Best of Josh Turner

iTunes Review

Best of Josh Turner harvests the cream of the crop from Turner’s first four albums. Though there are none of the bonus or exclusive tracks that normally grace best-of collections from Music City, this particular release plays with a proper flow, sounding more like an album than a collage of radio singles. It opens with Turner’s beefy baritone growling the intro to “Firecracker” over a weeping pedal steel and locomotive Telecaster picking. His early years singing gospel songs in church really come through on his biggest hit, “Long Black Train,” an infectious slice of new traditional country that impressively roosted on the Billboard country charts for more than 40 weeks. “Backwoods Boy” also gives keen insight into Turner’s childhood in the South Carolina sticks, but it’s the more amorous tunes (like the Mel McDaniel inspired “Your Man” and the heartfelt “She’ll Go on You”) that display the man’s knack for singing ballads without sounding as sappy as some of his contemporaries. “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” from his fourth album, Haywire, ends on a fun note.