Steve Turner & His Bad Ideas – Self-Titled
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Posted On November 1, 2004
Humility! The word is so often lost on modern artists — but former Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner is a near master of it. Turner made his debut as a solo act last year with Searching For Melody, a humble affair that meshed his punk roots with his fondness for folk songs. This amalgamation, which he wryly dubbed “skate-folk,” is perhaps the only genre that could contain covers of both Dave Van Ronk’s “Last Call” and The Mac’s “I’m 37”. The album was dark, funny, minimal, and a critical hit.
Now Turner is back with His Bad Ideas for a grander, amplified event that highlights his garage-rock schooling (“Zero On The Scale”) and his gritty blues riffs (“Someday Baby”), not to mention his skillful country lyricism on an indelible duet with Holly Golightly titled “A Beautiful Winter”. Filling out these sometimes rocking, sometimes crooning numbers is a whole crew of misfits, ranging from Anne Marie Ruljancich (Jesse Sykes) to Dan Peters (Mudhoney) to Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam). But the crucial ingredient is the subtle Johnny Sangster, whose licks are the perfect foil for Turner’s modest but well-informed fretwork. Together, the two create a crosshatch of guitar so understated that after several listens you’ll still hear something new.
Turner has always been a hell of a guitarist. He belongs to that lineage of skilled but rarely flashy players — George Harrison and David Rawlings come to mind — and much like the former, his solo shift is a burst of creative urgency.
