"No less than a string-bender than Stephen Stills is quoted thusly on a
promo-sticker affixed to the front of Eddie Turner's sophomore project for
NorthernBlues: "A monster guitar player, reminds me of my good friend,
Jimi." In fact, the Cuban-born, Chicago bred Turner has been pushing the
envelope his entire career - most prominently with rock bands Mother Earth
and Zephyr and later helping cutting-edge bluesman Otis Taylor develop his
arresting sound on a series of NB and Telarc albums.
Equal parts rock, blues and funky soul, "The Turner Diaries" picks up where
last year's acclaimed "Rise" release left off with a host of startling time
signatures, tunings and sonic elaborations, oft-cryptic lyrics,
psychedelic-draped guitar playing and Turner's thrusting, shadow-filled vocals. Along with main band mates Mark Clarke on drums, producer Kenny Passarelli (also an Otis Taylor band member) on bass, B3, Wurlitzer and
Rhodes and David Givens on guitar, Turner makes a powerful statement with his nearly all-originals effort that will be hard to ignore in the year-end
polls.
Favorite line-in-the-sand songs include the easy-rocking, proclamatory,
"New Day," a chilling Hendrix-suffused "Dangerous," the anthem-like rave-up
"Cost of Freedom" and both the ominous title tune and "I'm a Man, I'm a Man," both
of which have an elemental, Mississippi hill-country feeling to them. The
freewheeling eclecticism continues on other diary entries such as the viscerally propulsive, crash-and-burn "Shake 4 Me,: a scorching "Jody" and
the lengthy instrumental "Pomade," that showcases Turner's fret-board wizardry -
solidly rooted in the blues but loaded with a multi-faceted dynamism that looks you straight in the eye. The sole cover is swinging
helping of Freddie King's classic "I'm Tore Down," with either Anna Givensor Astra Kelly featured vocally.
Mesmerizing music from a man who definitively sounds like he's been down to
the crossroads a few times.
