• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM SPOTLIGHT olz H eorge G JOSH TURNER A traditionalist works to bring the ballad back to country radio “ThE OTHER NIGHT I WAS HAVING connect with his fans. “I just want my music dreams about the number of pre-orders we to strike a chord,” he says. “I want people were getting,” says Josh Turner, referring to to listen to the songs and think about what advance purchases of his fifth studio album, they mean in their own lives.” Punching Bag. “That shows how important Musically, Turner turned to a trusted this is to me.” Nearly 10 years after debuting authority, producer Frank Rogers, to frame with the modern country gospel standard his rumbling baritone and coax his best “Long Black Train,” Turner is focused on performances. “He really understands my maintaining a confident attitude to achieve voice and how to make it sound its best,” long-held ambitions. “I try to look at things Turner says. “He’s so skilled as a producer. in a positive light, to learn to let go of the Sometimes he’ll go in and add an overdub JUNE 2012 negative things,” he says. or percussion without telling me, and when M MUSIC & MUSICIANS True to that perspective, Punching Bag I hear it, it just sounds right.” features breezy romantic fare that recalls Turner, 34, remains a champion of MAGAZINE past No. 1 hits such as “Your Man” and traditional country, despite Nashville’s “Why Don’t We Just Dance.” He balances increasing reliance on slick production those with more serious material such as values. He’s resolute in including down- “Pallbearer,” inspired by the death of a home acoustic instruments on his albums, family member, and “For the Love of God,” a nod to musical heroes such as Randy influenced by his Christian faith. As Turner Travis and John Anderson. Turner’s goal is shifts between moods and tempos, his to satisfy his creative impulses while striving motivations are simple. “I look for songs that for commercial success. “For some reason have a message I want to convey,” Turner says. they frown upon country ballads now,” he For Turner, who wrote or co-wrote says. “It’s all about in-your-face songs. It’s nearly all the album’s songs, Punching Bag funny how hard you have to work a ballad to is a culmination of a busy two-year period in be played on country radio. But I’m willing his personal life. He celebrated the birth of to adjust—I made a conscious effort to have his third child and completed renovation of more uptempo songs. That doesn’t keep me a log cabin on his property—a rural refuge from putting some ballads on my albums.” where he hoped to create songs that –Blake Boldt 24 M mag 20_cs6.indd 24 7/9/12 12:22 AM.

Load more

  1

Copy Link