Tina Turner - Tina Turns The Country On!

Before the solo superstardom, Tina Turner tried Nashville on for size with Tina Turns The Country On!, her first solo studio album.

It came out in 1974, while she was still headlining the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, and it caught plenty of people off guard. Producer Tom Thacker recorded the sessions at Bolic Sound in Inglewood, California, steering Tina towards country, folk and soft-rock material miles from the revue's sweat-soaked stage show. The album didn't chart, yet it still earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, which says plenty about how much soul she poured into these songs.

The song choices are smart and surprising. Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" becomes a slow, aching plea, her voice rough-edged and tender at once. She takes on two Bob Dylan tunes, including "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," with a loose, rollicking ease, and Dolly Parton's "There'll Always Be Music" glows near the end. Songs by James Taylor and Hank Snow get the full Tina treatment too.

Long treated as a curiosity, this is a record that rewards a fresh listen on vinyl. It's the sound of one of the great voices stretching out and testing new ground, a decade before the world fully caught up with her.