Nudie and the Turks

Artist Information

Biography

Formed in the spring of 2005, Nudie and the Turks took their vision first to the streets, busking anywhere and everywhere. This lead to an East Coast Music Awards showcase; no small feat for a three month old band.

After playing the clubs and a 6 month residency at the infamous Elm Avenue Social Club, they decided to follow Willie Nelson’s Maritime Tour in 2006, busking for the people going in, then playing a show in each city. The seed of the idea came from them doing the same at a George Jones show, where they met George backstage and had his fiddle player sit in out front. His wise advice was “do what’s in your heart and good things will happen to you."

Four shows into the ten city tour, Billy English (Willie’s percussionist/drummer) joined them, playing snare drum. They then got on the bus, hung out with band and crew, and were asked to play the end of tour party in St. John’s. As well as seeing a few shows backstage, an invitation was extended to come to Texas to play Poodie Locke’s (Willie’s tour manager of 30 + years) club outside of Austin.

Since then Nudie and the Turks continue to keep busy playing the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec & Western Canada along with U.S. shows in Colorado, Arizona, Pennsylvania & Tennessee.

They have showcased at the North by Northeast Festival, the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals, the East Coast Music Awards as well as the North American Folk Alliance in Memphis, Tennessee.



QUOTES

"Willie and I never set out to make it...we just wanted to play...when I was watching your band the other night, I saw the same thing in you guys".
-Paul English...Willie Nelson's drummer of 40 years

"One of the most exciting bands to come around since KD LANG and the RECLINES..."
-Joe Wood, RDR Music Group

"They're as cool as their name!"
-Performing Songwriter Nashville

"If you've ever bemoaned the horrible state of what passes for country music these days, throw a few bucks to Nudie and the Turks and get their CD. You won't regret it."
-Penquin Eggs

EReal singing, real songs from a singer who’s polished his tongue on more classic country songs than you or I will ever know.E
- Dan KershawEhe Brothers Cosmoline

“…(Nudie) reminds us of Jim Reeves, yet he can take you to the honky-tonk with a Lefty Frizzell tuneEy pick to impress at the ECMA’s.E

- Charlie HansenEhe Buzz

"Nudie & The Turks prove fishing isn't the only thing East Coasters are good at."

- AOL Canada

Instrumentation

Nudie - Guitar & Vocals
Roger Carter - snare, Kick & Brushes
Mark Palmer - Bass & Vocals

Discography

Nudie & the Turks - 2006
Looking For A Good Time - 2008

Audio

• Dear Departed
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• Maybe Someday
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• Dear Departed

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Country Music News Review for ' Looking For A Good Time ' [+ Show ]
  

  Nudie and the Turks Looking For A Good Time Indie - SR-002 Produced by: Nudie Sometimes the mo...Nudie and the Turks
  Looking For A Good Time
  Indie - SR-002
  Produced by: Nudie
  
  Sometimes the most interesting and enjoyable albums in Cancountry come from unlikely sources. Who would have thought that a threesome called Nudie and the Turks, from 'smalltown' Prince Edward Island, would put together an albun that would hold it's own against all the big budget, big star, big hype albums that come along. For sure you won't hear much of Nudie and the Turks on mainstreem country radio...but country music fans would certainly be well served if some of our Music Directors and Radio Programers would step up to the plate and take a swing at this piece of magic. ( Since that's not likely gonna' happen...best you give Nudie an email and buy yourself a copy...it'll be one of your 'best buys' of the year ).
  The album id filled with original songs written by Nudie and they range from sorrowful country ballads to mid-tempo jumpers, to story songs - all different, all very well performed. You get a bit of Johnny Cash in the prison lament 'Four Gray Walls', some old-time Jimmie Rodgers styled music in 'Billy Dean's Blues', a slow bluesy country ditty, 'Why Don't You Love Me For Who i Am?', and a knockout country tear-jerker in 'Dear Departed'. Listen Also for a couple more winners in the two-stepping 'Call Me' and the mid-tempo, 'Maybe Someday'.
  The album also carries three instrumental pieces, including versions of the classics 'Cannonball Rag' and 'Lone Star Rag', as well as an original in 'Pop The Trunk' which smacks of the great instrumentals we heard from Buck Owens & the Buckaroos.
  The album also contains Nudie's story song tribute to the late handsome Ned ( aka Robyn Masyk who died of a drug overdose in Toronto, January 10, 1987 ). Handsome Ned was a musical folk hero of sorts before his untimely demise, and Nudie tells yet another chapter in Canadian music history with his song 'Who Was Handsome Ned?
  This is not a big studio production project - you get Nudie on vocals and guitar, some tasty mandolin and fiddle by Gordie MacKeeman, Thomas Webb on pedal steel and Mark Geddes on bass - but it is exactly that simplicity that makes this whole album work to perfection.
  
  Country Music News - August 2008

• Guardian review for ' Looking For A Good Time ' [+ Show ]
  

  Going back in time with Nudie, Turks Growing up with a mother who loved classic country music ...Going back in time
  
  with Nudie, Turks
  
  Growing up with a mother who loved classic country music I was exposed from an early age to the music of artists like Jim Reeves, Ray Price, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Marty Robbins and a host of other country music legends.
  
  For the longest time, I thought that music had disappeared from the country vocabulary.
  
  It certainly wasn’t being played much on radio.
  
  Then, one fateful Sunday three years ago I entered the flea market at the Charlottetown Mall and discovered Nudie and the Turks playing live just inside the doorway.
  
  They floored me.
  
  Three years and two albums later the result is still the same.
  
  When I listen to Looking For A Good Time, the band’s second album, I’m transported back in time to my mother’s bedroom where I spent many happy hours immersed in the country records she carefully placed on the family stereo while she puffed her way through a deck of Peter Jacksons and sipped on a Pepsi.
  
  The brand of country served up by Nudie, fiddler/mandolin player Gordie Mackeeman, guitarist/pedal steel player Thomas Webb and bass player Mark Geddes harkens back to what many call country music’s golden era, the mid-40s to the mid-60s.
  
  The flavour, the lyrics, the vocals and the harmonies, the arrangements and the orchestrations of Nudie and the Turks really take you back there.
  
  And they do it so well, you start wondering where you heard these songs before and who recorded them first.
  
  But the fact of the matter is that almost all of the material on Looking For a Good Time is original, either written or co-written by Nudie.
  
  The only exceptions are two traditional rags, Cannonball Rag and Lone Star Rag, both of which showcase well the band’s musicianship.
  
  There are some real little gems on this set, which was recorded and mixed in Charlottetown with Nudie serving as his own producer.
  
  Choice offerings include Dear Departed, Why Don’t You Love Me For Who I Am, Pop The Trunk, Party of the Year and the title cut Looking for a Good Time.
  
  Doug Gallant - August 2008

Setlist

Three forty minute sets.

Basic Requirements

Calendar