Josh Turner's second album has been a long time coming, a good 2 1/2 years since "Long Black Train" came out.

Now that could be considered rather surprising because Turner had a hit off his debut with the title track, which became controversial for its video treatment.

But Turner says in a telephone interview from his Nashville home that the wait for "Your Man," out in late January, resulted from a bunch of alterations, mainly on the business side.

"A lot of things happened between the first and second record, mainly just making some changes within my organization," he says. "I changed management, I changed booking agent, I changed fan club president. I changed my band and my merchandise guy, just one position after the other."

"I was really trying to surround myself with people who had a passion for Josh Turner music," he says.

Without explaining the exact problem he had with those replaced, Turner says, "A lot of the people that I had surrounding me just did not have a passion for my music...They had a passion for other things, a passion that I didn't share with them, so I was really looking for people who believed in me."

"I think that's really paying off for me for me right now. Things have been so much more organized and more stable when I got all of those people in place and then, of course, the label was wanting me to go ahead and get started on the new record."

Turner did not exactly rush through recording studio sessions and get the music out.

"The funny thing is I started recording this album before Thanksgiving of '04," he says. "So, it's been a little while making this record, but I'm really excited about this record and the journey I've been on to get to this point."

"I'm so much more less stressed at this point in my career. I'm glad that I took the time. I'm glad I'm able to put out a new record, and I'm glad the single's (the title track) getting the attention it's getting...The video is out and getting a lot of good comments, good attention and good press."

A second album is often a huge deal career-wise for an artist because the singer can either move ahead or perhaps fade into music oblivion.And Turner made it clear he's looking to go onward and upward.

"I wanted to make a record that just really blew people away. I wanted to make a record that just sounded different and just came from a place that knocked people on their butt really. I wanted to make a great traditional country album."

The 28-year-old describes his music as "honest. I don't pretend to be somebody that I'm not. I don't pretend to sing songs that I don't understand. I sing about songs that I can relate to...I wanted to have that traditional country sound regardless of how fresh that it sounds or new or contemporary it sounds. I wanted to have those traditional aspects because that's where I come from. My heart is in traditional music, bluegrass and gospel."

There is no mistaking the music on "Your Man" for anything but country. While others in country may favor more of a pop sound, Turner along with producer Frank Rogers, Brad Paisley's producer, kept it firmly rooted in country as evidenced by echoes of Don Williams, John Anderson, and his idol, Randy Travis in the mix. He also puts a bluegrass tinge to the music plus a slight soulful/funky twist.

Turner also isn't afraid to tackle personal, religious themes either.

Turner says he received sage advice from country elder statesman Eddy Arnold in making the album.

"I wanted to have a whole lot more love songs on the record," Turner says. "That advice actually came from Eddy Arnold believe it or not. I've gotten to know him in the past few years. One of the things he always told me was to record love songs. He expressed to me that there's no better way to relate people across the country than to sing about a relationship between a man and a woman. I took his advice. It seems to be paying off. The first example is 'Your Man.' The public is really really loving that, loving what it says."

Rogers brought the song to Turner, even though it had yet to demoed, a process whereby a singer will record the song to enable it to be pitched to recording artists.

Turner says Rogers told him to "just tell me what you think of it. I don't know if this is what I want to do, but I sat down and played it with my guitar (and) realized we could make this a Josh Turner song."

"That was the last song we recorded, and the magic happened. It turned out great. It sounded like the perfect mesh of a Don Williams and a Temptations song, that funky 'My Girl' kind of thing to it and also had a "I Believe in You' Don Williams thing to it. It was a really cool mix of musicality."

Turner recorded Williams' "Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy" along with Anderson's "Baby's Gone Home to Mama," a song on his 2001 disc, "Nobody's Got It All."

"John has always been an influence of mine," says Turner. "He's always been a hero. I've always just really dug what he has done...You know John Anderson when he opens his mouth. It is very distinctive and undeniable and unmistakable. It was kind of the same situation with Ralph. John had seen the 'Long Black Train' video and had gotten in touch with somebody at my label that he knew and told them how much he had loved 'Long Black Train', and he wanted to meet."

"I went out to John's house, and that was where I got to meet him and got to hang out with him. We got to sit around and play some songs together. It was a cool moment for me because I was a big fan of his."

The two collaborated on "White Noise," which also features Anderson. Turner expects the song to generate listeners' reactions.

The song includes the lines:"I'm talkin' 'bout a white noise
Comin' from the white boys
I can't keep my cowboy boots from stompin'
To that white noise
Comin' from the white boys
Take me where those honkies are a tonkin'"

Later, Turner makes it clear the idea of white noise crosses racial boundaries:

"It ain't a thing 'bout black and white
It's Johnny Cash and Charlie Pride
That's what I call white noise
Comin' from the real McCoys"

The idea first stemmed from Turner listening to an Ernest Tubb live album recorded in 1965 where "you could obviously tell there were people...They were eating. It was a laid back atmosphere. You could hear silverware clanging in the background. You could hear those big flashbulbs going off on their cameras that they had back then, people rustling and talking in the background."

"There was all of this background noise, it just made you feel like you were there. I got to thinking there's the aural technological term 'white noise'. That means one thing."

"I got to thinking Ernest Tubb is white noise, George Jones...Merle Haggard...Hank Williams, even Charley Pride is white noise. That idea kind of stuck with me - white noise coming from the white boys - that kind of idea. Even the black blues musicians from a long time ago, they always called country music the white man's blues...When I presented it to John, he loved the idea. He and I got together immediately. We wrote the song in no time."

"The last verse...we had those two names in there, but we didn't lead up to those names...originally. Frank Rogers was really wanting us to drive the point home that this is not a racial song. It's not about the color of someone's skin. It's not about that subject really. It's about a sound, a genre of music."

"You should be able to tell that from what we've already written."

"I've even spent time with Charley Pride myself and got to talk with him about certain things. And how he got into this business. He told an interesting story about how when he first got into country music, his family gave him such a hard time about what he was doing (and) they were saying, 'Charley why do you want to go sing their music?' He was saying, 'this is my music too'."

"I realize the fact that it could be misconstrued, but those kind of people...don't get me started. There were a lot of people who misconstrued 'Long Black Train'. They thought I was encouraging suicide by standing on a railroad, which is so ludicrous."

While "Long Black Train" was a hit for Turner back in 2003, it also proved controversial thanks to the video. A pregnant teen, a homeless person and other down and outers were shown with a train running through them. Some apparently thought the video was focused on suicide, drawing the ire of several railroad groups concerned about the portrayal of the train industry.

"I've had people call my management company and publishing company," says Turner, who was none too happy at the time and still isn't. "A lot of them hadn't even seen the video. You deal with those kind of people who can't get the point sometimes."

As for "White Noise," Turner says, "the majority of the people will get it. If they don't, we'll just have a talk."

As for the spiritual/bluegrass side of the Turner mix, he enlisted the help of bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley and Diamond Rio for the faith-based song "Me and God."

"I was sitting around my apartment one day. This is before I was married. I was writing one day, and this song just kind of came out. This was a personal song. I didn't expect it to be on a record of mine. I didn't really have any intention or ideas of how to use that song. When I wrote it, it was just a song for me. It was a song about me and my Lord. It may be simple for some. It may be complex for some. It is what it is."

The idea of asking Stanley to participate was the idea of Turner's manager. Turner says Stanley saw the "Long Black Train" video and heard the song.

"He and I had met several times at the Opry and had gotten to know each other a little bit. He had invited me out to Virginia to do his (bluegrass) festival last year. We did that, and that was a lot of fun. When it came time to ask him about this song, first time he heard it, he said he would do it. It was a huge compliment that he was willing to put his vocals on there."

However, the process did not prove so easy. Stanley took ill in June 2005, requiring triple bypass surgery.

"It hadn't been that long since he had had it," says Turner. "He was still weak and still recovering from that surgery. It was just 1 of those things where I knew he was going to do a great job, but he just wasn't feeling 100 percent. I think he was a little nervous about it...We got in a circle, and I said a prayer for Ralph, and he got in there and just knocked it out. He sounded great. He was having a little bit of trouble knowing where to come in on certain places, but I got right in there beside him and helped him out. He did a great job. He was a pro...That really meant a lot to me."

"He respected me, and I, of course, respected him," says Turner. "Some of the first music I ever heard was the Stanley Brothers."

That would have been courtesy of his grandmother, Dora Turner. Sounds of The Stanley Brothers, the Osborne Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and gospel quartets wafted around her house.

"She was just a fan. She was just a really humble spiritual woman," says Turner. "She actually died in '87, the day before my 10th birthday. She really impacted my life in a huge way, just in those nine years. She only had a fourth grade education. She never had a driver's license. She gave birth to six children... loved music, loved life."

"She was big into bluegrass music and southern gospel and country music. She had a big record collection - the Stanley Brothers was the first record of hers that I heard, which is really the first record I remember hearing in my life. I have that hanging on my wall and had Dr. Ralph sign it."

"I still got the price tag, on it, $2.97," says Turner with a laugh.

"I was just a young boy that didn't know how to play an instrument. I loved music. At that time of my life, Randy Travis was a huge influence one me. He was a big hero of mine and still is. I worked so hard to mimic and impersonate him. I sounded just like him almost. The funny thing is the first time I ever sang a country song in front of a crowd, I was singing at a church benefit. I sang 'Diggin' Up Bones.' After I got done singing, people thought I was lip synching to Randy's version of the record. That's how much I sounded like him."

"The response from the crowd was really what inspired me to start thinking...okay, can I make a living at this? Can I go to Nashville and be a recording artist? That was a pretty cool night."

"I went around to different parties or beauty pageants or whatever singing with those karaoke tracks," says Turner.

"I've come a long way baby," Turner jokes.

After finishing high school, Turner attended Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C. for two years.

He continued his singing there as part of a show in Myrtle Beach, S.C., High Steppin Country.

Turner quit in 1996 because of a lesion on his right vocal cord. Vocal therapy at the famed Vanderbilt Voice Clinic in Nashville helped clear up the problem.

With Francis Marion not having a program for his musical interests, Turner packed his bags for Belmont College in Nashville, which has a well-known music school, in 1998.

A short three months later, then Mercury label executive Keith Stegall, Alan Jackson's producer, had found Turner. "They offered me a publishing deal, but they didn't offer me a whole lot of money to go along with it, which at that time I didn't know because I was so naïve. I was a student in college. Luckily, that deal...fell through. They ended up not wanting to sign me, so I was kind of relieved, believe it or not."

Turner signed another publishing deal "for so much more money," says Turner. "To do something you love for a living, there's nothing like that. It's just an incredible feeling."

"2001 was an incredible year for me. I actually started dating my wife that year, the first week of February. I was offered a publishing deal in May of that year. Then I graduated from Belmont in August. I signed my publishing deal in October. I signed my record deal in November, and I played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in December. That was a good year for me needless to say."

Turner's publisher/manager at the time met with Pete Fischer, head of the Opry, about Turner playing there.

"I think Pete was really hesitant at first. I never thought I'd be able to get on the Opry at that point in time, but he consented and said let's have him on the Friday night before Christmas and have him sing one song. I went out there and got two standing ovations and an encore."

It would still be 1 1/2 years later before "Long Black Train" was released. The single turned out to be the only hit from a very strong debut album with the follow-up, "What It Ain't," reaching only 31 on the Billboard country chart.

Is Turner concerned about being identified only by the one hit song?

"I've faced that, and I've tried to break away from that. There have been people out there who think I'm a gospel singer. I've even had people who have called me a southern gospel singer, a contemporary Christian artist, a basically misidentified kind of thing. That's understandable when the only hit you've ever had is a gospel song. I'm on a country label. I'm a country singer. I make country records. Singing about my faith is a part of that. It's not something that needs to throw people off."

"The first record was kind of like a first date. It was a little awkward - but you were having fun, but the comfort level wasn't there. It was more of an experiment kind of thing where you're trying to find what the Josh Turner sound is. And I think by the time we made it to this record, we knew the good moments of the first record. We also knew maybe the non-Josh Turner moments of the first record."

With the new record dropping, Turner is looking ahead. "To start off with, when it came time to start making this record, I put a lot of pressure on myself to try and outdo 'Long Black Train,'" he says. "I realized that I would probably never be able to outdo 'Long Black Train' and everything that it had done. I just decided to let it be its own entity and to go and make another record...and make it the best that you can and have fun with it. That's what I did. I'm proud of what we have done, but I'm not worried. I'm not anxious, but I am excited, and I'm looking really forward to see how people respond to this."