Your Man

1	Would You Go With Me 3:49
2	Baby's Gone Home to Mama 3:07
3	No Rush 4:08
4	Your Man 3:33
5	Loretta Lynn's Lincoln 3:56
6	White Noise 3:24
7	Angels Fall Sometimes 2:59
8	Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy 3:07
9	Me and God 3:01
10	Gravity 3:39
11	Way Down South 4:53

Barnes & Noble

Josh Turner went platinum with his 2003 debut, Long Black Train, then took his sweet time crafting a follow-up. His deliberate approach -- focusing on love songs, carefully chosen covers, and his own writing chops -- paid off. Your Man sounds like a classic from the git-go, with speed-picked mandolin notes heralding the bluegrass-inflected "Would You Go with Me," setting the stage for the up-tempo rousers, heartfelt ballads, and spiritual inquiries to follow. At the center of the action is Turner's rich, emotive baritone voice, a remarkable and supple instrument that packs plenty of punch in both its upper and lower registers, with personality to burn. On the swaying title track, he employs his full arsenal of vocal affects in a beautiful love song punctuated by sweet pedal steel fills, a twangy lead guitar, and rich fiddle commentary. And check his sensitive country crooning on the twin fiddle–enriched "Angels Fall Sometimes," a soft meditation of gratitude for the woman from the good side of town who's given her heart to him. For comic relief, there's the funkified "Baby's Gone Home to Mama," chronicling the musings of a lazy good ol' boy who can't be bothered to chase down his estranged wife, and fantasies of "Loretta Lynn's Lincoln" done to southern rock perfection. The topper is a duet with Ralph Stanley on Turner's infectious gospel shuffle, "Me and God," the artists' voices a perfect blend of aged wisdom and youthful vigor in a song that is at once celebratory and reflective -- which, come to think of it, is the neat balance Turner strikes throughout. David McGee

All Music Guide

Josh Turner's second album is deliberately steeped in country music tradition; at one point or another, he name-checks Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, and Red Sovine; sings with John Anderson and Ralph Stanley; and borrows songs from Anderson and Don Williams. At a time when country music, as so often, was flirting with pop, Turner took a leaf from his main immediate influence, Randy Travis, and established a sort of neo-neo-traditionalist approach with his first significant hit, "Long Black Train," in 2003-2004. Although it topped out at only number 13 in Billboard's country chart, the song established Turner, whose debut album, named after the single, went platinum. There isn't anything as arresting on this collection (the title song, an ordinary love ballad, inched into the country Top 20 prior to the album's release), but it is more consistent overall. Producer Frank Rogers constructs conventional country arrangements that do not draw any special attention to themselves, which is appropriate since all they need to do is serve as background to the real attraction, Turner's resonant bass baritone. It's that voice that matters, more than the music and more than the songs, although Turner and Rogers have put together a nicely balanced selection that includes a heartfelt ballad in "Angels Fall Sometimes" (one of five songs out of 11 that Turner wrote or co-wrote); the honky tonk duet "White Noise," a surprisingly successful pairing with Anderson; the dumb-but-no-doubt-sincere "Me and God," sung with Stanley; the rollicking novelty "Loretta Lynn's Lincoln" (a video waiting to happen); and the winning revival of Williams' 1977 hit "Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy." Turner doesn't quite have the sense of wry humor necessary to make Anderson's (or songwriter Shawn Camp's) "Baby's Gone Home to Mama" his own -- he's still a better technical singer than he is an interpreter -- but he's still young, and improving. William Ruhlmann