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Artist
Pierce Turner
12+ albums
singer-songwriterfolkirelandirishIrish Folk
about
Pierce Turner (born 1956) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Turner grew up in the port town of Wexford, where his mother ran a record shop and led her own band. Like all his siblings he was classically trained, and his fondest early memories are of singing in the annual plainchant festival. By age seven, he was a member of a traditional Irish tin-whistle group, and at eight, he was playing in a brass and reed orchestra. His first professional job was as a musician with the pop showband The Arrows. He later moved to New York and formed The Major Thinkers with fellow Wexfordian Larry Kirwan (now the frontman of Black 47), and recorded several acclaimed albums. His first solo album, It's Only a Long Way Across (1986), was produced by American avant-garde composer, Philip Glass. and was nominated for the U.S album of the year on the New York Music Awards He went on to make two more albums for Beggars Banquet: The Sky and the Ground (1989) and Now Is Heaven (1991). The latter was released to great critical acclaim, with Hot Press dubbing him "Ireland's greatest living poet", and he was voted Irish Solo Performer of the Year in the Hot Press Awards by a panel drawn from the national media. This album was produced by the legendary John Simon -Leonard Cohen and the Band In 1998 Beggars Banquet released a Best of Pierce Turner compilation. In June 2001, 3 Minute World was released, Hot Press giving it a 12 out of 12, while Tony Clayton-Lea of the Irish Times described Pierce as one o
