MCA Nashville The men of country music — namely Chris Janson, Randy Travis, Kris Kristofferson and John Anderson — are on full display on Josh Turner‘s new Country State of Mind album. 

But the South Carolina native was dead set on paying tribute to country’s greatest women on the covers record as well. 

“I looked at a lot of Dolly Parton stuff, and I also looked at Loretta Lynn stuff,” Josh explains. “But it seemed like most all of Loretta’s stuff came from a woman’s perspective, and it was very specific lyrically to where it kind of prevented me from singing a lot of it.”

“I looked at some of the Reba stuff,” he continues. “But I was determined to get a female song on this record, because I felt like that was important.”

The answer came in the form of a 1997 hit by a CMA Female Vocalist of the Year.

“I scoured the landscape,” Josh says. “And when I came across the Patty Loveless song, ‘You Don’t Seem to Miss Me,’ lyrically, it could be sung by a man or a woman. It was written by Jim Lauderdale. It had George Jones singing the harmony on it originally.”

“And so I thought that would be cool if I went in, sang this, and had a female sing the harmony, sing the George Jones part. And so the only thing better than one female is three females,” Josh laughs. “So that’s where I ended up getting Runaway June.”

“So that’s kind of the girl power song on the record,” he adds. 

Country State of Mind also features Maddie & Tae and Allison Moorer, with Josh covering the likes of Keith Whitley, Alan Jackson, Waylon Jennings, Vern Gosdin, and more.

By Stephen Hubbard
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.