Over the years, guitarist Steve Turner has appeared on countless recordings with Seattle-based bands -- his best-known being
Mudhoney, but also Green River,
Monkeywrench, and the Thrown Ups, among others. However, Turner never issued a solo release -- something he corrected in 2003 with the release of Searching for Melody. Although Turner will forever be synonymous with garage rock and grunge (after all, he co-penned one of the genre's all-time classics, "Touch Me I'm Sick"), Turner's solo debut is the opposite of what you'd expect. Instead of continuing with "the vintage stomp box sound," Turner focuses on singer/songwriter-esque material. Backing Turner (who also handles vocals) is his longtime
Mudhoney bandmate, Dan Peters, on drums, as well as his brief bandmate in Green River, Stone Gossard, on bass, in addition to multi-instrumentalist Johnny Sangster. Stripped-down tunes that are almost in a roots rock vein are the end result, especially such tracks as "Living Through the Mistakes," "I Want You in My Arms," and "You, My Girl." And since
Mudhoney have always had bluesy elements in their music (an element that most fans tended to glance over), the self-explanatory "Nothing But the Blues" shouldn't come as a surprise. Steve Turner's solo debut certainly won't be mistaken for a
Mudhoney release, but this was obviously his intention -- to pursue a new musical avenue. As a result, Searching for Melody is a very pleasant surprise.
Proving that his 2003 solo debut, Steve Turner promptly issued a follow-up EP, A Beautiful Winter, and the full-length And His Bad Ideas a year later. But unlike his debut, which was surprisingly un-Mudhoney-like (it largely included singer/songwriter and roots rock compositions), Turner's sophomore full-length sees the singer/guitarist crank things up a notch. This is especially evidenced by such tracks as the album-opening "The Grand Introduction" (which features some very Neil Young-ish, crackling guitar), "Zero on the Scale," and the gloriously titled "I Love the Sound of My Guitar." While it's still not the all-out energy blast that
Mudhoney often is, the material here is much more along the lines of what you'd expect from one of grunge's guitar greats. Turner is joined once more by the same cast of characters as his debut (including Mudhoney's Dan Peters and Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard) in addition to several new guests, including former Thee Headcoatees member Holly Golightly, who supplies vocals on a few tracks (including the jangly, country-tinged "A Beautiful Winter"). As with his debut, Turner has once more issued a strong album unlike what most longtime
Mudhoney fans would expect from him.
