{"id":10288,"date":"2016-03-10T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T05:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=10288"},"modified":"2016-03-04T19:57:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T19:57:02","slug":"reed-turchi-back-to-his-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/10\/reed-turchi-back-to-his-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Reed Turchi: Back to His Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though these days he lives and works in Memphis, Reed Turchi<\/strong> was born and spent his formative years in Asheville. Nominally a blues artist, multi-instrumentalist Turchi draws from a much wider array of styles, and his music is informed by his studio knowledge and experience. This summer Turchi and band will launch a major tour to promote his upcoming solo album, Speaking in Shadows<\/i>, previewed by a special album release party, February 26 at The Root Bar.<\/p>\n

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Reed Turchi. Photo by Carson Ellis<\/p><\/div>\n

Growing up just outside the Asheville city limits, Turchi was raised on a diet of music. But not so much mountain music. \u201cMy mom is the real musician in the family,\u201d Turchi says. \u201cShe’s a classical viola player. She started me out fairly early with the usual, by-the-book piano regimen.\u201d He didn’t enjoy the material he was tasked to learn. \u201cI remember one particular night when she realized I was practicing theory, but I had headphones on and was listening to something else. That was not a good moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then he discovered the blues. \u201cA couple years in,\u201d Turchi recalls, \u201conce I had some basic musical knowledge, I finally started to make the connection that it might be possible to actually play music that I liked listening to. And that’s when I started doing boogie-woogie piano, Kansas City and Chicago style: the stuff with the walking left hand, and chords in the right hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

That foundation set Turchi on his musical path, but the potentially restrictive format of the blues didn’t limit him. \u201cAs an artist, I think that all music is an elastic thing,\u201d he says. In Turchi’s music, listeners may hear the blues plus influences of more contemporary \u2013 and even exotic \u2013 styles. \u201cThe real addiction for me for the last six or seven months has been Tuareg music like Tinariwen<\/strong>, Bombino<\/strong>, and Tamikrest<\/strong>,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of people make a blues connection to that music, but what I’m attracted to in all of that is the groove.\u201d He says that hooks and melody are qualities that he \u201cdefinitely focused on. I’m always interested in chasing new musical ideas, and I am also interested in trying to make the best music possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

That commitment comes through in the songs on Speaking in Shadows<\/i>. Another key ingredient is the approach Turchi used to make the basic tracks: direct to tape. \u201cFor me, it was not necessarily a debate about nostalgia, but more about restraint,\u201d Turchi explains. \u201cThe goal was to simplify, using as few microphones as possible. We had only one reel of tape, so we could only ever keep a single take of a song, and not say, ‘Oh, we have ten versions of that; we can go back and pick one later.’\u201d<\/p>\n

For several years, the Swannanoa native led a self-described \u201ckudzu boogie\u201d trio bearing his surname; they released three albums and an EP. Settling in Memphis, Turchi landed a job at Ardent, the legendary Memphis recording studio founded by John Fry<\/strong>. Ardent produced classic recordings from Big Star<\/a><\/strong>, ZZ Top<\/strong>, The Cramps<\/strong>, Stevie Ray Vaughan<\/strong><\/a>, and many others; Turchi is the director of the newly-revived Ardent record label. In between those responsibilities and sessions for Speaking in Shadows<\/i>, Turchi toured Italy opening for \u201cmind-boggling guitarist\u201d Adriano Viterbini. \u201cHe’s one of Europe’s top guitarists,\u201d Turchi says. \u201cHe and I did an album together about two years ago, and he’s producing some even newer stuff of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reed Turchi & the Caterwauls. Photo by Aaron Fryar<\/p><\/div>\n

Turchi brings the skills of his day job at Ardent to the making of his own record, and applies the same can-do mindset to the label’s other projects. \u201cArdent is a magical place to be around,\u201d he says. \u201cI’ve certainly learned a ton. And on the album, what you hear is me trying to take advantage of all that it has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n