Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It might be hard to identify at first, the feeling of contentment that pours over you when you listen to James J. Turner, it is like being swept down- stream in raging thought and realising that you are not heading for the whirlpool, you are not going to be digested or abandoned like many others would leave you, exhausted, alone and wondering what the night will bring, instead he seduces, he offers a hand of friendship and hopes that for a while you will accompany him on the journey; for travel, as well as conversation, always broadens the mind.
That hand of friendship, the seducing whisper and contentment all flow within the heart of James J. Turner’s new album Spirit, Soul & A Handful of Mud, it is a hand that should be gladly grasped and with a smile for in someone else’s wisdom comes haunting truth, a way of seeing in the darkness without resorting to switching on all the lights and blinding the subject beyond favour.
It is in the wisdom that understands the point of knowing we are little more than clay to begin with, moulded and shaped by experience and bequeathed a soul when we start to listen to others and do not damn them for the stupidity of an indiscretion or condemn them for things that were not said.
Spirit, Soul & A Handful of Mud is an album that espouses those thoughts, that tackle the mindset of some who refuse to listen with true intent and as each song takes you further down river, they become in a way a guide, a native spirit of their own accord and offer a sliver of enlightenment that is naked, raw and honest.
Aided by Amy Chalmers, the commander of the bow Vicky Mutch, the excellent Etienne Girard, Jay Hughes and the delightful Henry Priestman, Mr. Turner wrings out the expanse of refinement and karmic duty in such a way that at times the listener cannot help but feel overawed by the sensation.
In tracks such as Watching You, Karma Will Track You Down, My Way Back Home and Take Your Soul, James J. Turner employs devastating anguish with sensitive, almost bloodletting, intimacy; it is a moulded creation fashioned from the very depth of the Earth and from the very centre of his own beliefs.
Spirit, Soul & A Handful of Mud is a wonderful album written with unsuppressed joy and the will to offer a hand to wash yourself clean of the corporate mud that sticks to the body, a great delight of music.
Ian D. Hall