Description
Steve Turner – A Host of Furious Fancies
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2603-30 – $25
TN177 Apr 26
This 2026 album by Steve Turner truly belongs on the www.thetraditionbearerss.co.uk label.
Turner is among the most respected English musicians of this generation.
Where the tracks are dubbed traditional, ample recognition is given to arrangers.
Generally, arrangements were by Steve Turner.
The traditional tracks are ‘Erin’s Green Shore’, ‘Adieu My Lovely Nancy’, ‘The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle’, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’, ‘The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow’ and ‘Tom a Bedlam’s Song’.
Tracks where composers are acknowledged include ‘Mr Ineas’ by Gordon Bok, ‘The North Sea Tug’ by Harry Robertson, ‘Love Minus Zero No Limit’ by Bob Dylan and ‘The Navigator’s Song’ arranged by Dave and Toni Arthur.
Turner also arranged ‘The Outside Track’ with lyrics by Henry Lawson and tune by Gerry Hallom.
Turner plays English concertina and sings.
Chris Parkinson plays keyboards.
Rob van Sante plays various guitars and recorded, mixed and mastered the album and did the photographs as well, co-producing the album with Steve Turner.
For the uninitiated, the English concertina is a chromatic instrument with the same note on push and pull.
The other common tuning for concertinas is the Anglo, diatonic in a couple of keys with different notes on push and pull.
Turner has a natural affinity with any song vaguely connected with seafaring matters.
‘Adieu My Lovely Nancy’ has been covered by numerous singers over the years and Turner’s version here is evocative, sad and sweet.
Belle Isle is a foggy, uninhabited island off Newfoundland.
Interestingly, for this song, Turner favoured piano accompaniment.
‘Mr Ineas’ tells a story that might be described as the whale’s revenge.
On the other hand, ‘The Navigator’s Song’ tells not of seafaring, but of the men who built England’s canals and railways.
Apparently, the company paid navvies in ‘Tommy Notes’ which were legal tender only in their ‘Tommy Shops’.
Today’s coincidence is that a son gave me, at Christmas, Nick Dow’s ‘Secret Stream 2’, a book of travellers’ songs which includes ‘Erin’s Green Shore’ collected from George Finney.
Australian connections include Lawson’s ‘Outside Track’ about friends farewelling someone beginning the journey to England by boat and the song of poaching and transportation ‘Van Diemen’s Land’.
Having a few ancestors who were transportees, I was interested to learn some years ago that several magistrates sending people out here had interests in rural companies and benefited from the labour of convicts.
‘Van Diemen’s Land’ was collected from the singing of Marina Russell, a glover, and one of Turner’s musical heroines.
Most of Steve Turner’s furious fancies are poignant stories which are seldom acknowledged in official public histories.
As Steve makes plain in his comprehensive sleeve notes, most belong in the oral tradition and so there are variants.
There is no doubt however, that Steve Turner treats these tales and their tunes with great respect.
As the ‘tradition bearers’ note. these are ‘honest recordings’.
They are not overly complex and use simple methods to capture the essence of the music rather than to be tempted to use more modern sophisticated methods.
Steve Turner’s music is above all, real and ideally suited to live performance and recording.
Musical Career
Steve’s musical story started in the Manchester folk scene in the late 60s. His route to music was via the Beatles and then Dylan. Steve was playing a floor spot in 1971 where Canny Fettle were the main act and Bob Diehl, their fiddler, asked if he wanted to join the band. Steve was in the group for seven years during which time they made two albums, ‘Varry Canny’ and an LP of tunes from the Joshua Jackson collection – both groundbreaking albums for their time. After Canny Fettle, Steve spent three years dealing in folk instruments then went fully professional as a musician from 1980 until 1991. He made four solo albums, all with Fellside, setting the standard for a number of songs. After 13 years away from the folk scene, he made a welcome return in 2004 performing in folk clubs and festivals, and in 2008 producing his 5th album, the highly acclaimed Whirligig of Time which featured UK luminaries Martin Carthy, Nancy Kerr and Miranda Sykes. Since then, he has released further albums, Rim of the Wheel, Spirit of the Game and Late Cut. His 9th album Curious Times, featuring Martin Carthy, was released in 2023, with his latest album A Host of Furious Fancies, released early in 2026.
Steve is half Scots, his mother came from Clunie near Blairgowrie. Steve is from Manchester where his grandfather was a barber for the Manchester City players. A birth certificate lists Steve’s grandfather as ‘a journeyman hairdresser’. He was also a sailor who sang and played the concertina – playing and singing as long ago as the 1890s. Steve inherited his concertina. “The concertina lay in a box in the shed for over ten years. I popped in occasionally and opened the box but when I eventually took it out it came out of the box in two halves!”
Although Steve is generally modest with his talent, the Steve Turner this time around is more self-confident, although still understated. “All that I can do is what comes within my remit, but I would like people to be able to say – ‘If you want a concertina accompanist, Steve Turner is your man!’”
Steve thinks that this recording is his best work to date, which is saying something as he sets his own standards very high. As Series Director I have kept a very light hand on the production reins of these recordings and in every case I have been well rewarded by my trust in the artistry and taste of all of the singers presented within The Tradition Bearers. Although there is a common thread of tradition within the body of recordings, each singer brings their own distinctive interpretation to any song. I consider Steve to be one of a few in any generation who also takes an instrument to another level. There is depth in these songs and in these performances and I hope that they will bring you pleasure with each listening.
Pete Heywood – Series Director
