Mick Turner

Mick Turner, the guitarist from Dirty Three, launched his solo work in 1997 by issuing Tren Phantasma. That release gathered improvised four-track pieces that highlighted the same contemplative guitar approach he employed in the band. The next year Turner joined forces with bandmate Jim White for live performances under the Tren Brothers name. Those shows extended the album’s aesthetic through loop pedals and restrained percussion. Multiple concerts served as opening slots for Cat Power, and the pair contributed to her 1998 album Moon Pix. Turner and White also cut a 7" single for Secretly Canadian Records that year. They followed it with the 1999 album Marlan Rosa on Drag City. During summer 2002 Turner put out the limited-edition Seven Angels EP on Three Lobed Records. Later the same year his third solo album, Moth, appeared. In 2005 his King Crab label released an extremely limited CD-R live EP titled Don't Tell the Driver. A 2007 rarities collection by the Tren Brothers, The Blue Trees, followed. From that point through 2012 Turner guested on releases by Clare Bowditch & the Feeding Set and Guy Blackman and took part in a split 7" with Bridezilla. Drag City issued a 2013 compilation of his earliest recordings with Jim White in Venom P. Stinger; the release coincided with a short reunion tour. That November Turner delivered his next full-length solo album, also titled Don't Tell the Driver. The two projects sharing the title had no connection. He had composed and recorded the later album in intermittent sessions between 2009 and 2012 at Big Moth studios in Australia.