M.X. Turner's newest album is New Frontier/Ancient Slab,  a New Orleans album with rock, punk, reggae, Cajun, blues, EDM, disco, funk, folk, second-line rhythms, bhangra, country, jazz and gospel fed through Turner's forty years of writing songs and releasing records.

 

PRODUCED BY M.X. TURNER

 

Recorded March 2020-October 2021 at Dupre Street Studio, New Orleans, LA except “Gun For An Angel” recorded Autumn 2016 at Cobra Studio, West Seattle, WA (engineered by Bryan Cobra Marshall); “Faith In The Leap” recorded Winter 2015 at Duwamish Overlook Studio, West Seattle, WA (engineered by CJ Minerva)

 

Words and music M.X. Turner (all songs BMI) except “Whatchy’all Gonna Do?” words and music Otha Brotha and M.X. Turner; “Gimme A System” words by Tanya Marquard and M.X. Turner, music by M.X. Turner; “Willie Nelson Is President” words by Mandolin Hooper, music by M.X. Turner; “Little Liza Jane” traditional

 

© 2015-2021 M.X. Turner, except “Whatchy’all Wanna Do” © 2021 Kahlil Jahai and M.X. Turner; “Gimme A System” © Tanya Maquard and M.X. Turner; “Willie Nelson Is President © 2015 Mandolin Hooper.

 

MUSICIANS:

 

Nick Bacon: lead and rhythm guitar “Silver Comet Trails”

Mar Brisa: vocals “For You Darlin’ The World”

Ed Brooks: pedal-steel guitar “Angola Cowboys”

Otha Brotha: lead vocals, beats, sample “Whatchy’all Gonna Do”

Brian Cutler: double-bass on “Cascade Moon”

Daniel Dan-O Deckleman: lead guitar “Gimme A System”

Marie-Isabelle Pautz: fiddle “Tough Little Rebel,” “Little Liza Jane,” “Bayou Road”; vocals “Little Liza Jane,” “Bayou Road”

Susan Hwang: vocals “Party Porch”

Ken Korman: lead guitar “Mask”

Brian Cobra Marshall: backup vocals “Gun For An Angel”

Emily Neustrom: vocals “Little Liza Jane”

Charlie Nieland: bass “Party Porch”

M.X. Turner: Vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, percussion, t-fer, piano, organ, keyboards, accordion, beats

 

Cover artwork: Mac Magill (online address)

Back-cover photo: M.X. Turner

Graphic design: M.X. Turner

 

Lyrics available at mxturner.com

 

© 2021 Velocidad Maxima Records

 

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SONG COMMENTS

 

Here Come The Big C: A New Orleans brag song with electronic beats about a person, a krewe, a city.

 

New Rockers: Paying tribute to Cort McMurray, an old friend we lost while the record was being recorded.  Also, a call to street action–the power structure always worries about new rockers coming at them.

 

Mask: The musical question: in a city whose tradition during Carnival season is masking, why aren’t more people in New Orleans masking to ward off COVID-19.  Lead guitar by Ken Korman (The O-Pines).

 

Tough Little Rebel: The actor Linda Manz passed earlier this year.  She starred in my favorite movie, Days of Heaven, narrating the film with a teenager’s wits, smarts and unbelievable street-smart composure.  Fiddle by Marie-Isabelle Pautz (T-Marie & Bayou Juju, Swamp Blossoms).

 

Party Porch: There’s a house around the corner from me where seniors hung out on the porch blasting ‘70s soul, funk and disco.  Sometimes hip-hop and bounce.  It was the place to be.  Hook vocals by Susan Hwang (Lusterlit, Bushwick Book Club).

 

Whatchy’all Gonna Do? (feat. Otha Brotha): Co-written and produced with New York’s Otha Brotha.  Celebrates Black Lives Matter, confronts killer cops and state racism, and implores more of us to join the struggle.

 

Silver Comet Trail: Stream-of-conscioiusness reggae dub.  Lead guitar by Nick Bacon (Nick & The Adversaries, The Pilfers, The Pietasters, Team Doomsday).

 

Generacs and Sazeracs: Written and originally recorded sitting on the porch on Day Three of the Hurricane Ida blackout in New Orleans (our house was without power for eight days total–a pittance compared to residents in LaPlace, Grand Isle, Houma, Terrebonme and Lafourche Parishes).  This is a bouncier country version, hopefully with the joyful resistance that makes post-hurricane recovery easier on the heart and soul.

 

Faith In The Leap: Going up against The Man is fun, energetic, community, love and sex.  Doing it the morning after a hot summer night is even better.

 

Cascade Moon: A piano ballad wedding song (why have I written so many wedding songs?) for Janet and Brent (a bass player and guitarist, respectively).  For what it’s worth, my wife and I introduced Janet and Brent. Standup jazz bass by Brian Cutler (Fairground).

 

Little Liza Jane: New lyrics to the old classic with a Cajun slide.  Vocals by Emily Neustrom (Swamp Blossoms); fiddle and vocals by Marie-Isabelle Pautz, who reminded me during the sessions that “we’re singing a song that’s not our own/we live on land not our own.”  That changed all of the lyrics in an instant.

 

Gun For An Angel: Guns kill us all.  Rationalizing them as defense is a failing way to live.  Backup vocals by Brian Cobra Marshall (The Brian Marshall Band, Mayfly, Runaway Satellite)

 

Gimme A System: Written for a Bushwick Book Club performance of Tanya Marquard’s Stray.  Brash punk-rawk anger and resistance to being categorized and talked-down-to.  Multiple lead guitar parts by Dan-O Deckelman (Mudd Helmet, Rocket 69, The Service)

 

Willie Nelson Is President: A cover of Texas songwriter Mandolin Hooper’s (Mandolin Hooper & The Shadowland Rats) brilliant alt-reality account of a nation where Willie Nelson is president.  This was recorded for a birthday-tribute collection and borrows New Orleans second-line call-and-response rhythms and vocals.

 

Angola Cowboys: A country-swing number about the Angola Prison Rodeo and the conflict of momentary freedom immersed in maximum-security incarceration. Pedal-steel guitar by Ed Brooks (Resonant Mastering).

 

Bayou Road: A bhangra-esque (emphasis on “esque”) song about the coldest night of the year in New Orleans.  Fiddle and vocals by Marie-Isabelle Pautz.

 

For You Darlin’ The World: A ragtime/jazz piano ode to giddy love.  Vocals by Brazilian folk-jazz singer Mar Brisa.

 

Let’s Go To Jericho: A slow ethereal gospel lament for the beautiful and not-long-for-this-world city of New Orleans.  Written and recorded the day Hurricane Ida was named as a tropical depression.  By the time it hit Louisiana, it would be much, much worse.  New Orleans is a place that’s always clawing its way back.   This year we’ve recovered–most of us have–from the pandemic, the loss of culture standard-bearers, Hurricane Ida, the Entergy blackout, the failure of the city’s sanitation services.  It’s fantastic how we fight back.  But some day, there’ll be one last second line as we slog through the rising Gulf waters lapping at Rampart Street.