survivor
SURVIVOR: THE BENNY TURNER STORY
"Music books are best when they're not about music but about the musicians who make the music. The relationships, the road trips, bandstand incidents, and other obstacles to humanity are explored in this marvelous biography of bassist Benny Turner."
- BOB PORTER, Author, Soul Jazz
"Survivor is a lively, well-crafted epic taking us through Benny Turner's childhood in Texas and Chicago, through his long stretches singing and playing guitar and bass with his renowned brother Freddie King, Dee Clark, The Soul Stirrers, and Mighty Joe Young, his move to New Orleans and his time with Marva Wright, his own early recordings, and, happily, his re-emergence as an acclaimed bandleader and recording artist ... leaving the reader with a full appreciation both of Benny as a musician and a person."
- RICHARD SHURMAN, Award-Winning Blues Producer/Historian
In Survivor, legendary musician Benny Turner spins a mesmerizing memoir about the life and times of a journeyman blues bassist. Readers travel back in time to the waning days of the Great Depression, Jim Crow laws and the advent of WWII, when people of all races and color had good reason to sing the blues. Read more ....
Music fans will be fascinated by this very personal deep dive into the real life of the blues.
For years, Benny Turner was the slim, understated bass player who stood in the background, calmly thumping out the steady, melodically propulsive bass lines that ran beneath the searing solos of more flamboyant figures like his brother, legendary blues guitarist Freddie King. Read more ....
