Josh Turner hits the top of the Billboard country album chart as Deep South bows at No. 1. The collection, which has been five years in the making, features the title track, as well as his Top 10 single “Hometown Girl.”

Josh says he hopes his fans are excited about the new music. “I…want them to hear the maturity and how I’ve grown as an artist and as a person through this record,” he says. “I want to give them a sense of hope and joy and peace after hearing it. I’m proud of this record, and I’m proud of the packaging and how it all came together. It’s got a youthful, fresh kind of feel to it, but like I say it’s got a maturity to it at the same time. I think it’ll appeal to a lot of different kinds of people.”

Turner wrote five of the 11 tracks on the well-crafted album and he is impressing fans and critics alike. Rolling Stone declares that Turner, with his “river deep baritone,” delivers an “eagerly awaited album from a country purist.” PEOPLE Magazine says the “Nashville veteran flaunts his deep bass” on Deep South and thatthe album is “an ode to down-home staples, from finding that perfect love on ‘Hometown Girl’ to savoring the laid-back life on the title track.”

Josh takes his album to  Austin, Texas on Tuesday (March 21st).