Home   "Thank You Chris Curle" DLT                   Press-2

Friday, August 17, 2007                                                          By Chris Curle

A lot of people don’t pay much attention to harpists if they’re playing at some event, mostly background music, pleasant but unremarkable. Unless, that is, the listener has been exposed to the fun, exciting harp renditions of a local man, D.L. Turner.

My first experience with Turner’s unique approach to the harp was at a recent charity fundraiser at the Villa Venezia on Caxambas Court. Turner was engaged at the suggestion of another accomplished entertainer here, J. Robert.

Arriving guests who saw the harp probably expected soft melodies and gentile trills. They got trills, but also some musical thrills as Turner put his 85-pound harp through its paces, amplified electronically so the surprising music could reach the far reaches of the beautiful villa.

Turner tantalizes listeners with his ability to play just about any kind of music on that harp. He’s an expert in jazz and plays harp in some ways like a jazz guitar. “There were thousands of guitar players, but I only knew a few professional harpists, so I did that.”

He studied with a protégé of Carlos Salziedo, “maybe the best harpist in the past two centuries.” DL was a natural and has become more avant guard over the years. His colorful career includes having played with major recording artists such as John Denver, Earl Klugh, Bob Seager, Ted Nugent, Crosby Stills & Nash and a popular jazz group, the Rippingtons.

In DL’s hands, the harp comes alive, his natural talent honed by having played so many different styles with so many different artists in so many different venues.

“At age five, I used to ‘play’ my grandmother’s tennis racket, strumming the strings with a plastic bread wrapper,” Turner recalls. “I finally wore out the racket strings so she said, ‘get that boy a guitar.’ “

As a boy he also took voice lessons and belonged to Mrs. Snow’s Boys Choir, which did shows all over Texas. In 1970, Turner joined the army at age 17 (with parental consent) and did a four-year tour, mostly entertaining troops. He did U.S.O. tours with Bob Hope in Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and Korea. A lot of us musical novices have never seen or heard the harp played the way DL does.

DL also knows a lot of the history of the harp. The cavemen had harps of sorts, stringing animal guts across curved bones. Primitive paintings of harps on rocks in France date back to 15,000 B.C. Harps were often placed in the tombs of pharaohs in Egypt. In short, the harp is the world’s oldest known stringed instrument.

The cavemen would be amazed to see DL’s current harp. It’s painted with roses and vines and humming birds, thematic of his daughters. And he calls it, the harp, the “Rose Crystal,” his daughters’ names.

Alone and with J. Robert and other skilled musicians, DL Turner plays venues around Southwest Florida, including many corporate and other private events. He also has a company, Ranger American, which designs and installs and provides home theater and entertainment centers and high-tech security systems. He also works at the Osslin Model and Talent Agency, as its music director. And he does vocal coaching to young show biz hopefuls.

In short, DL Turner is a busy man, but never too busy to snuggle up to his favorite harp and surprise new audiences with harp music like you’ve never heard before.