Pierce Turner (born June 1949) is an Irish singer-songwriter. After forming a duo with
Larry Kirwan he went solo in the mid-1980s and has since released several albums.
Biography
Turner grew up in the port town of
Wexford
Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...
, where his mother ran a retail outlet that sold recorded music, and led her own band. A classically trained musician, by the age of seven he was a member of a traditional Irish
tin-whistle group, and at eight, he was playing in a brass and reed orchestra. He also sang in his local church choir, and the influence of hymn and plain-chant singing has been evident throughout his later career.
His first professional job was as a musician with the pop showband The Arrows. He later moved to New York City and formed The Major Thinkers with fellow Wexfordian
Larry Kirwan (now the frontman of
Black 47), and recorded several albums, also performing as Turner and Kirwan.
[Palmer, Robert (1978]
''Turner and Kirwan Sing Original Tunes At a Club in Village''
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 6 May 1978. Retrieved 22 January 2011. Turner and Kirwan released two albums – ''Bootleg'' and ''Absolutely and Completely'' – the latter issued on the Cosmos label as well as a single "Neck and Neck"/"When Starlings Fly" recorded at Electric Lady Studios/New York and issued on the Audio-Fidelity subsidiary label Thimble in 1973. In 1978, Pierce and Kirwan were asked to front a new version of The Ohio Express bubblegum band.
His first solo album, ''It's Only a Long Way Across'' (1987), was produced by American avant-garde composer
Philip Glass.
[De Curtis, Anthony (1988]
''It's Only a Long Way Across'' Review
''Tuscaloosa News
The '' Tuscaloosa News '' is a daily newspaper serving Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, and the surrounding area in west central Alabama.
In 2012, Halifax Media Group acquired the ''Tuscaloosa News''. Prior to that, the paper's owner was Th ...
'', page 9c; 10 January 1988. Retrieved 22 January 2011. It was nominated for 'Best Debut Issued by an Independent Record Company' at the New York Music Awards.
[Seida, Lind]
Pierce Turner Biography
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
. Retrieved 22 January 2011. He went on to make two more albums for
Beggars Banquet: ''Sky & the Ground'' (1989) and ''Now Is Heaven'' (1991). This album was produced by
John Simon. In 1997, the Baltik imprint issued the album ''Angelic Language''.
Turner embarked on what he called his Parlour Tour, performing in over seventy private houses in Ireland, accompanied by London-based Wicklow film maker Colin Murnane who was making the documentary ''The Song for the Year'' (2007).
Other songs by Turner were featured in the film ''Snakes and Ladders'' and the
HBO TV show ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...
'' (his version of "
Dirty Old Town").
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his significant success as an individual, he is one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, ...
recorded Turner's songs "Wicklow Hills" and "Musha God Help Her". Moore's 2004 box set includes the track ''I Love the Way Pierce Turner Sings''.
In 2005, "Wicklow Hills" was voted among the top twenty-five Irish songs of all time by Today FM in a nationwide poll. His album ''The Boy to Be With'' was released in 2006 and includes Turner's tribute to late Irish bluesman
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Due to his virtuosic playing, but relative lack of fame compared to some others, he has been referred to as "the greatest ...
.
[Moten, Katie (2005]
Pierce Turner – The Boy to Be With
RTÉ, 5 May 2005. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
Turner commented on his lack of commercial success in 1993:
I find that the American people really like what I do when I'm put in front of an audience of normal people, but when the recording industry gets my records, they tend to think the public won't understand or won't care about it. Maybe it's not happy enough or something. There's no use complaining about it. I'm choosing to go around that and go directly to the people.[Rule, Sheila (1993]
The Pop Life: Listening In on a Big Party
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 7 July 1993. Retrieved 22 January, 2011.
In late 2011, work commenced on a new collection, ''Songs foR a veRRy small OrchestRa'', recorded in Ireland and released in 2012. Turner described the sound of the record as "Baroque Pop". The song "Yogi with a Broken Heart" contains a synthesizer accompaniment from
Philip Glass, with whom Turner had performed the song at
Carnegie Hall in 2011.
Discography
*''It's Only a Long Way Across'' (1987), Beggars Banquet
*''Sky & the Ground'' (1989), Beggars Banquet
*''Now Is Heaven'' (1991), Beggars Banquet
*''Mañana in Manhattan ... Live'' (1994), Virtual
* Snakes and Ladders 1995 soundtrack BMG
*''Angelic Language'' (1997), Baltik
*''3 Minute World'' (2001)
*''Mr. Smith'' (2004), LoveCat
*''The Boy to Be With'' (2004), 5030
*''Catch a Wave'' mini-album (2008), Pierce Turner
*''Beyond The Blue'' (2010), LoveCat
*''SoNgs for a VeRRy SmaLL ORchesTRa'' (2012)
*''Love Can't Always Be Articulate'' (2016)
*''Vinegar Hill'' (2019)
*''Terrible Good'' (2022)
;Compilations:
*''Pierce Turner'' (1998), Beggars Banquet
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Pierce
1949 births
Living people
Folk rock musicians
Irish emigrants to the United States
Irish male singer-songwriters
Musicians from County Wexford
People from Wexford, County Wexford