessional songs from a middle aged Christian point of view, kind of like the Taylor Swift of conservative Christians, but with more traditional sounds and instruments. He could be reluctant culture warrior, the family man next door who’s speaking out because he wants to help get this country back on the right track for his children’s sake.
My point is that one way to bring traditional country back into the mainstream again is to associate it with a message and a large constituency that identifies with it. Make it a voice for the hopes and dreams and fears of millions of people.
January 10, 2016 @ 1:25 pm
Sure he could, but he’s smart enough to speak out about the right issues. Gay people getting married has nothing to do with the poor state of this country.
January 10, 2016 @ 1:42 pm
Ok, maybe opposing gay marriage is not the most important issue any more. But might parents not want boys and girls to use the same public bathrooms? Might some small business owners not want to be forced to be involved in marrying gay couples, if it conflicts with their personal views? Might we be concerned that left leaning universities are suppressing the freedom of speech on campus to enforce political correctness? Might a parent worry that their beloved daughter would be killed by a felon and serial offender who is in this country illegally? What would he do if his kids were to lose access to their doctor under Obamacare’s policies? Might a father think about how his children will live with a nuclear Iran in the future, and pray to God to ask for help?
From the perspective of many Americans, the last 7 years under the leadership of the Obama Administration have been a long black train for our country, a ticket to nowhere.
January 10, 2016 @ 1:59 pm
My point is that often successful music artists represent a constituency and make themselves into a champion of those constituents. Taylor Swift spoke for anxious young girls, Toby Keith for veterans and patriots, Reba for assertive women in the Boomer generation, Martina McBride for suburban mothers, George Strait for Texans. Josh Turner can become a champion of the concerned Christians.
I think of the popular music landscape as a virtual map of districts with different constituencies with their own aspirations and concerns. Josh needs to pick a district that he can win. And if he and other traditionalists can accomplish this, then traditional music might see a resurgence in popularity.
January 10, 2016 @ 10:57 pm
Great, more politics on the SCM forum. Oh well…
Let’s take these points one by one:
“But might parents not want boys and girls to use the same public bathrooms?”
This has nothing to do with Obama.
“Might we be concerned that left leaning universities are suppressing the freedom of speech on campus to enforce political correctness?”
This is primarily a problem with certain identity-obsessed sections of the current student population. The university administrations, believe it or not, are actually the victims here (witness how the demonstrators forced Tom Wolfe at Mizzou to resign for absolutely ridiculous reasons) and have often tried hard to maintain free speech in the face of mob demands to crack down on “hate” speech. The dynamic is the opposite of the 60s free speech movement.
Obama has actually publicly criticized the students who want to restrict free speech on campuses.
“Might a parent worry that their beloved daughter would be killed by a felon and serial offender who is in this country illegally?”
Now we have finally gotten to an issue over which Obama actually has some control. It’s important to note though that until his DACA and DAPA executive orders, he was deporting illegal immigrants at a higher rate than Bush. Illegal entries in the Obama era have also been at their lowest level in decades. You can criticize him for not doing enough to secure the border, but then you would have to place at least as much blame on Bush as well.
“What would he do if his kids were to lose access to their doctor under Obamacare”™s policies?”
The whole idea of Obamacare is to subsidize premiums for those who could not afford insurance and to ensure that insurance companies could not raise premiums for those who fall ill. Both of those reforms help more people keep access to their doctor.
Imagine that you lose your job, and along with it your insurance. In order to make ends meet, you are essentially forced to take a low-wage job that does not offer insurance. Under the previous system, you would no longer have access to your doctor (or any doctor for that matter). Under Obamacare, though, you can buy a premium-subsidized plan from your old insurance company and get your doctor back.
“Might a father think about how his children will live with a nuclear Iran in the future, and pray to God to ask for help?”
The extraordinarily strict inspections regime that the deal imposes forestalls the possibility of a nuclear Iran. There really isn’t much to worry about here.
Don’t think that I am a strong Obama supporter by any means. There are many issues that I am deeply upset with him about.
He did not do nearly enough to create jobs in the wake of the worst recession since the Great Depression (the stimulus only spent $80 billion on infrastructure, for example).
He did nothing to help the victims of foreclosure.
Bailing out Wall Street without any strings attached after they destroyed the economy represented the height of crony capitalism, as did the Obamacare individual mandate to buy private insurance with no public option.
He reneged on his promise to renegotiate job-killing free trade agreements and is instead trying to pass a new one with the TPP.
His EPA’s unnecessarily harsh crackdown on power plant CO2 emissions has contributed to further poverty and misery in the already poor Appalachian coal country.
His DAPA program legalizing millions of illegal immigrants who came here as adults, while probably a good policy if passed by Congress, is clearly unconstitutional as an executive order. It represents a new extreme in the trend of executive overreach that started under Bush.
The right-wing media has wasted its chance to criticize Obama on these legitimate topics, though, by focusing on conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated predictions about the future, and matters that have nothing to do with the federal government.
Alright, that’s enough politics for now…
January 11, 2016 @ 3:55 am
If that sort of rhetoric didn’t work for Hank Williams Jr. Album sales then why in the hell would it work for Josh Turner?! Hank jr has always been seen as a trashy redneck type while Josh Turner has always been branded as the handsome “guy next door” type. I don’t think there’s any reason for hm to get into partisan politics or anti-Obama smears just to get the attention of traditional conservatives who don’t buy music digitally or in general anywhere as much as the younger more progressive audience that made Taylor Swft and pro-gay marriage Carrie Underwood so succussful with this genrations country music listeners.
January 11, 2016 @ 10:12 am
Taylor faced pressure to act progressive as the result of a feminist backlash against her early songs, and as a consequence of trying to expand her audience into the 18-25 urban female demographic which is a very liberal one. I’m not aware that she has publicly endorsed any national political candidate. From a cultural perspective she has played both sides, leaning slightly to the right when she was marketed as a country singer and slightly to the left when she was marketed as a pop singer. Her girl squad “feminism” seems to be a placeholder to assuage the feminists among her female fan base without alienating the earlier fans from her “country” days. It basically means nothing, and I’d guess that it was a dodge to defuse a potentially controversial pop cultural issue.
It is not obvious that Carrie is a liberal given that she has not endorsed any party or candidate. Sure she is pro same sex marriage, but the majority of Millennials are on the same side of that issue regardless of whether they are Republicans or Democrats. I thought I read that she had interned for a Democratic member of the Oklahoma state legislature, but not all Democrats in Oklahoma are liberals. I’m not sure where she stands politically, but the Christian songs in her catalog would probably be much more appealing to conservatives than to liberals.
January 10, 2016 @ 9:33 pm
Religious liberty has not been threatened?!
Tell that to The Little Sisters of the Poor.
January 11, 2016 @ 3:50 am
Little sisters of the poor were offered a waiver form jump street and they refused to,sign it. There problem now if they wanna be difficult!
August 19, 2022 @ 9:27 am
This comment about the homosexual agenda and not threatening religious liberty hasn’t aged well.
January 10, 2016 @ 9:32 pm
I have met plenty of “educated” people who have no idea about how the world works and think that if they ban a few symbols, an utopia will arise out of the blue. Also, there are plenty of uneducated people in other races that cannot understand the issues either and wish to push their beliefs. To just point out uneducated whites is misrepresenting the picture.
Honestly, I cannot see that idea working on a national scale especially for the radio. Plus, I don’t think Josh would write politically. That is not his style.
If you do read his book “Man Stuff”, you will discover a traditionally, Christian man, the type that many folks on the Left view as obsolete or that “hinder” America.
Josh just had his career in the wrong decade. Simple as that and his label mismanaged the single selection from “Ounching Bag”, then bro-country arose to wipe out any morally correct singers. Turner’s chivalry doesn’t win in today’s climate with tailgate warriors.
January 10, 2016 @ 10:06 pm
You might have a point that Josh would not be inclined to write politically. But I think there are many songs that are not overtly political – like Josh’s “Long Black Train”, Randy Travis’ “Three Wooden Crosses” and Carrie Underwood’s “Something In The Water” – that have messages that would resonate with the constituency I was describing. So would many of the songs of George Strait (“Love Without End Amen” and “I Saw God Today” come to mind), who retired from touring leaving a vacuum in the mainstream traditional space. One can articulate traditional and Christian values and lifestyles without making every song about politics.
On a different note, Carrie had an opportunity to bring Christian themes into mainstream music in a big way, but I think she was pulled in different directions as an American Idol act which made it difficult to focus. While she has been open about her Christian identity and has recorded some decent Christian themed country pop songs, the lack of consistent focus in her messaging and song selection has kept her from becoming an icon of the Christian demographic to the same degree that Taylor has for her young female demographic. It’s too bad, because with the right song selections (e.g. by doubling down on the Christian songs, reaching deeper into traditional themes, and not recording guilty pleasures like “Before He Cheats” and “Last Name”) she could have been an iconic artist for bringing Christian country music to the mainstream.
January 11, 2016 @ 7:52 am
Christian Country has been in and out of the mainstream. Back in the 70s there was a sacred number every episode of Hee-Haw, there’s still one every episode of the Marty Stuart show, and in the oughts there were hundreds of them. “God’s Will,” “Hey this is God,” “Love without End (Amen),” “One Wing in the Fire,”
I think the cycles are part of the problem, this century had the “Jesus” and soccer mom phase, which ended around the time that “Give it Away” and “Would you Go With Me” and “Every Mile a Memory” were on the radio. Which was the last time I remember enjoying Country radio.
In 2007, near the end of that era, Steve Holy and Trent Tomlinson made their very short radio careers with “Just Might Have Her Radio On” and “Come on Rain” which had a very short radio life. Following that, it was the downfall of Country Radio, Sugarland did “All I Wanna Do” and “Stuck Like Glue,” Blake Shelton did “Hillbilly Bone” and TBP released “If I Die Young.” That was the harbinger of the rise of Bro-“Country.”
My perspective is that instead of an era in which all the songs are about Jesus, or trucks, or Taylor Swift’s disastrous dating life, we should only have two or three songs about each on the charts at any given time, which a wider variety.
I think Josh Turner is comfortable with his current career path, I can’t imagine he’d change. The man has got a very loyal and dedicated fanbase who actually like him as an artist and a person, and even if he doesn’t top the charts he’ll still be able to shift album units to these core fans, including me.
Changing would do to Josh what it did to TBP, it would alienate long-time fans and fail to attract new ones.
January 10, 2016 @ 6:20 am
I hope Josh Turner gets to release the music he wants to release. I haven’t been completely in love with everything that he’s put out, but he’s easily one of the few good guys left in mainstream country.
January 10, 2016 @ 10:20 am
Josh Turner just needs to go ahead and go the Thirty Tigers route. He’s better off for it. That’s what I would do.
January 10, 2016 @ 9:40 pm
I had the exact same thought.
January 10, 2016 @ 9:35 pm
Trigger,
Thank you for continuing to cover the topic. I have been searching for information as well, but you are a much better digger.
I start my stint in the Disney College Program soon, thus my amount of minutes to find new articles will rapidly dwindle. I am counting on you.
January 12, 2016 @ 11:04 am
I’ve always enjoyed Josh Turner’s music. Yes it has been long overdue for a new album from him to be released. But as long as Turner stays true with himself and his musical style, (i.e. not selling out to the corporate wolves killing country music’s traditions and values), then in my opinion it is definitely worth the wait.
January 10, 2017 @ 1:47 pm
The business must be so corrupt to keep the public from such great talent. It’s just not right. And these weasels making more money than the stars. What a shame.
June 22, 2024 @ 11:04 pm
Why aren’t you Sueing that damn record company‼️‼️