Haywire
Artist: Josh Turner
Label: MCA Nashville
 
Three albums into his national career and Josh Turner has well established himself as a commercial country music good guy. Unafraid to pipe up about his Christianity, but neither shy about plying his eminently listenable low baritone to subjects beyond the gospelly scope of his 2003 breakthrough hit, "Long Black Train," Turner's one of the more approachable persona's in the genre in which he's become a pretty big name. Within fair apropos for the most tuned-into radio format in the U.S., he's fulfilling the second half of that famed description of what Christian music is that T Bone Burnett articulated back in the '80s: singing about what he sees in the Light.

What Turner sees most in the Godly glow throughout his fourth longplayer, Haywire, is honorable matrimonial romance that doesn't neglect the fleshly manifestation of that love, either. Dude's horny for his wife. Nothing wrong with that, because it's his wife, right?

That affection can take place insofar as turning the living room into a place to cut a rug on the album's first single, the swaying "Why Don't We Just Dance." Visions of a more (likely) horizontal nature come into play on the string-laden '70s soul-styled slow jam, "Lovin' You On Mind." The song;'s something of a revelation for an artist who's something of a country traditionalist, but the way he reaches for his upper register puts him league with country guys with a taste for older school R & B, such as Razzy Bailey, T.G. Shepperd and, more recently, James Otto.

Turner's bluegrass tunes (he poses with a mandolin in the CD booklet, too) can be either silly or moving. "Your Smile" tends toward the former unfortunate bent, as our hero compares his lady friend's grin to any number of country-ish metaphors over an unusually weak melody. A heartier tone of commitment and lyric infuse the superior "As Fast As I Can" in a sound recalling Deirks Bentley's latest more acoustic direction.

He plays a bit against type in going for the working class schmo pose on "Friday Paycheck," but if it's not a hit single, it's likely to be a smash on boot scootin' dancefloors. Encouraging his honey to don a string bikini, especially if it's on a group date, in current single "All Over Me," plays against the kind of husband one might think he'd be, too, but, uh, OK, that's between him, his Mrs. and any other guy on the beach who thinks she's a hottie, too, eh?

As for expressing his commitment to the Lord, it seems like he's going for the Denice Williams approach. When that R & B gal wasn't recording strictly Christ-centric material for a CCM label, she would add at least one gospel song to each of her general market longplayers. Turner's similar turn here is the concluding, "The Answer." With folks such as Southern gospel lovebirds Reggie and Lady Love Smith singing chorally behind him, this downtempo, surging number counts Jesus as the titular solution to a host of personal ills. And as George W. Bush deemed himself "the decider" of policy and cabinet appointments during his tenure, Turner finds other words rhyming with "answer to call Christ: anchor, understander, God's right-hander. Whatever understanding of the triune nature of the Godhead that third one implies I won't plumb here, but if Turner and his handlers want a probable SoGos radio hit, this is the cut they want to service to stations reporting to the Singing News chart.

If Turner is given to the occasional dip into corniness, it still becomes him. And though it's impressive to hear himself stretching his vocal range some, his naturally low tones still work plenty magic. Haywire isn't quite the masterwork I believe he has in him, but it's certainly more consistent that what some of his competition slaps onto a CD.

Jamie Lee Rake