2006 WESTERN CANADIAN MUSIC AWARD NOMINEE: OUTSTANDING INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING "From delicate self-penned Celtic airs to emboldened and darkly grooving tunes, Art Turner's latest offering delivers music for those wishing to sit back and relax or delve into his rich world of instrumental guitar compositions... like a weary traveller the listener can let Art's landscapes drift past the window or stop the bus and ramble within the music's forested riches." -- David Ross MacDonald (the Waifs) "(Turner) gets amazing sounds out of his guitar and the recorded tone is absolutely stunning! (Sonora) is a treat." -- James Jensen, Solid Air Records (USA) " Sonora is a beautiful piece with all the polish in the world without the sterilization that often happens when polish outshines emotion." -- Will Ackerman, Grammy Award-winning guitarist and founder of Windham Hill Records Art's 2006 release, Sonora, heralds the return of Hugh Marsh (violin) and bassist Michael Manring. Also joining Art on this project will be the stunning cellist Anne Bourne (Anne has recorded and performed with Jane Siberry and Loreena McKennitt, and is responsible for the inspiring theme music for CBC Television's The Nature of Things with David Suzuki) and the brilliant violist Richard Moody (The Bills, Swing Soniq, Paris to Kyiv, The Glen Buhr Quartet). Click on any of the higlighted tracks below for a sneak peek at what Art believes to be his deepest, richest, most listenable record yet. Track Listing: 1) Fire in the Bones 2) Dunveganistan 3) Broken 4) The Cellarhand's Mistress 5) Canterbury 6) Matrika 7) Chatty Cathy 8) Dreaming Secret Creek 9) Chicken Man 10) Drive 11) Prana 12) No Great Mischief 13) The Blue Dome of the Sky To purchase a copy of Art Turner's 2006 CD, Sonora, click here. "(Turner's) playing is incandescent, his tunes seething with life's moods and drives. They don't always follow a strict melody line, but seem to search around for interesting moments, stopping here and there to nail the moods in a passionate embrace with his superb technical command, and then move on again and again. This disc is a great listen." -- David Ingram, Penguin Eggs (Summer 2004) "Jade" is a deeply satisfying journey into the resonant, sonorous depths of solo steel-string acoustic guitar. With seven originals and four covers, it features audience favourites like Si Bhig, Si Mhor, The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Redtail Circles the Sun, and Good Hands. While this album showcases a fair amount of innovative fingerstyle guitar technique (Turner makes use of an impressive array of harmonic tapping, scratching, slapping, and neck-bending techniques) it never gets in the way of the emotive, transportive quality of the music. As Six Strings 2 producer Bill Garrett puts it, "There's no question that Art paints an aural landscape that lets the listener go far beyond their living room loudspeakers and on to other places. He is a formidable artist with a wide palette." Track List: 1) Dragondance 2) Tumblehome 3) Berkley Springs 4) Good Hands 5) Dharma Bomb 6) Causeway 7) The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven 8) Redtail Circles the Sun 9) Banana Seat Boy 10) Ragamuffin 11) Si Bhig, Si Mhor 12) To Leave the Heart Behind To purchase a copy of Art Turner's 2003 CD, Jade, click here. 2000 PRAIRIE MUSIC AWARD NOMINEE: OUTSTANDING INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING "Red Havens Rising is the kind of CD a friend is likely to pull out of his backpack after a satisfying campfire meal, introducing it by saying, "You've GOT to hear this - it's the perfect music for conversation and star-watching..." Turner exhibits some of what's come to be known as the Windham Hill sound, but is more than few cuts above, at best evoking memories of work by guitar whizzes like Steve Hackett and Alex De Grassi. Without wanting to lapse into cliche, it could be said that Turner's music simulates or evokes something some of us see too rarely these days: the natural world. Or you could say it combines a vivid landscape (Turner lives on a Canadian prairie) with man at his most sensitive. And how can that be bad? Turner's not that well known south of the Canadian border. It would be a shame if it stayed that way, and only people with musically savvy camping buddies got to bask in these lovely and stimulating sounds." Mary Leary, Folkwax Following up his much-lauded debut, Story Water, Red Havens Rising establishes Turner as one of the most powerful, evocative instrumental guitarists on the scene today. Featuring an all-star cast of world-renowned sidemen (including Michael Manring, Eugene Friesen, Björk/Depeche Mode percussionist Steáfán Hannigan, Loreena McKennitt fiddler Hugh Marsh, acoustic guitar wizard Dean Magraw, and former Bruce Cockburn bandmember Fergus Jemison Marsh) Red Havens Rising has everything from masterful fingerstyle guitar solos and jazz fusion duets to cinematic Celtic dreamscapes and delta blues-influenced instrumentals -- even a virtually uncategorizable aborigino-Irish newgrass epic with Red House recording artist Dean Magraw. While Art's music is difficult to categorize, it is evocative, contemplative, inspirational and powerful instrumental music. Smoked Canadian World Music from the Heartland. Track list: 1) Invitation to Circumstance 2) Kicking Bird 3) Mendocino 4) Buffalo People 5) Acadie 6) Days Between Stations 7) Je T'aime 8) Strength, Broken By Strength, and Still Strong 9) Deep Blue Yonder 10) Red Havens Rising 11) Mid-River 12) As Far as She'll Go 13) Solace To purchase a copy of Art Turner's 1999 CD, Red Havens Rising, click here. "Both the music on Art Turner's Story Water and the inspiration and courage that brought it to life are remarkable. Art has gathered some of the finest players in the scene on this, his debut recording." Will Ackerman, Founder, Windham Hill Records "An amazing album of virtuosic guitar and violin. ...easily one of the finest acoustic ensembles of the past decade." Alternate Music Press "...lilting, poignant... a must-hear for those interested in intelligent, sensitive instrumentals full of soul and passion." Innerviews Released in 1997, Art Turner's powerful, cinematic recording debut won him a #12 spot on U.S. New Age Radio, a top-selling run in Barnes & Noble USA's In-Store Play Program, an endorsement deal with John Pearse Strings, and a place on CBC Radio Canada host Jurgen Gothe's prestigious Hit List of best albums of '97. People who like this album tend to take it very personally and passionately. There's a woman in the Yukon Territory who lives in the bush with no electricity who, every Saturday night, lights candles, fires up her generator, climbs into a hot bath, and listens to Story Water in its entirety. There's a woman in Texas who e-mailed the artist in desperation when her well-worn copy was liberated by an unidentified co-worker; even a 7-year-old boy who insists on listening to it before going to sleep every night. Story Water means a lot of different things to different people, but one thing's for sure. Curl up in your favourite chair, throw this in the CD player, and it will take you someplace special and unique to you. Track list: 1) We-no-nah 2) Pikaia, New Mexico 3) Before Sunrise 4) Unseen Mountain 5) Story Water 6) Buckstitch Babe 7) Blackfish in Time 8) Cottonwood 9) Blanket Dance 10) Lost Village 11) Rainmaker 12) Gateway 13) Crazy Horse 14) The Spirit Enters To purchase a copy of Art Turner's 1997 CD, Story Water, click here. A compilation of some of the finest acoustic guitar tunes you'll ever hear, this 2002 Borealis release features tracks by a number of Canada's best players, including Colin Linden, Mark Atkinson, Michael Jerome Browne, Zubot and Dawson, Dave MacIsaac. Alex Houghton, Kristin Sweetland, Terry Tufts, Art Turner and more. For ordering information, click here to go to the Borealis website.