Now that this year’s Country Music Awards and its winners have departed Nashville, it’s time to highlight a few of the new, rebel-rousing crop of award-winning, Gibson-totin’ country music stars that have popped onto the scene. Here’s a closer look at three of today’s hottest country artists, and the Gibson guitars they use to make their music:
Josh Turner
In country music, “new” is relative, which is why the term can still be applied to 30-year-old Josh Turner, even if it’s been four years since he signed his first big contract with MCA Nashville Records. Turner first started singing as a child, handling tenor and bass duties in his church choir, and later formed his own gospel quartet called Thankful Hearts. But, as he once stated, “Traditional country music was always where my heart was at.”
He continued to chase his dream throughout high school, even though his ambitions were nearly sidetracked when he developed a lesion on his right vocal cord. This forced Turner to take a year off from music to rest his voice. It was during this time that he began taking classes in classical vocal techniques in an effort to help him heal. He also moved to Nashville and enrolled at Music City’s famed Belmont University, and continued the classical voice training.
After some struggle and hardship—what’s country music without it—Turner got his big break shortly after his December 2001 debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where he performed his Hank Williams-inspired “Long Black Train.” He was signed a few months later, and his debut—also named Long Black Train—was certified platinum by the end of 2004. Turner, whose main guitar is a Gibson J-45, followed up his successful debut with the release of Your Man in 2006, which went immediately to No. 1 and double-platinum status, and produced the hit “Would You Go with Me.” His third album, Everything is Fine was released in October, and is currently No. 3 on Billboard's country album chart.
Jason Aldean
Another 30-year old whose career has skyrocketed since the turn of the millennium, Jason Aldean describes his music as “amped-up, contemporary country with Southern rock, and honky-tonk influences.”
Born in Macon, Georgia—which is also home to Otis Redding, Little Richard and the Allman Brothers—Aldean first sharpened his chops with his dad, who would chart guitar chords for him to practice. The two would practice together every chance they got. Soon enough, the budding musician was playing songs like Alabama’s “My Home’s in Alabama,” Hank Williams Jr.’s “The Blues Man,” and George Strait’s “The Cowboy Rides Away.” After watching the CMAs on TV as a young teen, he knew his future would revolve around country music.
He started a band in high school and actually earned enough money to buy his first car from the earnings. Aldean’s band continued touring the South and the East Coast. “I actually had a chance to go to college and play baseball, or go after a music career,” he said. “But I was in bars every night, having fun, and playing music. At that point I threw everything I had into it.”
His break—and there always seems to be that definitive moment in a country artist’s career—was in Atlanta in 1998, when he was approached after a show by a representative from song publisher Warner-Chappell. At the young age of 21, it didn’t take much convincing to encourage Aldean to pack his bags and head to Nashville. He finally signed to Broken Bow Records and released his self-titled debut in 2003. The album, with its big, pop country swagger, eventually went platinum, and the No. 1 hit “Hicktown” gives great indication of the album’s general tenor. To get that big sound, Aldean relies on his beloved Gibson J-150. Aldean was honored in May of 2006 with the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist award, and he released his second album, Relentless, earlier this year.
Chris Janson
If Turner and Aldean represent the poppier side of country music today, then 21-year old Chris Janson represents the raw, more electric side that has more in common with the Rolling Stones and Hank Williams than Brooks & Dunn.
Born in Missouri, Janson was holding a guitar by the age of three. Something of a mid-western renaissance man, Janson played football, basketball, and trained horses before settling his sights on a country music career by the age of 17. Determined to make it big, he moved to Nashville and began roughing it on Music City’s notoriously competitive starving-artist-circuit, and even booking his own shows. His self-described mix of “rock and roll, blues, roots music, and vintage country” started turning heads quickly—major label heads. And though Janson has signed with Sony, he’s yet to release an album. Even so, he’s clearly getting noticed, having caught the ear of famed director Jonathan Demme, who put him in the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold, which was shot at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last year. His tune “Shoot Off the Locks” has been a hit as well. And it also doesn’t hurt that he uses a tasty-looking Gibson L4 to go with his whole shabby-chic, rock and roll presentation.
“I’m not afraid to push the limits,” he said. “I don’t have a setlist at my shows, I just play songs. It’s all about soul and feel.” These are refreshing thoughts from a 21-year-old kid in the heart of Music City, where sometimes people forget that’s it not all about the polish and shine; that there’s plenty of beauty in the grit, too.