James J Turner
James started gigging at nine, performing his own songs by 15. He fronted several bands and toured the UK and Europe with American bands, The Rain Parade and True West. His debut album The Believer recorded at Abbey Road Studios was promoted by Virgin/BPI as part of their Best of British Campaign all over North America. Since 2008, James has worked on more traditional tunes, inspired partly by the music of Bert Jansch and Pentangle resulting in the acclaimed album How Could We Be Wrong? In recent years James has consciously followed a Druidic-Bardic path, writing songs about the human struggle, spiritual landscapes, and concern for the environment.
Silver and gold
a piece inspired by Bert Jansch
“I wrote this for my second solo album How Could We Be Wrong? At the time, I was listening to Bert Jansch and Pentangle all the time. I also attended one of Pentangle’s last concerts at the Liverpool Philharmonic. I think some of his energy soaked into the songs on this album, including this song. I can’t pinpoint exactly where or how, because my own style is different in many ways and individual to me – perhaps it is the use of tunings which link folk, blues, jazz and Eastern music. People have consistently referenced Bert Jansch when describing my music.”
“I’ve always loved the ‘troubadour’ aspect of Bert, and his work with The Pentangle. It is only later on, for me, when I was looking for inspiration for my own music that I realised what an amazing and natural guitarist/musician Bert was. His playing reached into me and spoke to me; Bert was a person of integrity who always stuck to his musical guns, which has inspired me to try to do the same.”
