Pierce Turner 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 ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

, 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 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. His first solo album, ''It's Only a Long Way Across'' (1987), was produced by American avant-garde composer

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

.De Curtis, Anthony (1988
''It's Only a Long Way Across'' Review
'' Tuscaloosa News'', 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. 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 Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

TV show ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'' (his version of " Dirty Old Town").

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts and has had significant success as a solo artist. His first albu ...

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''. 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 musician, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as "Ireland's first rock star", he is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing and live performances. He has sometim ...

.Moten, Katie (2005
Pierce Turner – The Boy to Be With

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 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

, with whom Turner had performed the song at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in 2010. In 2019, Turner began writing a column for the '' Wexford People'' and in 2024 he published a book of short stories, ''Living by the River'', inspired by his experiences living by the

River Slaney The River Slaney (; ) is a large river in the southeast of Ireland. It rises on Lugnaquilla Mountain in the western Wicklow Mountains and flows west and then south through counties Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford for 117.5 km (73 mi), ...

in Wexford town.

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 Irish singer-songwriters Musicians from County Wexford People from Wexford, County Wexford