ABOUT

Turley had notable success with his first EP, The Opening Act, with nearly two million streams since its release. “Music wasn’t something I was so sure about pursuing full-time until we released the EP,” he says. “After seeing how well it had done just in the first few months of its release, that’s when I really thought, wow, people really care about what I have to say.” He credits the EP with being the reason he decided to keep writing music and moving forward with his career.

Of his music-forward upbringing, he adds, “I’ve had a lot of really interesting experiences hanging out with some people who are starting to pick up a lot of steam, and I’m hoping I can release this album and start to become one of the next ones to really blow up.”

Broke Down, due out May 24, 2024, makes a strong case in that regard. Its seven songs mix blues and honky-tonk sounds with genuine songwriting that offers a glimpse at Turley’s bluegrass past. His “truly Appalachian” vibe “represents the upcoming generation’s eyes forward” while “drawing inspiration from both modern musicians inspired by vintage sounds and the vintage sounds that paved the road for those influences” (The AMP).

After singing a murder ballad about a real-life case from his hometown on his 2022 debut, Turley offers “Misery,” a blues-rock tale that listeners can either take literally or interpret more nebulously. Similarly, “Rust” sneaks the fallout from a nasty breakup into a song that’s disarmingly upbeat.

 “It’s about not caring to be painted as the bad guy anymore, no matter if you are or aren’t,” Turley says of “Rust.” “Sometimes we need reminding that the way other people make us out to be isn’t who we truly are. I aim for it not necessarily to be a sad-sounding breakup song, but more a breakup party anthem to aid in someone’s journey of moving on.” 

“Withdrawals and Gauze,” however, is arresting in its straightforwardness — a sonically beautiful discussion of addiction and, Turley explains, “finding a way back to some sort of normalcy after being pretty lost for a long while.”

He continues, “I’m a big-time, sad-song writer, but I try to throw some happy and upbeat ones in the mix.” “Liquor Store” and “Broke Down,” though their titles may not suggest it, add levity — even if the title track is the true story of the night Turley and his band wound up stranded on the side of US-23 in Circleville, Ohio for hours after their van died on the way home from a gig in Johnstown.

“I feel like that’s kind of a theme of how life goes sometimes; sometimes you just can’t win for losing, no matter how you try. Just when you think you’re really up, life goes and throws you a curveball and puts you really down,” he shares with a laugh. 

Jason Groves of Lexington’s Sneak Attack Studio produced, mixed, mastered, and engineered Broke Down, and, Turley says, “made my dreams come true, and really unlocked the album’s full potential” with a fresh take on his sound.

“This album was not something that was only my doing,” Turley says. “I owe my band members in Cardinal Point - Jason, Ella, and Logan - a huge part in it. At the end of the day, I put my all into this thing, but my part was just one of many that brought it all together. Through our combined ideas, ambition, and countless hours of work, everybody really helped bring it to life. In a totally literal sense, blood, sweat, and tears really went into this record. I hope the listener feels that when they hear it.”

Jayce Turley has the stories of someone twice his age. The Greenup County, KY, native has already been entrenched in his state’s storied music scene for years.

Turley attended his first concert at the age of two and estimates that he’d been to hundreds of shows by the time he hit double digits. He has stories about seeing the SteelDrivers — the Grammy-winning bluegrass band formerly fronted by Chris Stapleton — live dozens of times and about catching Tyler Childers shows “when I was pretty small, and when Tyler was about where I am now.” Even these days, despite his own touring schedule that has seen him sharing bills with Jason Eady, Marty Stuart, Town Mountain, Morgan Wade, Joshua Ray Walker, and more, he still tries to catch others’ concerts as often as possible. 

Turley has also been playing music for nearly as long as he’s been seeing it live. Starting when he was six, his grandparents took him to a week-long bluegrass music camp and seminar, Allegheny Echoes, in Pocahontas, West Virginia, where he picked up fiddle, then dobro. To aid in playing dobro, he had his dad show him his first few chords on the guitar at the age of 11. He settled on guitar as his instrument of choice before he entered his teens, and, over the next couple years, played his first few shows with a bluegrass band and took some songwriting classes with John Lilly at Augusta Heritage Week in Elkins, West Virginia.

By 15, Turley was playing a large array of solo shows. One year later, he founded his backing band, Cardinal Point. Consisting of guitarist Dale Blankenship, keyboardist Maclean James, bassist Patrick Turley, and drummer Cameron Anthony Miller, Turley says, “They really assisted in me becoming the person and musician I am today. They helped me find my sound.”