Turner Cody
Album: Last Of The Big Time Spenders
Label: Boy Scout
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.turnercody.com

Queens, New York, based singer songwriter, Turner Cody, has been steadily releasing albums and eps since 2000, but with the exception of an appearance on a 2002 compilation, "Anti-folk Vol.1" on Rough Trade, which featured a number of artists that used to play regularly at the Sidewalk Café, most of them have passed me by.

The main reason for that was a lack of release schedule in the UK, as many of those albums/EPs were self-released prior to the globalisation of music distribution via the likes of Amazon and even when it was in place finding one of those albums without the benefit of publicity would have had to rely on a luck hit. As I've said before, it's easier than ever to record an album, harder than ever to get it heard. Ironically it's a subject that gets covered in one verse of one of the songs on "Last Of The Big Time Spenders", "I Know How I Feel About You."

Cody has just turned thirty, something you feel is a significant event, a point at which was a good time to reflect on his life and loves, consequently, "The Last Of The Big Time" spenders comes across as quite a reflective album and one where you feel that the writer hasn't always been happy with his lot. It's got that warts and all feel about, some genuine regrets as well as some great times with both friends and partner.

I don't think it's a coincidence that there's a bit of a touch of both John Denver and Kris Kristofferson in the vocal, Turner Cody sounds thoughtful and reflective, a songwriter than focuses on the narrative and keeps the musical simple, with just the odd touch of strings and other instrumentation to bring emphasis to phrases and passages.

One of my criteria for an album that I get from artists that have a body of work that I've missed out on is that the album I do get makes me want to seek out more, to find what it was that got them to this point and Turner Cody, passes that test. The sign off track "World Go Rolling By" being one of those songs that leaves you with that lazy, lingering contentment.

Neil King