Josh Turner 2012-present: Punching Bag and Deep South
What is Punching Bag?
What is Punching Bag?
Turner's fifth studio album, Punching Bag, was released via MCA Nashville on June 12, 2012 and preceded by the single "Time Is Love". The song, written by Tom Shapiro, Tony Martin, and Mark Nesler, was released digitally on December 20, 2011 and went for radio adds on January 9. The song reached No. 2 but finished the year as the No. 1 country song of 2012 according to Billboard. The album's second single "Find Me a Baby", was released to country radio on October 15, 2012, but it failed to make top 40 on the country charts.  Also in 2012, Turner released Live Across America with twelve of his songs recorded in concert in different cities. This album was distributed through Cracker Barrel. Turner said, "Those are the most magical performances of each song."  The lead single from Turner's upcoming sixth studio album, "Lay Low", was released to country radio on September 1, 2014. It reached a peak of No. 25 on Country Airplay, at which it remained stalled at for several weeks. The single did not perform as expected on the charts, so Turner's label decided to delay the release of the album and next single. The second single, "Hometown Girl", will be released to radio on May 31, 2016. At Turner's show in Reading, PA on November 5, 2016, he announced that his new album will be released sometime in March 2017. The album, titled "Deep South", was released on March 10, 2017, preceded by two sneak preview songs, "Deep South" and "Where the Girls Are" released on February 23, 2017. "Deep South" scored Turner his third No. 1 album on the US Top Country Album's Chart upon its release. Turner's second single "Hometown Girl" from "Deep South" peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart and peaked at No. 1 on the Mediabase chart, which makes it Turner's 5th No. 1 single. . Turner's third single "All About You," written by Craig Wiseman and Justin Weaver, was released on May 15, 2017. CANNOTANSWER
Turner's fifth studio album, Punching Bag, was released via MCA Nashville
Joshua Otis Turner (born November 20, 1977) is an American country and gospel singer and actor. In 2003, he signed to MCA Nashville Records. That same year, his debut album's title track, "Long Black Train", was his breakthrough single release. His second album, Your Man (2006) accounted for his first two number-one hits: "Your Man" and "Would You Go with Me", while 2007's Everything Is Fine included a No. 2 in "Firecracker". Haywire, released in 2010, produced his biggest hit, the four week No. 1 "Why Don't We Just Dance" and another number one in "All Over Me". It was followed by Punching Bag (2012), whose lead-off single "Time Is Love" was the biggest country hit of 2012 according to Billboard Year-End.

Early life
Turner was born in Hannah, South Carolina. Growing up in the church, he founded a gospel quartet called Thankful Hearts, where he sang bass, in addition to singing the bass and baritone parts in choirs.

In 1996, Turner developed a lesion on his right vocal cord. Turner was examined by the Vanderbilt voice clinic, where doctors advised him to let it heal on its own. Surgery was not needed, but he did have to rest his voice for a year. While Turner rested his voice back at home, he learned classical vocal technique and how to take care of his voice and avoid developing further problems. Turner states that he "learned how to whistle really well during that year."

After Hannah-Pamplico High School, he spent some time at Francis Marion University before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in music and enrolled in Belmont University. After college, his fledgling career got a boost on Dec. 21, 2001, during his debut on the Grand Ole Opry, when he debuted a song he wrote titled "Long Black Train". He received a standing ovation in the middle of the song, then sang it again for an encore.

Career

2001–2004: Long Black Train
On December 21, 2001, Turner debuted on the Grand Ole Opry with the song "Long Black Train".

In 2003, Turner released his debut album, also entitled Long Black Train. Prior to its release, Turner had released 7" vinyl singles of "She'll Go on You" and "Long Black Train". Both singles featured Long Black Train album track "Backwoods Boy" as a B-side. While neither "Backwoods Boy" nor "She'll Go on You" were successful (the latter peaking at No. 46 on the country charts), "Long Black Train" spent more than forty weeks on the Billboard country charts, reaching a peak of No. 13 and receiving a gold certification. The third single, "What It Ain't", was less successful, reaching No. 31.

2005–2006: Your Man
In early 2006, Turner released his second album, Your Man. The album's first single and title track, "Your Man", was written by Jace Everett, Chris DuBois and Chris Stapleton and released in late 2005. "Your Man" also climbed the charts slowly, eventually reaching No. 1 in early 2006. Your Man was certified Gold by the RIAA four weeks after its release, and went Platinum six months later.

"Would You Go with Me" was the second single released from Your Man. Like the album's title track, "Would You Go with Me" also reached the top of the country singles charts, holding that position for two weeks; it also reached No. 48 on the  Billboard Hot 100. Turner also performed it on the CMA Awards in November 2006.

Shortly after the album's release, a song called "Me and God" was released as a single to Christian radio. A duet with bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley, the song also featured members of the band Diamond Rio on background vocals. "Me and God" reached a peak of No. 16 on the country charts.

In December 2006, the 49th Annual Grammy Award nominations were announced. Turner received nods for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and for Best Country Album. That same month, a featurette on CMT Insider showed Turner in the studio working on the album. He mentioned that he wanted it to sound like music in the 18th and 19th centuries. Turner performed at the Ryman Auditorium where a live album was recorded, singing a song called, "Church in the Holler". Turner's album Josh Turner: Live At The Ryman was recorded in April and is available exclusively through Cracker Barrel restaurants.

Turner, along with veteran songwriters Brett James and Don Schlitz, wrote a song entitled "Say Yes"; recorded and released by singer Dusty Drake in 2007, the song was a minor Top 40 country hit for Drake, peaking at No. 36.

2007–2011: Everything Is Fine and Haywire
On September 29, 2007, while giving an award to Roy Clark on Clark's 20th anniversary on the Grand Ole Opry, Turner was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was inducted by Vince Gill on October 27, 2007. He is the second youngest member after Carrie Underwood.

Turner's third studio album for MCA Nashville, titled Everything Is Fine, was released on October 30, 2007. Its lead-off single, "Firecracker", became Turner's third Top Ten hit on the country music charts, peaking at No. 2. The second single from Everything Is Fine, a duet with Trisha Yearwood entitled "Another Try", was released in late January 2008, peaking at No. 15. The title track was released as the third single and peaked at No. 20. Everything Is Fine has been certified gold.

At the end of June, Turner wrapped up recording his fourth album, Haywire. The lead-off single, "Why Don't We Just Dance", which was released on August 12, 2009, debuted at No. 57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of September 5, 2009. The song went on to become Turner's third Number One hit, spending four consecutive weeks at the top in February 2010. The album was released on February 9, 2010, along with a deluxe version. "All Over Me" was released in April 2010 as the album's second single; it became Turner's fourth Number One.  On September 27, 2010, Turner shot the video for "I Wouldn't Be a Man" in Nashville, which was the third single from Haywire. "Haywire" is now certified gold.

2012–2017: Punching Bag and Deep South

Turner's fifth studio album, Punching Bag, was released via MCA Nashville on June 12, 2012, and preceded by the single "Time Is Love". The song, written by Tom Shapiro, Tony Martin, and Mark Nesler, was released digitally on December 20, 2011, and went for radio adds on January 9. The song reached No. 2 but finished the year as the No. 1 country song of 2012 according to Billboard. The album's second single "Find Me a Baby", was released to country radio on October 15, 2012, but it failed to make top 40 on the country charts.

Also in 2012, Turner released Live Across America with twelve of his songs recorded in concert in different cities. This album was distributed through Cracker Barrel. Turner said, "Those are the most magical performances of each song."

The lead single from Turner's upcoming sixth studio album, "Lay Low", was released to country radio on September 1, 2014. It reached a peak of No. 25 on Country Airplay, at which it remained stalled at for several weeks. The single did not perform as expected on the charts, so Turner's label decided to delay the release of the album and next single. The second single, "Hometown Girl", was released to radio on May 31, 2016.
At Turner's show in Reading, PA on November 5, 2016, he announced that his new album would be released sometime in March 2017.
The album, titled "Deep South", was released on March 10, 2017, preceded by two sneak preview songs, "Deep South" and "Where the Girls Are" released on February 23, 2017. "Deep South" scored Turner his third No. 1 album on the US Top Country Album's Chart upon its release. Turner's second single "Hometown Girl" from "Deep South" peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart and peaked at No. 1 on the Mediabase chart, which makes it Turner's 5th No. 1 single. 
. Turner's third single "All About You," written by Craig Wiseman and Justin Weaver, was released on May 15, 2017.

2018–present: I Serve a Savior
After the release of Deep South, Turner began work on a project of gospel music. Titled I Serve a Savior, his seventh studio album was issued on October 26, 2018. It consists of a collection of mostly gospel standards with a few original songs, including its title track that Turner co-wrote. The album also features appearances by Sonya Isaacs, Bobby Osborne, and Turner's own family (who sing and play instruments on a track penned by his wife and oldest son), and new live renditions of both "Long Black Train" and "Me and God."

Acting
Turner played George Beverly Shea in the 2008 film Billy: The Early Years, about the evangelist Billy Graham. Shea was the soloist for the Billy Graham Crusades.

Personal life
Turner has one brother and one sister. He is a devout Christian. About that he says, "I don't believe God wants me to be a gospel singer, he just wants me to be a Christian singer. That's who I am, a Christian." He married his wife Jennifer Ford in 2003. They met at Belmont University, where they both attended school at the time.  Jennifer travels with Josh when he's on tour, playing keyboards and singing background vocals. They have four sons, Hampton, Colby, Crawford (called Marion), and Samuel (called Hawke).

On September 19, 2019, a tour bus carrying Turner's road crew crashed in California, killing one and injuring seven others, according to the California Highway Patrol. Turner was not on the bus.

Discography

Studio albums
 Long Black Train (2003)
 Your Man (2006)
 Everything Is Fine (2007)
 Haywire (2010)
 Punching Bag (2012)
 Deep South (2017)
 I Serve a Savior (2018)
 Country State of Mind (2020)
 King Size Manger (2021)

Awards and nominations

References

External links
 
 Official Josh Turner page at Universal Music Group Nashville
 Josh Turner Interview at CountryMusicPride.com
 

1977 births
American bass-baritones
American country singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
Belmont University alumni
Country musicians from South Carolina
Francis Marion University alumni
Grand Ole Opry members
Living people
MCA Records artists
People from Florence, South Carolina
21st-century American singers
21st-century American male singers
Singer-songwriters from South Carolina
A punching bag (or, British English, punchbag) is a sturdy bag designed to be repeatedly punched. A punching bag is usually cylindrical, and filled with various materials of corresponding hardness.

History

Punching bags have been used in martial arts and swordplay for the entire written history of military training. Similar apparatus in Asian martial arts include the Okinawan makiwara and the Chinese mook jong, which may have padded striking surfaces attached to them.

In martial arts and combat sports—such as karate, sanda, taekwondo, and Muay Thai—"heavy" bags, standing bags, and similar apparatuses have been adapted for practicing kicking and other striking maneuvers in addition to developing punching technique.

Construction
Punching bags are often filled with grains, sand, rags, or other material, and are usually hung from the ceiling or affixed to a stand. Other bags have an internal bladder to allow them to be filled with air or water.  The design of a punching bag allows it to take repeated and constant physical abuse without breaking. The bag must also absorb the impact of blows without causing harm to the user.

Types
There are different types of punching bags, with different names based on their size, use and mounting method. Almost all punching bags are covered with either leather or synthetic materials such as vinyl which resist abrasion and mildew. Canvas can also be used as a bag material where there is lower use and humidity.

 
Speed bags (AKA, speedballs) are small, air-filled bags anchored at the top to a rebound platform parallel to the ground. Speed bags help a fighter learn to keep his or her hands up, improve hand-eye coordination, and learn to shift weight between feet when punching. They are also known as speedballs or speed ball bags. They are generally filled with air and fitted around a tight PU-based or leather material. They come in various sizes, ranging from the large 13×10″ (33×25 cm) and 12×9″, midsize 11×8″, 10×7″ (25×18 cm) and 9×6″, to the small 8×5″, 7×4″ and 6×4″ (15×10 cm). Generally the larger the bag, the slower it is and the more force is required to keep it going. Large bags are used more for building strength and endurance, while smaller bags allow the training athlete to focus on faster hand speed, timing and coordination. Beginners might view this bag more as a "control bag", not a speed bag, for they will not be able to punch both quickly and repetitively until they gain control over their swinging force and speed. 

A boxer normally hits the speed bag from the front with his or her fists, but it is also possible to use fists and elbows to hit the bag from all around it, including the front, back and sides. In this method the user may perform many diverse punching combinations that create improvised rhythmic accents.

Although speed bags are normally hung vertically, recently the additional method of hanging a bag horizontally on a wall has regained popularity. This was very popular during the early twentieth century, specifically the 1920s–1940s era. The same punching skills may be used on the horizontal bag that are used when it hangs vertically. A coordination bag is a new type of speed bag that moves unpredictably rather than rhythmically. Additionally, due to the tedious mounting and anchoring necessary when installing a traditional speed bag platform, a portable speed bag platform that installs in a doorway has been created. Designed so that downward pressure stabilizes this portable speed bag platform, it can be installed and removed through a tension system that allows for use in any doorway.

Swerve balls/floor-to-ceiling balls/double-end bags are almost the same as speed bags, with the only differences being that the bag' size, shape and material may be different, and that the cable system is attached to both the ceiling and a clip on the floor — when the boxer makes any strike on the ball, it reacts by swinging fast towards them, the object being to swerve, punch, dodge and improve co-ordination. The harder and faster these bags are hit, the more they rebound and react in different motions and angles, thus giving broader practice to the fighter. Double-floor to ceiling balls which allow for training body-head combinations also exist

Maize bags or slip bags are not punched with great force, but are used in boxing training to improve the athlete's head motion and ability to evade an opponent's punch, their name deriving from the fact that traditionally they are filled with maize.

A heavy bag is a larger, cylindrical bag, usually suspended by chains or ropes and used for practicing powerful body punches, and can be used to toughen hands or any other limb used to hit the bag.  Heavy bags are for developing power; technique is best learned on the punch mitts or pads. Some variants of heavy bag are a Banana Bag used in Muay Thai, which is longer than a regular heavy bag and is used to train low kicks and knee strikes, and a slim line bag that is thinner than a heavy bag.

Freestanding heavy bags are heavy bags mounted on a weighted pedestal rather than being hung from above. The base is typically filled with sand or water to give more stability to the bag and prevent it from moving around. While they serve the same purpose as hanging heavy bags, they can also be toppled over and used for ground-and-pound practice. Other variations on the standard heavy bag include horizontal suspension from both ends to practice uppercut punches, and non-cylindrical shapes. Freestanding reflex bags (freestanding speed bags) also exist.

Uppercut bags began to appear towards the beginning of the 21st century. With so many different variations of bags and training equipment for boxing taking off, the uppercut bag was and is still a common sight in clubs and gyms. 

Designed for uppercut practice, jabbing, curl punching and quick bursts of high and low punching practice, it allows the fighter to punch at different lengths, different speeds and different forces compared to the standard average 4-foot straight PU (polyurethane) punching bags. Some types of uppercut bags: An angle bag a variant of uppercut bag used for training hooks and uppercuts; an uppercut horizontal punching tag, teardrop bag, body snatcher/wrecking ball bag or bowling pin bag are used for training knees and uppercuts.

A wall bag is a type of bag that is attached to a wall and can be used for training hooks and uppercuts.

Body-shaped training aids such as the modern "body opponent bag" are made primarily of synthetic materials, and punching bags are sometimes mounted on a weighted pedestal rather than hanging from above. These bags try to simulate a live opponent while providing an opportunity to practice vital area strikes which are generally unsafe to perform on a sparring partner. These are not considered punching bags in the strict sense, but modern versions of apparatus such as the wooden man apparatus of Chinese Wing Chun, the medieval quintain, and target dummies used in modern bayonet training. Large inflatable balloons with weighted bases are another kind of punching bag, often painted with a picture and sold as a children's toy.

Safety precautions

Heavy bags are typically filled with dense material which have little "give" (e.g. packed sand, grains, etc.); in order to avoid injury, hand protection (boxing gloves, bag gloves, training gloves, hand wraps, etc.) is used during practice.

Powerful strikes to the heavy bag are not recommended for inexperienced, or younger athletes (<18 female, <21 male), as risk of sprain, strain, or bone-plate damage may adversely affect bone structures. It is highly recommended to carefully focus strikes to reduce chance of injury (such as boxer's fracture).

See also

Strength tester machine – some of these machines utilize a punching bag

References

Articles containing video clips
Boxing
Exercise equipment
Martial arts equipment X-Ray Vision is a 7", 33⅓ rpm EP released by The Moldy Peaches.  There are three copyright dates listed on the album: 1994, 1995, and 1996.  An insert inside the album states that Adam Green was the sole member of The Moldy Peaches at the time of the recording.  However, future member Kimya Dawson is listed on the credits of the album and sings lead on "Little Bunny Foo Foo."  Each record is numbered and there are 300 copies.

Track listing
 Rap Sux! - Ft. Joel
 Little Bunny Foo Foo - Ft. Kimya
 On Top
 I Wish I Was Ben Lee
 Flea Circus
 Moldy Peaches in Da House
 Punching Bag - Ft. Joel

Credits 

 Adam: Recorded & Produced By
 Kimya: Vocals on 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'
 Joel: Drums on 'Rap Sux!' & 'Punching Bag'
 Denise: Bass on 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'
 Kurt: Drums on 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'

1996 debut albums
The Moldy Peaches albums