Biography
A seasoned veteran of bluegrass, this musician joined the first sessions cut by the forward-thinking mandolinist Frank Wakefield. Settling into a modest professional path centered in Tennessee, he hosted a regular bluegrass program each week on WNNT and arranged occasional remote broadcasts from the Turner Music shop in New Tazewell. In addition to those Wakefield dates, his résumé lists work alongside the Honeycutt Brothers, including an early-1970s gospel EP issued by the Valley label, as well as membership in the cooperative Don Gulley & Buster Turner & the Pinnacle Mountain Boys, which cut lively sides for Cumberland in the early 1960s. He also led the aptly titled Bluegrass Professionals, a unit that occasionally joined forces with Walter Bailes to deliver a memorable reading of the gospel standard “Dust on the Bible.”
Despite the abundance of sacred material in his catalog, Turner was not always viewed as part of the gospel circle; in his younger days he earned a reputation as something of a rockabilly hell-raiser. His recording life began in the mid-1950s within a circle of Appalachian musicians who had moved north and midwest in search of work. Although Detroit is seldom associated with bluegrass, Turner, Wakefield, and Marvin Cobb briefly formed part of the local scene there before returning south. At the time, the music had not yet been labeled bluegrass and frequently overlapped with the first stirrings of rock & roll and rockabilly. One early Turner track, “That Old Heartbreak Express,” later appeared on a volume of the Boppin’ Hillbilly Series documenting that Detroit era.
Turner was also regarded as a capable songwriter. His composition “Let Me Live Again,” a rare country number that could plausibly serve as a theme for the recurring resurrections of monsters such as Freddie Krueger and Jason, was recorded by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and others.
Despite the abundance of sacred material in his catalog, Turner was not always viewed as part of the gospel circle; in his younger days he earned a reputation as something of a rockabilly hell-raiser. His recording life began in the mid-1950s within a circle of Appalachian musicians who had moved north and midwest in search of work. Although Detroit is seldom associated with bluegrass, Turner, Wakefield, and Marvin Cobb briefly formed part of the local scene there before returning south. At the time, the music had not yet been labeled bluegrass and frequently overlapped with the first stirrings of rock & roll and rockabilly. One early Turner track, “That Old Heartbreak Express,” later appeared on a volume of the Boppin’ Hillbilly Series documenting that Detroit era.
Turner was also regarded as a capable songwriter. His composition “Let Me Live Again,” a rare country number that could plausibly serve as a theme for the recurring resurrections of monsters such as Freddie Krueger and Jason, was recorded by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and others.