Juliet Turner

Juliet Turner - Season Of The Hurricane - 2004 - Sony

Juliet Turner from Tyrone in Ireland is a very talented and interesting female performer. This is an album full of witty intelligent lyrics and captivating melodies. Unlike many singer songwriters, Juliet doesn't try to be anyone but herself. She has no qualms about singing in her northern accent, in fact the lilt works rhythmically with the melodies. Juliet Turner is a refreshing break from the innumerable 'Artists' who take themselves too seriously. Unlike many of her peers she shares the inspiration and meaning of every song with her audience. Juliet began when she was given a guitar for her 15th birthday. In 1996, while studying in Strathclyde, Scotland, she enlisted the help of a musician she knew from Glasgow, Charlie Irvine to record a demo to promote her concerts. Irvine was so impressed with Juliet's songs he suggested they record an album together and out of a budget of £800 came the very fine debut, "Lets Hear It For Pizza". Through Irvine, Turner met her manager Derek Nally who began to book her support slots with artists such as: Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, and Tracy Chapman. These supports slots quickly built up a cult following for Juliet throughout Ireland. With her profile so high, her manager decided to record a second album as soon as possible and producer Gerard Kiely gathered some very talented musicians to make, "Burn The Black Suit". Released in 2000 and backed by a nationwide tour, "Burn The Black Suit" went onto to sell 52,000 copies in Ireland alone. "Season of the Hurricane" is her third studio album. It went platinum in Ireland, and also brought her some international attention. Buy her great 1996 album, " Let's Hear It For Pizza."

TRACKS

01. The Greatest Show On Earth
02. One Night
03. Business As Usual
04. The Signal And The Noise
05. Season Of The Hurricane
06. Elvis Is In The Building
07. 1987
08. Vampire
09. Everything Beautiful Is Burning
10. See Another Side
11. No Good In This Goodbye
12. Sugartown

MUSICIANS

Juliet Turner - (Vocals)
David Angell, David Davidson - (Violins)
Alastair McMillian - (Bass)
Martin Terefe - (Bass),(Guitar)
John Catchings - (Cello)
Kristin Wilkinson - (Viola)
Glen Scott - (Keyboards), (Vocals), (Fender Rhodes), (Piano)
Enda Walsh, - (Piano)
Wayne P. Sheehy, Alastair McMillian - (Percussion)
Wayne P. Sheehy - (Drums)

REVIEWS

It's fair to say there's a bit of a buzz about Juliet Turner at the moment. Hailing from Northern Ireland, she's picked up several "Best Newcomer" awards recently and is already onto her third album. Although she's virtually unknown outside of Ireland, Season Of The Hurricane comes with the approval of the unlikely powerful figure of Terry Wogan - the man who made Katie Melua a household name almost single-handedly. It would be a grave disservice to Turner though if she was to be bracketed in the same easy listening category as Melua. Season Of The Hurricane is full of intriguing songs coloured by some brilliantly imaginatively lyrics - it's hard to imagine Melua coming out with something so daring and attention grabbing as the opening track on here for example. That particular song, The Greatest Show On Earth, is simply wonderful. Like a less paranoid Portishead, the melody is creepily atmospheric with some nice little electronic effects in the background. Turner's memorable lyrics add to the beguiling mood ("I need a man who's gonna stick around / Not somebody who will leave me through a trapdoor") and her voice, while maybe not being the strongest of instruments, perfectly suits the material here. With such a strong opening track, the rest of the album initially fails to match up, but repeated listening brings its own rewards. Turner has been compared to Alanis Morrisette, but to these ears Beth Orton is a more worthy comparison. She shares with Orton the ability to conjure up images with one phrase - the chorus of Business As Usual being a prime example ("I'm standing next to Lady Liberty / She brings an unexpected tear"). If there's a fault here, it's that her rough edges have been too smoothed down by the production here. A song such as Vampire has some superb, and remarkably explicit, lyrics about sexual guilt ("She pulls him so deep inside that he's afraid he'll divide her") - yet the mixing of the song makes it sound like one of Dido's cast-offs. Maybe the people who surround Turner are anxious that she receives the success she deserves, but her compatriot Gemma Hayes managed to produce the successful and spiky Night On My Side a couple of years ago. Yet there are enough positives here to render that criticism a minor one. Turner's voice retains her Northern Irish accent throughout, which makes the material refreshingly different, whether it be skipping through Everything Beautiful Is Burning or a rootsy rendition of Lee Hazelwood's Sugartown. Also, the stark No Good In This Goodbye is amongst the most beautiful songs you'll hear all year. There's certainly enough potential here to suggest that Juliet Turner will produce a truly excellent album soon enough. Season Of The Hurricane isn't that record, but it will more than be enough for now. Turner is definitely a real talent - maybe Wogan should move into A & R. © John Murphy, © 1996-2008 OMH. all rights reserved, www.musicomh.com/albums/juliet-turner.htm

Here's one that will sneak up on you and poke you hard in the ribs when you're not paying attention. Irish singer/songwriter Juliet Turner starts off her third album with a surprise move, a smoldering song of ambivalent romantic longing built on a foundation of dark rockers reggae, complete with Augustus Pablo-style melodica and dub effects. Then the music slides into polite folk-rock and stays there for most of the rest of the album, jangly guitars and Hammond organ supporting her quirky lyrics and lovely, sweet-and-sour voice. "1987" commemorates adolescent love with melancholy and heartbreaking sweetness; the strangely twisting but utterly beautiful melody of "Vampire" winds around lines like "Moan, fog horn, moan for the leaving of the boat/You know that she's a vampire but you still offer her your throat." The Irish radio hit is "Everything Beautiful Is Burning," which features some of the most artfully applied strings in the history of pop music, and "Take the Money and Run" closes the program with a brilliant juxtaposition of meat-and-potatoes rock & 'roll and weird electronic burbles. "Unique" is a term that has lost a lot of its meaning in the pop music world, but it's one that applies powerfully, and in all the best ways, to Juliet Turner. © Rick Anderson, All Music Guide

Juliet Turner is, perhaps, an acquired taste. While catchy numbers like 'Everything Beautiful Is Burning' exemplify a depth and extraordinary talent that drag her into the mainstream, there are so many other tracks that simply perplex, pushing her back onto the fringes of the music scene. Lyrically, Turner often wanders into a fantasy world that pushes the attraction of the unique to its limits. But just as effortlessly there is a contrasting element that redeems this. 'Everything Beautiful Is Burning' is a rare gem and, while the rest of the album doesn't quite measure up, tracks like 'Business As Usual' will drag you in. There can be little dispute that Turner's integration of natural accent and tones is remarkable. And while her content refines her market, it also sets her very much apart from other artists - never a bad thing. © Linda McGee, © RTÉ 2008



BIO

Northern Irish singer/songwriter Juliet Turner has some hints of the old standbys in her folk-inflected music: Nick Drake, Carole King, even a bit of Kirsty MacColl in her vocals. However, Turner's blend of folk, pop, and electronics also sits nicely next to contemporaries like KT Tunstall and Beth Orton. Born and raised in a musically inclined family in the small Northern Ireland town of Tummery, Turner was a member of her church choir and was active in school musicals, but it wasn't until she moved to Dublin to attend university that she began playing guitar and writing songs in earnest. In 1996, Turner spent a year as an exchange student in Glasgow, Scotland, during which time she met the owner of a small local indie, Sicky Music, who offered to record some of her songs with his own band as her backup. Recorded in one two-day session, the resulting album, Let's Hear It for Pizza, garnered enough buzz back home to land a management deal and a series of opening-act dates with everyone from Arlo Guthrie to hometown heroes U2. After finishing school, Turner and her manager set up their own label, Hear This, to release her second album, Burn the Black Suit, in 2000. A third album, Season of the Hurricane, was released in 2004, becoming a Top Ten hit in Ireland and earning an increasing level of international attention. A 2005 live album capitalized on Turner's blossoming international profile. © Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

BIO (Wikipedia)

Juliet Turner is a Northern Irish singer/songwriter. She comes from Tummery, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone, and has been a part of the Dublin music scene since she started recording in 1996. In the course of her career she has opened for such artists as Bob Dylan, U2 and Bryan Adams. Turner also sang on two tracks of Peter Mulvey's live album Glencree. In August 1998, Turner sang the song "Broken Things" (originally released by American Julie Miller) to a packed audience at the memorial concert for the victims of the Omagh bombing. She ruled out releasing the song as a single, although it did subsequently appear on the compilation "Across The Bridge Of Hope". In autumn 2002 Turner picked up a “Best Newcomer in Music” award from the London based “Irish Post” newspaper and another award for her contribution to music from Tatler Magazine at their Women of the Year ceremony in Dublin – Turner was the first woman to receive this award. In February 2005, Juliet Turner was awarded the Meteor Music Award for best Irish female performer. Currently she is study for a degree in speech therapy at Trinity alongside her music career.