Working from his small studio in McComb, Antonio “Tony T.” Turner is the brains behind the music of some of the hottest Southern soul artists who pack venues by the thousands of people and garner downloads and audio streams by the millions. Turner runs Vigor Records, which has a production studio, recording studio and offices inside the historic former Kellwood textile mill.
“As a producer I’ve built a network of DJs, promoters, record labels I’m in contact with,” he said. “Radio (disc) jockeys, they respect the music and a lot of times they’ll play it just because my name is on it.” He’s worked with artists from near and far, including Arthur Young, a trucker from Summit whose song “Funky 40” has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube in six months.
Others in Turner’s production discography may not be household names but they’re most certainly a big deal to the fans of Southern soul, a musical genre that blends down-home, old-school blues with modern synthesized music production. Turner has composed and recorded music for Omar Cunningham — “he’s a blues-slash-Southern soul legend,” Turner explains — Bigg Polkey — “he’s one of the top artists in that genre now” — and DJ Trucker — “he does millions and millions of streams and he has millions of followers,” to name a few.
