Tony Justice’s “Apple Pie Moonshine” album, which hits the racks at major truck stops this month, represents the fruition of years of hard work on the part of the 42-year-old singer-songwriter and driver, today hauling for Greeneville, Tenn.-based Everhart Transportation Inc.
Following up a 2011 effort well-received in the trucking world – his “On the Road” disc – “Apple Pie Moonshine” picks up where that trucking-heavy album left off. It includes several trucking themes presented in foot-stomping romps, country ballads and radio- and chart-worthy country-pop gems.
Over the years, Justice has worked toward a singular goal: “I want to have a No. 1” single, he says. That’s a tall order for an artist with no record-label affiliation.
But if things keep going the way they have been, don’t count him out. The quality of the writing and production on the best “Apple Pie Moonshine” tracks are primed to earn wide attention – if not in the mainstream, definitely among the audience Justice knows best. That’s you.
Justice’s roots are in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, where he was raised in Elkhorn City, near the Virginia line. His father owned and operated “up to three trucks at one time” throughout Justice’s childhood, hauling primarily coal and fuel. Weekend chores for him and his three brothers included washing and servicing the trucks. Fights would erupt over who’d get to move each truck when it was finished.
His memories of the communities surrounding Elkhorn City give the new disc’s title track its subject matter. “Apple Pie Moonshine” is one of those romping foot-stompers, a paean to back-country square dances, young lust and homegrown good times. It’s one of four songs on the 12-track album that Justice penned himself, and it was included on a sample disc available during a fall promotion at Petro Stopping Centers.
