Drag City are very excited about their latest announcement: after 15 years, Big Mick Turner (of Dirty Three) is to release “the big rock record” they always knew he had in him! Don’t Tell the Driver promises to be unlike anything he has previously released – “not just his own, but the ones he’s done with Dirty Three, Bonny Billy, Cat Power, Fungus Brains and Venom P. Stinger put together.”
Drag City are touting Don’t Tell the Driver as the first post-rock rock opera of our times on which Turner consolidates everything he’s done up to now under “the sophisticated umbrella known as the rock opera/concept album.”
Like all the best masterpieces, Don’t Tell the Driver came together slowly, spurred by life experiences and aided by the meditation that only time brings. Over the last four years, Mick put together the pieces at Big Moth Studios in Melbourne, working his magic with aquatic guitar-and-drums chemistry, augmenting the tracks with melodica, piano and Fender Rhodes, and then bringing in the vocalists, including Caroline Kennedy-McCraken (Dead Star, The Plums, Caroline No) and progressive classical/opera singer Oliver Mann, plus other additional players, such as bassist Peggy Frew (Art of Fighting). Sitting in the drum throne of Tren Brother (and Dirty 1/3rd) Jim White, drummers Ian Wadley (Bird Blobs, Minimum Chips), Jeff Wegener (Laughing Clowns) and Kishore Ryan (Kid Sam, Where Were You At Lunch) do more than just fill the space equitably – they meet Mick out in his wild landscapes and ride the winds with him, bringing expert percussive colours to his soundworld. Topping off this extensive crew and providing a strong frame for the “narrative” are sweetly sentimental brass arrangements featuring trumpet and French horn.
Replete with classic epics and timely reprises, Don’t Tell the Driver is an inspired and focused collection of Mick Turner music that reaches for new borders without sacrificing the dizzy wandering and painterly stillness that has typified Mick’s best work of the past. With the help of his many friends, Mick Turner has turned over a powerful page of life and music on Don’t Tell the Driver, out November 18th on Drag City Records.
Mick Turner Tour Dates:
Fri. Nov. 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
Tue. Nov. 12 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room w/ Bill Callahan
Wed. Nov. 13 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriets Pioneertown Palace w/ Bill Callahan
Thu. Nov. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Japan American Theater w/ Bill Callahan
Fri. Nov. 15 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Soho Restaurant & Music Club w/ Bill Callahan
Sat. Nov. 16 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall w/ Bill Callahan
Sun. Nov. 17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel w/ Bill Callahan
Tue. Nov. 19 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater w/ Bill Callahan
Wed. Nov. 20 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s w/ Bill Callahan
Thu. Nov. 21 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom w/ Mono
Fri. Nov. 22 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge w/ Mono
Sat. Nov. 23 – Detroit, MI @ The Loving Touch w/ Mono
Tracklisting
01. All Gone
02. Sometimes
03. Long Way Home
04. Don’t Tell the Driver
05. Gone Dreaming
06. Here’s a Way
07. The Navigator
08. Over Waves
09. The Birdcatcher
10. We’re Not Going Home
11. The Last Song