Josh Turner Talks ‘Hometown Girl,’ Upcoming Album

We recently sat down with Country hitmaker Josh Turner to chat about his latest single and much-anticipated new album. 

Written by Laura Hostelley
Josh Turner Talks ‘Hometown Girl,’ Upcoming Album
Josh Turner; Photo courtesy MCA Nashville

Josh Turner hasn’t released a new record since his 2012 album, Punching Bag. But don’t worry, he hasn’t forgotten about his fans. He sat down with Sounds Like Nashville to talk about upcoming music as well as his new single, “Hometown Girl.”

“Slowly but surely, I have enough songs for two records at this point. But a lot of time has passed but you know God’s in control and it just wasn’t meant to be for me to have the record out yet,” Turner explains. “It’s just the nature of the business, sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to go and you’re not in control of those things and at the end of the day I just try to do what I can do and let everything else take care of itself.”

The husband and father released his catchy, contemporary single “Hometown Girl,” earlier this spring. It’s a track that goes on to tell a tale of the lady in every man’s dreams, down-to-earth and hardworking but not afraid to have some fun; a lot like his fans that support him on the road, night after night at his shows.

“I loved what it said and it would be somewhat of an anthem for you know my female fans out there,” he continues. “It’s funny, this is the kind of girl I think every guy looks for. They want someone who is down to earth and humble and loving, but at the same time they know how to turn it on. They have a lot of talent and they can do anything they put their mind to. It makes me think about what I was looking for in a girl before I got married and I ended up marrying one, and the rest is history.”

With the first single out there, that means an album can’t be too far down the road. Turner has been working diligently to get new music to his fans. He has switched producers which lead to the more modern sound found in “Hometown Girl.”

“This particular song, ‘Hometown Girl,’ is more progressive because I feel like that’s what the song calls for,” the 38-year-old singer says. “We didn’t feel like it needed the standard ‘Josh Turner acoustically driven’ kind of treatment. So every song is different. The next song you hear from the record might not have that progressive kind of contemporary sound.”

Turner has enough material for multiple albums with one more song left to record. Included on the project will be a song Turner wrote while on tour in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana. Ironically enough, the track he penned was titled “Beach Bums.” There are several tracks that could potentially end up on the record which he wrote himself, which allows him to put his heart on display.

On previous projects, Turner has let his Christian beliefs shine through his lyrics on at least one song. Though his faith hasn’t changed, he can’t guarantee a gospel track will make an appearance on the upcoming album, though all featured songs will reach his standard of integrity.

“A lot of people think there’s this unwritten rule that if you’re a country artist and you’re a Christian you have to put at least one gospel song on the record. It’s not a requirement, if I don’t get a gospel song on the record, that doesn’t mean I’m less of a person,” the South Carolina native explains. “I think by this point if people don’t know that I’m a Christian, they’re either really new fans or they haven’t been paying attention. Even in the country songs I’m singing there’s certain standards. I have a certain level of integrity that songs have to measure up to and people understand that too.”

There is no set release date or even title for Turner’s upcoming project, but every time we listen to “Hometown Girl” we get more and more excited for what’s next in this singer’s catalogue.