Josh Turner Goes Just a Tad Haywire

Artist:  Josh Turner
Title:  Haywire
Label:  MCA Nashville

One baritone serenade fest coming right up!

From the moment his first producer said, "Roll tape," the double-platinum-selling Josh Turner has been compared to rockabilly legend Johnny Cash.

First, there's the unmistakable, deep baritone voice. Then the knack for projecting steroidic masculinity one moment and unabashed sentiment the next. And most importantly? A devout Christian faith that is both personal and undeniably public. However, whereas Cash debuted with a sound and style as distinct as his voice (think "boom chicka boom"), Turner's music is standard traditional country. Granted, the 32 year old has incorporated R&B and even Celtic influences in his songs on occasion. And his instant classic, 2003's "Long Black Train"—an overt song about battling temptation and finding "victory in the Lord"—sounded like nothing on country radio. But his gift-from-God voice aside, there has been no "Josh Turner sound."

For better or worse, the first thing you notice when you listen to Turner's fourth studio album, Haywire, isn't its particular style, but, rather, that one love song continually follows another. And while Turner's expressions of romance here are short on lyrical depth, the album's lead single, the piano-fiddle partier "Why Don't We Just Dance," did manage to become Turner's biggest hit yet as it topped the country charts for four weeks.

Turner wrote or cowrote almost half the album's 11 songs, which primarily fall into one of two camps—heart-felt ballads or playful upbeat folk-pop. Together, he and producer Frank Rogers (Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker), once again, emphasize the traditional.  While Turner's singing rules the day as usual, masterful performances on steel guitar, fiddles and the occasional banjo keep the decently-written songs perhaps more interesting than they deserve. "Lovin' You on My Mind" is moody, southern-fried R&B, while the silly "Eye Candy" sounds like a Brad Paisley discard.

With lyrical references to "the secret way you touch me," "cut-off jeans," "them long, long legs" and "that thing you did last night," the album reveals the notoriously virtuous Turner at his flirtiest and, dare we say, suggestive. The odd (but welcome) songs out are "I'll Be There," which Turner recorded as a fatherly tribute to his sons, and the singer's expected gospel statement, "The Answer." "You've got questions, you need directions/Arms to hold you for all eternity/Look no further, because there's no other/He's a lover and an understander/Jesus is the answer," sings Turner on the closer. To his credit, that's the last impression the album makes.


**This review first published on March 3, 2010.