How Tina Turner's interrupted country legacy could have changed the genre

In another life, Tina Turner could've been one of the greatest country music artists ever.

This isn't bittersweet conjecture raised in the wake of the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's recent passing.

No, Turner recorded a trove of country music, including one label-issued album -- and much more released from her ex-husband Ike's archives, recorded at his Hollywood home studio, Bolic Sound, before 1974.

Born 175 miles west of Nashville and 50 miles north of Memphis, in Nutbush (a town with a current population of under 250 people), Turner was a small-town Tennessean.

In 1973, Ike and Tina Turner released "Nutbush City Limits," which, alongside Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's 1972 hit "Cover Of The Rolling Stone" and Dr. John's also 1973-released, New Orleans-drenched anthem "Right Place, Wrong Time," opened a door for funk, jazz and rock to intersect with country's rock edge.

The biographical song outlines Turner's stereotypical country bona fides by noting that Nutbush is a dangerous, "one-horse town" that penalizes whiskey bootlegging with incarceration, where salt pork and molasses are the only meals served to those behind bars.

The song was considered an "absolutely sensational smash" in an August 1973 edition of Cash Box magazine.

By 1974, Tina was still paired with Ike. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue was a Grammy-winning and world-renowned act. Moreover, "Nutbush City Limits" was a global Top-20 single.

Looking to mirror the success of the era's other barnstorming, Grammy-winning acts, like Elvis Presley (three Best Inspirational Performance Grammy awards between 1968 and 1975) and The Pointer Sisters (Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Country Song for "Fairytale" in 1975), the tandem recorded country and gospel albums to pair with their regular spate of rock 'n roll covers and soul-leaning original material to maintain their global success.

Released in September 1974 by United Artists Records, "Tina Turns the Country On!" is Tina's solo studio album debut. It contains cover songs from country and folk artists like Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Olivia Newton-John, James Taylor and Dolly Parton.

In a September 1974 edition of Billboard, "Tina Turns the Country On!" is referred to as a "fine mix of country, folky and soft rock tunes" where Tina's voice "perfectly [molds] around each cut."

However, in the review, the idea of the songs gaining country radio airplay is downplayed in lieu of more likely soul and pop radio airplay.

In Nashville, past Linda Martell's four singles released from her 1970 album "Color Me Country," Black women in the space wanted greater involvement. Still, they were primarily an afterthought.

Tina Turner's growling, gritty contralto or mezzo-soprano voice is not unusual in country music and related musical spaces.

Other mezzo-soprano musical stars include Adele, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Sheryl Crow, Janis Joplin, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood. Moreover, famed contraltos include Cher, Etta James and Stevie Nicks.

Of that lot, Turner deserved to be regarded as having similar potential for enduring influence and commercial sustainability in and around country music.

Sadly, that never entirely happened.

"Tina's voice was a universal instrument that contained the Earth's rumble," says artist, composer, executive, classically trained opera singer and International Folk Music Association "Spirit of Folk" Award-winner Lilli Lewis.

"As well, [Turner] had vocal undertones that could excite multiple dimensions of frequency. Whether she was singing two notes over three chords or, more simply, singing songs with vocal inflections that felt like the collective life force that [emanates from our] timeless homes -- in the case of Black people, our home before we were dispersed."

"In country music, Tina's sounds could've inspired thoughts of our blue-collar roots, struggles -- be that hard labor, domestic violence, or living in a body while Black -- and defiantly finding dance and joy while surviving pain," Lewis says.

Tina's major-label follow-up to her initial country foray never occurred.

By 1975, Ike's cocaine addiction and spousal abuse spiraled, leading to a bloody, physical altercation in July 1976. By the end of the month, Tina filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized two years later, on March 29, 1978.

Perhaps stating what Turner's evolutionary influence in and around country music could've been is best if left in the hands of Creedence Clearwater Revival lead vocalist John Fogerty from his 2015-released autobiography, "Fortunate Son."

In January 1971, Ike and Tina Turner released a cover of Credence's two-year-old hit "Proud Mary." Until her 1980s-era success, it was Tina Turner's signature song.

CCR, a band whose blues, rock and roots influences all had country underpinnings, makes Fogerty's impression important.

A 2021-released Atlantic retrospective highlights that Ike and Tina's cover version "has all the fury of James Brown, all the grit of Janis Joplin, all the swagger of the Rolling Stones," but highlights that Tina's "soulful ecstasy" is of utmost importance.

In his book, Fogerty makes the statement more unadorned and direct, highlighting just how much Tina Turner could've elevated country music.

"Man, Tina could sing circles around [everyone]."