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Matt Turk: Biography

"...an artist to be reckoned with."
All Music Guide

Playing what one astute critic calls "literate tunes with heart and muscle," Matt Turk exemplifies the consummate musical artist. He's a veteran performer and eternal idealist who has engaged audiences around the world, both as hard-rocking bandleader and acoustic folk troubadour. Few denizens of the limelight have maintained the kind of pertinent, meaningful existence away from the stage as Turk has. A wealth of experience, compounded by a careful observation of the lives around him and that of his own soul-stirrings, informs his work with a hard-to-ignore universality.

These days Turk teams up with fellow singer-songwriter Fred Gillen Jr. Together, they are Gillen & Turk and their debut CD is Backs to the Wall. About Gillen & Turk's May 2008 Backs to the Wall, Richard Cuccaro of Acoustic Live says "... from acoustic folk to blistering rock...love songs, rants, empathy for soldiers....(it is) virtuoso musical commentary." Matt Turk (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Fred Gillen Jr. (guitar, bass, harmonica, washboard, vocals) joined forces as Gillen & Turk (www.gillenandturk.com) in 2007, after being on the scene together over the last five years, and have quickly made a name for themselves as fearless folk-rockers who mean what they sing. The duo perform acoustic and electric with drummer Andy LaDue, increasing their audience gig by gig with infectious songs from a remarkable repertoire that stretches beyond Turk's 1999 eponymous EP release (now in its fourth pressing) and Gillen's solo work. Indeed, GIllen & Turk are rare musical artists who can entertain and inspire audiences simultaneously.

In February of 2008, Turk and director-cameraman W. L. Jackson released the music video "The Fog of War." Filmed in various locations around the Hudson Valley and New York City and edited by E. James Smith, "The Fog of War" features Turk and some of Matt's musical associates, including Pete Seeger, the conscience of America's musical arts, who hangs an awesome country blues banjo riff on the recording. Acoustic Live's Richard Cuccaro calls "The Fog of War" ".....remarkable video." The video can be seen on the internet on YouTube, Neil Young's website LIving with War, the Hudson Valley Music Channel and myspace. The song "The Fog of War" was originally released as a free download in the fall of 2006. Available on www.turktunes.com and Neil Young's website LIving with War, it has to date received more than 25,000 downloads from around the world.

For Christmas 2007, Matt Turk stepped back into to the spotlight with lots of seasonal cheer, as he performed "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" on the CD soundtrack to the holiday comedy film "Fred Claus," released on Warner Bros. Records. The film stars Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey, Miranda Richardson and Rachel Weisz and is directed by David Dobkin. Turk's acoustically-flavored take on the 19th-century carol stands on the album along side Christmas pop favorites by such artists as the Jackson 5, Sinead O'Connor and Elvis Presley, and is one of the two downloadable singles from the disc. For the recording of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," Turk settled into a Los Angeles recording studio with Matter, the producer-performer ensemble (comprised of Ric Markmann, Dan Pinnella, Dean Butterworth and Chris "Wag" Wagner) known for its wide range of work, including the music for Dobkin's prior film, "Wedding Crashers," and a rising young singer from Guatemala, Gaby Moreno. Turk shows off his impressive vocal artistry on the track, and also supplies mandolin, lap steel and acoustic guitar to the instrumental mix.

Washington Arms, Turk's 2006 release, produced by Kevin Hupp, emphasizes a talent for songcraft that integrates knowing lyricism into soundscapes that surge, soar and soothe, all graced with unerring vocals. From the hard-drivin'/hard truth opener "Into Nothing" to rockers like "All Over You," "Queen of the Set" and "Without Her," Turk utilizes influences like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam to create songs that fit nicely in the melodic alt-rock camp. Stepping back some, Turk shows a mellower side on "Amanda" and sure summer groover "Silver Ring," then updates Ten Years After's anthemic "I'd Love to Change the World," the album's sole cover track, for all the right reasons.

About Washington Arms, Jersey Beat's Robert Francos says, "the music here is actually very catchy, with well-written melody lines that are hummable (or to have arms waving in the air in an audience situation). His voice is easily matched to this sound. There's even a cover of "I'd Love to Change the World". The chorus for the last cut, "Sky", can easily stay in your mind well after the CD is over. I'm sure this may have shown up on MTV, when they still played music."

Meanwhile, songs from What Gives, Turk's 2002 debut album, such as the shuffle-funked "Broadway" and reggae-flavored "Bette Says," are still receiving national radio airplay--the former tune was featured on an episode of CBS-TV's "Love Monkey" in early 2006--simply underscoring the staying power of this talented singer-songwriter and guitarist's music. A review on allmusic.com calls What Gives "a huge musical statement" and describes it further as a "smart, professional, highly palatable collection of frosty pop tunes that fall out of his pen effortlessly, enunciated by a voice so AM/FM friendly there is no question the world would be a better place with his material rocking the airwaves."

A number of music fans remember Turk from his early 1990s group The Hour, one of the leading proponents of the jam-happy folk-rock sound that grew out of the Speak Easy, Nightingales and most notably, Wetlands, the Manhattan club and center of a scene that helped change the face of popular music.

Formed in 1987 while some of the band members were students (such as Turk, a history and religious studies major) at New York University, the Hour consisted of Turk and most notably Marshall Madow on guitar and vocals, plus the band's second drummer, Carey Harmon, now with Railroad Earth.

The group's lineup changed over the years, ending up as an eclectic acoustic trio dedicated to tight songwriting and sweet harmonies before disbanding in 1993. While it lasted the Hour released three albums--Hold Back the Reins, Fricker-Nicker Sessions and Songs of Sweden gaining great notoriety as the house band for three summers at Ken and Michelle Hoff's Arrowhead Ranch, a Bill Graham Presents music-heavy hideaway in the Catskill Mountains that regularly attracted the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Phish, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Levon Helm, Little Feat and the Dave Matthews Band.

"The Arrowhead Ranch was a wild, fantastic scene. We cared about song crafting and performing the kinds of songs that would express our feelings and connect with our people. The audience and the artists were one, we identified with each other. There was no elitism nor cult of celebrity. It still is that way for me" says Turk, reflecting. "A great day was when Bill Graham popped in to meet us. Another? Ziggy Marley was cooking salmon steaks in our kitchen. I remember when John Popper needed to use my Ovation because it was the only acoustic that could handle the damp weather that day. I still use that guitar all the time."

Around this time Turk became acquainted with two giants in the music world. The first, legendary producer Phil Ramone, Turk met in the course of studio work as a sideman, initially singing on Russ Irwin's debut with Phoebe Snow. "Thanks to Russ' introduction, Phil took an interest in my music and gave me a great tutoring on the craft of songwriting," remembers Turk, "I still reflect on Phil's lessons."

And in June 1992 Turk teamed up with world-famous folk music icon Pete Seeger, who was looking for a guitarist to accompany "The Street Singers," a roving collective organized to teach folk songs to schoolchildren and others in and around New York City. Once a week Turk was able to delve into the folk canon at Seeger's elbow, and before long had mastered a sizable songbook of Americana roots music and the kinds of treasured folk songs people sing. There were concerts, parades, festivals and parties.

Seeger's life-long concern with inequality resonated strongly with Turk, who has similar values. Feeling that something more important was at stake he worked for three years for God's Love--We Deliver, a not-for-profit grassroots group that brought meals to homebound AIDS sufferers, while honing his musical craft with Street Singers, Jack Baker at his Fretted Instruments School of Folk Music and hanging around Cafe Sin-e with Jesse Harris, Jeff Buckley, Rebecca Martin, Howie Wyeth and many others.

Turk returned to the tuneful arts in 1996 by forming The Dolphin & Shark Ensemble, a sprawling group of pickers and players dedicated to mixing Americana and world beat musical styles in the fashion of a grand experiment, inspired by David Bromberg Band. By then he'd also branched off into researching Jewish folk music in an attempt to keep ancient melodies and songs alive. Later on, in partnership with Kevin Hupp, he formed yet another group, Mandolin Caravan, to perform Hebrew songs from Israel, Yemen, Morocco and beyond; their first album, Desert Soul, was released in 2003.

For several years (2000-2004) Turk has coordinated and hosted the "Circle of Song" tent at Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival, an event inaugurated by Pete Seeger in the 1960s that's held each June on the banks of the Hudson River. He inherited the post from Linda Richards and passed the baton to Rick Nestler. Matt Turk also serves as resident musician at Congregation B'nai Jeshrun in New York City, and runs a folk singing project for homeless children through a grant from the Westchester Council for the Arts, the Frog Rock Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Onstage and off, Matt Turk makes a difference in his world, our world. Whether he's deep in a groove or leading a sing-along, Turk seems intent on fostering a revelatory art that's full of excitement, a celebration of spirit. You'll want to save him a seat at your table.