Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

With a new album being worked upon, James J. Turner is one of those fortunate and rather splendid musicians who seem to find that the creative juices just never seem to stop flowing. The words, the songs that he sings with a hand over his heart storm through like the constant majestic water that goes over Niagara Falls. An ever flowing set that incorporates beauty and time and in his 2012 album How Could We Be Wrong? this is exemplified and justified.

If the lyrics are stunning then the way the music is presented alongside it is a relentless torrent of splendid attraction. Like the Niagara, it is something you cannot tear yourself away from. Just even a second away could see the listener missing a tiny detail. That rush someone gets when they realise the power of the river that gives Ontario and the northern part of New York State its unceasing attractive, freshly picked rose like quality, is stamped throughout How Could We Be Wrong? It is also as deep as the river that stems from its crashing sentiment which sees James joined by the likes of The Mono L.P.s’ sensational cellist Vicky Mutch, Etienne Girard on bass, Mark Wright on violin, the fabulous Henry Priestman (ex-Christians) on accordion and Steve Rothwell on the fiddle who performs on the track Let Love Into Your Heart.

It is Vicky Mutch though who probably gives James his greatest addition to the album. Not that James needs help of course because on this type of showing he could sit there with just a guitar and the music would drip feed its way into the listener’s conscious. Vicky Mutch though, already doing great things with the Mono L.P.s, who provides the heart-ache, the sense of belief with her cello to James’ rather cool voice and look at life.

With an album full of stand-out songs full of life and verve, it is always a particular hard task to recommend even just a couple but this album deserves to be heard in full, not dipped in and out of like a conversation half heard on the bus home. From start to finish a real pleasure to listen to and wallow in the sense of pride, the charisma and fortitude in that a great musician can bring to the people of the city.

Ian D. Hall