Jen Turner – the moment was lost
Posted: July 6, 2009 Filed under: Artists | Tags: guitar, guitarist, Jen Turner, Jennifer Turner, Natalie Merchant, PRS, Tigerlily 15 Comments »
In 1995, Natalie Merchant had a hit record as a solo artist – Tigerlily. It’s a fine record that reflects a smooth evolution from 10,000 Maniacs to a more individualized style. She certainly did not reinvent the wheel on that one. And while I’m a casual fan of Ms. Merchant’s unique vocal style, the only reason I ever paid attention to the record was a Saturday Night Live promotional performance that emphasized the obvious talent of Merchant’s PRS-wielding lead guitarist, Ms. Jen Turner.
Turner knocked my socks off. She was lovely, but more importantly, brought such tremendous tone and confidence to her performances both on the record and on the stage, one could not help but think big things were right around the corner for her. Speaking to Guitar world during the marketing of Tigerlily, Turner showed what I believe to be the exact right attitude for someone in her position:
Turner is of two minds about the “women in rock” issue: “Usually, it’s something I don’t even think about. But every once in a while, some guy will say something like ‘Oh, a guitar! You know how to tune one of those?’ And I feel like saying, ‘Yeah. Do you know how to eat one? ‘Cause that’s what your’re gonna be doing in a minute, pal.’”
For one reason or another, it never happened. A bit of research turns up a well-financed project on Virgin called Furslide, which appears to have gone nowhere. There is some evidence of her playing here and there in the middle part of this decade, but no big mentions, no big gigs. This girl was ready to be a professional rock star and, as is the case for countless others, it never came together. What saddens me is that she actually got her big break, got discovered and played big guitar solos in arenas while she toured the world. Just check out the solo from a concert at the Meadowlands in 1995. the fireworks kick in at about the 3:50 mark in this video:
Was she self-destructive? Did something or someone else get in the way? Did she just make a decision to not push the issue? Who knows. The ‘where are they now file is filled with much bigger names than ‘Jennifer Turner’. But, in this case, the rock world missed out on something special.
Nice one, man. Intriguing.
Maybe this guitarist will turn up someplace else, and, who knows, maybe there will be a spot of redemption somewhere. Reminds me of VH1′s “Behind the Music” on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Did you ever see that one? Definitely the best of that series. The segment on John Frusciante and his rejoining the band after nearly dying in oblivion is absolutely astounding.
Deep thought of the morning: everybody is in somebody’s ‘where are they now’ file.
I miss Jen’s nice guitar work. More recently she had her own indie label, and formed the L.A. based group Inner. For the last few years, she’s been playing with Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts. From what I’ve read, she is not longer into playing “guitar oriented” music. I can respect that; after all music is art and you have to love what you create… regardless of what it may be. Yes, she could have been very successful monetarily, but at least she is doing what she enjoys.
Also, she’s been playing Les Pauls for a long time (since right after she left Natalie Merchant’s band). One thing that people ignore on the Carnival video shown here is the phenominal bass work by Fima Ephron of Screaming Headless Torsos. Here is a link if you want to check out some recent shots of Jen..she’s the blonde with the flying V:
The are lots of live vids of Inner, & Joseph Arthur. Enjoy.
My last comment….. Jen is evidently playing bass now with another indie group called “here we go magic” based out of NYC. More info can be found on her myspace page…the band also has one. Here’s a shot of her playing bass.
http://newyorkcool.com/archives/2009/July/Photos/music_seaporthwgmtop.jpg
DT – thanks for visiting, and thanks for posting the video and the info. Definitely enjoyed it, along with tracking this artist’s story.
For some reason, I’m really struck by the fact that she has so dramatically changed the position of the guitar on her body, wearing up so much higher fourteen years ago, now so low slung. I’m just glad she is able to do what she wants. It’s incredibly selfish of me to mourn the loss of guitar god or goddess when that’s probably not what that person wanted. Thanks for the info, DT. Hope to hear more from you down the road.
I too have followed Jen’s brief flirtation with super-stardom. Her deft and elegant intro to Carnival alone is worth the entire TIgerLilly album – her solo still gives me chills. I believe she made a conscious decision to walk away from being a guitar-hero/heroine – much to our (but not her) dismay. We should be happy for her – few get to choose so succinctly – but I find myself more selfish than that. To me, it’s like Mozart deciding to become a pretty good pastry chef instead – the music world is poorer for it. I wonder if she appreciates just how much joy she is capable of dispensing by “just” playing the guitar like that – few have the ability to touch so many people. It is, of course, selfish – she has no obligation to do more than she already has. I just wish she would…
Ditto on the above, it’s selfish, but I wish she would have continued on so we could see her as we did with Merchant. I had no idea who she was until this morning, when Carnival was played on Sirius and I decided to see who the background vocalist was.
Watching Jen play in the Carnival video you only feel that she is doing what she is born to do. Her femininity isn’t an issue one way or the other. It’s refreshing and a joy to watch and listen to.
I rate that solo on the top 2 most soulful melodious ever w Brothers In Arm. Who knows, maybe she’ll come back to guitar…
Jen Turner has been playing and recording music with Joseph Arthur….see http://www.josepharthur.com or ck out you tube…
Jen is an excellent guitar player, but an equally good, very inventive bassist. In Here We Go Magic, she plays a P-Bass, I think, with flat-wound strings. Very supple and subtle playing in a quirky, trippy band setting.
From what I’ve read, Natalie is difficult to work for. Jen didn’t sound entirely happy with the gig, and evidently Natalie didn’t try that hard to keep her.
I am doing research on her today. I loved her on Tigerlily and own a Furslide CD. To me it is a travesty that she is not a bigger star — and is now playing bass.
Check out this link for a taste of what she’s up to today:
http://www.sasquatchfestival.com/#/lineup/artist/here-we-go-magic
Doing cutting-edge original music that’s not quite like anything else out there, playing Bonaroo and Coachella, hanging out with Thom Yorke, recording an album with Radiohead’s amazing producer in LA and London . . . .yeah, a real “where are they now” sob-story. She should have stuck to playing the same pentatonic riff (however beautiful) to one arena after the next . .