I was thinking about Brian Grace this evening, a lovely guitar player, and remembering sitting out on the grass on Rathlin Island singing and playing this song. 

No Good In This Goodbye

I recorded this for a tv show on RTE years ago. 

cover - John Lennon's "Working Class Hero"

demo, circa 2001. Juliet Turner, vocals and guitar, Ger Kiely, guitars. 

Spitfire Summer

Cover. Original by the late, great Christy Hennessy. Brian Grace on guitar and backing vocals. Cian Boylan on piano. Captures exactly the life of every working  singer songwriter. 

Roll Back The Clouds

Contains my announcement on air that I had been married for three years to a Canadian market gardener called Rob Kennedy. Fun times. 

Gerry Anderson #2 040708

Gerry Anderson #1 040708

Juliet Turner - "The House at the Top of the Hill" . Copyright: Juliet Turner Music
ISRC CODE: IE HOD12 00001

info@julietturner.com
www.julietturner.com
www.facebook.com/turnerjuliet
www.noisetrade.com/julietturner

“It’s that time of the year again, darkness and light
when the season is calling us home”. 

New Year’s Eve is often the most disappointing party night of the year. On the eve of the millennium, fed up with over-priced alcohol, drunken brawls and hanging about in the rain for a taxi home, the friends and family of singer-songwriter Juliet Turner decided to abandon style and celebrate in comfort in an old cottage on the family farmland. Built in the early eighteen hundreds, the thatched roof was repaired, plumbing was installed, the diaspora was invited and accepted with alacrity. The alcohol was free, as long as people brought their own, and a gargantuan feast was provided in the farmhouse.  Then folks climbed the hill to the old thatched cottage where party pieces were dusted down, poetry and prose gushed forth, violins were scraped, trumpets blown and voices raised in wild and dissonant harmonies. A toast at midnight, hand shaking for the single people, kissing for the couples,  and by twenty minutes past the hour, everyone had gone home to bed. It was such a success that the gathering has been repeated in the house at the top of the hill every new year’s eve since. “The House at the Top of the Hill” is the song behind the story.


 “The House at the Top of the Hill” was recorded in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast city centre, in the slow peace that dropped after the primary school children left off kicking their football against the church windows and went home for their tea. Turner’s sweet voice and precise, evocative lyrics, Farriers’ Stephen Macartney’s warm backing vocals and guitar, and Gareth Hughes’ mellow double bass have given us a recording that is as live and acoustic as they come. Just the way the fans requested.  

“The House at the Top of the Hill” is the first release from Turner’s new album, due out in 2013.

The House at The Top of The Hill

Juliet Turner's live version of "A Winter's Tale" (David Essex). Please note this track is not downloadable. Pianist: Cian Boylan. 

A Winter's Tale (Live from The Empire, Belfast, 2006)

Northern Irish singer/songwriter Juliet Turner has some hints of the old standbys in her folk-inflected music: Nick Drake, Carole King, even a bit of Kirsty MacColl in her vocals. However, Turner's blend of melodic and lyrical folk, pop, and electronics also sits nicely next to contemporaries like Beth Orton and Emiliana Torrini.

Turner is also an engaging live performer,  opening shows for Joan Armatrading in The Royal Albert Hall, Sting in Dublin's Point Depot,  Bob Dylan, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant, U2, Art Garfunkel and Brian Adams. She has also toured with Joan Armatrading, Brian Kennedy, Ron Sexsmith and The Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn as well as touring extensively with her own shows. 

Turner has released 4 studio albums and one live album. “Burn the Black Suit” achieved double platinum sales in Ireland and in 2005 she picked up an Irish Meteor Music Award for Best Female Performer. 

In September 1998 Juliet performed Julie Miller’s song “Broken Things” at the memorial service for those killed and injured in the Omagh bombing. The song was later recorded for inclusion on the fundraising album “Across the Bridge of Hope”. 

In 2008 Turner released her fifth album "People Have Names" with producer Keith Lawless. The new batch of songs were warmly received - "a gloriously taut collection of songs" (The Irish Times), "a sweet and subtle album from an artist nowhere near as well known as she should be" (Q Magazine). 

Turner's version of Lee Hazlewood's "Sugar Town" featured in the movie "The Nines" with Ryan Reynolds, her recording of "Broken Things" was used under the end credits of the film "Omagh" and her song "Pick a Story" appeared in the short film "Call Me Son". 

In December 2013 Turner released a single track - "The House at the Top of the Hill"

Juliet Turner

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