biography
Doug Stone Takes His Turn Defining His Music
Written by: Pete Cronin
When Doug Stone first impacted radio back in 1990 with his debut single, “Better Off in a Pine Box,” listeners were introduced to one of the most distinctive traditional voices ever to hit country airwaves.
Now – 17 years, a dozen hit singles and millions of album sales later – the singer of timeless country hits like "A Jukebox With a Country Song" and "In a Different Light" emerges with My Turn, a project that lives up to its title and reunites Stone with the A-team Nashville players that lit up his classic hits. But make no mistake; this ain't no oldies collection. Produced by the artist himself, My Turn presents 11 new Doug Stone classics, each song reflecting a different chapter from the singer's incredible career journey and every performance reaffirming his status as one of country music's true stylists. "This is a real Doug Stone album, and it's something I've always wanted to do," Stone declares. "I've been looking for these songs for years. I've had 'You Were Never Mine to Lose' forever, and I wrote another one on the album called 'Right Side of Lonesome' just about 17 years ago.
Both of those songs are the kind of steel guitar-drenched, tear-in-your-beer ballads that Stone can deliver like no one else, and the passion he pours into every track on My Turn – from country-rocking redneck anthems "The Hard Way" and "That's How We Roll" to r&b inflected, slice-of-life snapshots like "Nice Problem" and "Let's Take This Thing to a Better Place" – is positive proof that, whether he wrote them or not, every one of these songs is carved from Stone's own experience.
"There's a whole lot of how I live on this album, because that's how I picked the songs," Stone says. "They're all about living life on a country boy's terms. I love to party, light a campfire, and go out and have a good time. Even though I didn't write some of it, I cut these songs because they were all about me."
Offered the chance to take control of his music, Stone jumped at the opportunity and stepped up to the plate, handling every aspect of the process, from song selection to directing recording sessions to, well, singing. True to form, Stone found the experience not only liberating but, in just about every way, a whole lot simpler.
"It was easy to do!" Stone says with a laugh. "This is almost a live album; I actually sang the whole thing in about six hours. Every song was handpicked by me, produced the way I wanted, and sung the way I wanted to sing it."