Here Comes The Son – JT and JT, Jr. Bond Over Music During Pandemic
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Josh Turner is the name of a successful, 43-year-old country artist. More importantly to me and my family, Josh Turner is the name of my younger son, a 21-year-old extraordinary musical artist in his own right.
Though I have long known Josh to be a multi-talented musician, the depth and meaning of his sweeping, varied, dazzling artistry didn’t become clear or as important until our 17-plus months together at home, thanks to the global Covid pandemic. My wife Betsy and I took him back to Grinnell College (two hours west of here off I-80) last Monday, Aug. 23, for his senior year and his first in-person classes since the fateful day we picked him up March 13, 2020. My Bettendorf home hasn’t been this quiet in a LONG time;
A pre-Covid Turner family portrait.
Spotify is a poor, pale substitute.
I was playing the piano for 30 years before Josh was born (on our living room floor, not on purpose), and I sincerely hope genetics played some role in his boundless musical abilities. I grew up studying classical piano at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, and majored in music at Oberlin College in Ohio, but there was no way I could pursue a career as a concert pianist. I didn’t have the innate talent or discipline for the endless hours of practice.
I studied music education at Indiana University-Bloomington for grad school, where I luckily met Betsy (putting on a musical revue of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael songs). Unfortunately, despite my goal to become a choral music high-school teacher (we didn’t even have choir at my all-male Catholic high school), I had a horrible student teaching experience in Indianapolis (spring 1988), and realized that career just wasn’t for me.
A Covid family portrait by Meg McLaughlin in June 2020 — Alex (left), Betsy, Josh and Jonathan Turner.
I always loved writing about music (since contrasting Billy Joel’s “52nd Street” and “Glass Houses” for a high school English paper), and after writing for college newspapers, freelancing for a suburban Chicago weekly in summer 1986, I got an internship at a daily paper in Connecticut in summer of ’88, and have been working in journalism ever since, always covering the arts and always playing as much piano on the side as my schedule would allow.
Though I played percussion in grade school and high school, took acoustic guitar lessons, and studied organ in college, I never mastered any other instruments besides piano. I had a brief
Josh and Jonathan at a Piano Celebration event at NorthPark Mall.
introduction to violin, trumpet and clarinet at Indiana, but they seemed as foreign to me as landing on the moon. While some people are amazed at how my two hands can play different things at the keyboard simultaneously, I am dumbstruck at how string, brass and wind players do what they do.
Same goes for Josh – both he and his older brother Alex (now 27 and in his last year of a Ph.D program in artificial intelligence safety!) are objectively brilliant, both intellectually and as model human beings. Believe me, my wife had so much more to do with their smarts, compassion and self-control than I ever have.
Alex made beautiful music playing viola for 12 years (including Grinnell, class of 2016), and Josh decided to kind of become a one-man band, playing drums, viola, piano, saxophone, accordion, acoustic guitar, and ukulele (he basically taught himself the last two instruments). Plus, Josh has been a devoted singer and actor.
His many Bettendorf High activities included playing for band and orchestra, singing in choir and show choir (Surround Sound), and acting in “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Sound of Music” and a lead role in “The Diviners.” We drove across Iowa to watch his great, glitzy, energetic
Josh with the Bettendorf High cast of “The Diviners.”
show choir, and I incorporated them in a February 2018 story I did on how their music addressed challenging issues of mental health.
Josh also jumped into theater and music at Grinnell, a small, liberal-arts college (much like Oberlin), and has excelled as a bass in the excellent choir, the Grinnell Singers (he’s now the section leader). Both he and I had long-awaited plans in spring 2020 to which we looked forward longingly. The college choir – in his sophomore year — was preparing for a spring European tour, including Vienna, Prague and Budapest (dream!!), and I was simultaneously
Bettendorf High School’s Surround Sound show choir.
rehearsing as the piano accompanist for the gorgeous, sublime “The Secret Garden” at Moline’s Quad City Music Guild.
That little thing called Covid caused the cancellation of both, and after driving home that dark Friday the 13th (March 2020), we were informed by the Guild board on the Prospect Park stage that the show was not to go on. After having my newspaper job eliminated the prior Friday, I was doubly devastated. That Sunday was the last in-person church service (Zion Lutheran in Davenport, where I’ve played since 1999) I would perform for more than 14 months. I felt adrift and isolated (though, of course, I was hardly alone that way).
Luckily, within days of being unemployed, I had new agreements to write freelance for this wonderful website, and WVIK, the invaluable Quad-Cities NPR station. During the long months of quarantine, Josh and I both sought solace, refuge and relief in music – with the Steinway baby grand I grew up playing, which has been in our living room since we moved here in 1996.
Sharing duets on Facebook
Truth be told, Josh was a far more devoted piano player than me at home, and spent a lot of time recreating songs from our beloved “Hamilton.” A family highlight in July 2020 was the four of us (Alex came home from Oregon for six months) getting to watch the mesmerizing “Hamilton” film version on Disney Plus for like $7 for a one-month subscription. Though it didn’t compare with the electricity
Josh and Jonathan recording “Dear Theodosia” from “Hamilton.”
of seeing the show live in person, we saved a good deal of money that way.
I don’t know why I never had a big Beatles greatest hits book of sheet music before, but I splurged for a 525-page compendium (of over 120 hits), and Josh and I had so much fun singing many of them over the past year and a half, often with him playing guitar. The first we recorded was the ideal early John and Paul duet “If I Fell,” in late March 2020. We gave it a jaunty rhythm the original didn’t have.
Josh playing viola from his beloved “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack.
Because this was Covid and tragedy struck somewhere every day, I was inspired to sing the title song of the 1996 Tom Hanks-directed film “That Thing You Do,” about an early ‘60s rock group patterned after the Beatles. It was penned by the super-talented Adam Schlesinger — the songwriter and bassist best known for his TV and film music, and being a member of Fountains of Wayne – who died at 52 from Covid complications early in the pandemic, April 1, 2020.
“I was blessed to have him on S-Curve, where Fountains of Wayne released ‘Stacy’s Mom.’ What a perfect pop record that was,” S-Curve Records president Steve Greenberg told Billboard about Schlesinger. “Adam had a killer instinct for writing great, hooky pop songs and he could apply that talent to any situation where such songs were needed: Not just on records, but also Broadway, TV and film. ‘That Thing You Do’ is so perfect a representation of mid-’60s garage rock that you have to remind yourself that it was actually written in the ’90s.
“With that song and the music from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, he left his mark on the culture as much as he did in his public role in Fountains of
At home singing “More Than Words.”
Wayne. His passing is a devastating loss,” Greenberg said. “I will miss him personally and the whole world will miss getting more of the wonderful music he created.”
As a sometimes songwriter myself, I am awestruck at the genius of people like Schlesinger and Lin-Manuel Miranda (founding father of “Hamilton”). I was a super-fan of the TV series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” basically a musical comedy itself, and if you don’t know them, you must check out Schlesinger’s work co-writing the perfect gems “Settle for Me,” “What’ll It Be? (Hey, West Covina)” and “It Was a Shit Show.”
After every duet Josh and I recorded on my iPhone, I would post them on Facebook and was heartened by the positive feedback I’d get from friends. Like many musicians and other performers who pivoted to online content, social media became an even greater lifeline and source of badly needed connection with the outside world. If we can’t perform in person, in front of other people, at least we can express ourselves online and get whatever love we can in response.
I certainly became wholly and unhealthily addicted to my iPhone during the pandemic. Glued to the news, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix, I hungered for entertainment, information and distraction.
Virtual choirs join online
While the rest of the world met and accomplished much work online through Zoom and other video chat platforms, there’s really no way to realistically have a choir sing simultaneously on Zoom, without it being a sonic car crash. That heartbreakingly defeats the thrill of a choir in
The full Grinnell choir in virtual mode singing “Hands” by Jocelyn Hagen.
the first place – singing together. And I missed playing for choir and singing with other people so very much.
One of my favorite choir stories I did in 2020 was on July 23, when I spoke with a Q-C woman who was part of an astoundingly huge virtual choir. Lynne Stukart of LeClaire couldn’t sing the praises of that global gathering loudly enough. But that makes sense, since for Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 6 – with 17,562 singers from 129 nations – they literally were told to “Sing Gently.”
At a time when we could all use some peace, togetherness and harmony, Stukart, a veteran flute teacher, was overjoyed to be part of the online musical project. She’s a big fan of Whitacre, the popular choral composer and his ambitious virtual choirs – a project that started in 2010 with
Josh Turner lending his voice to a 2020 Grinnell Singers video.
individual videos from 185 singers from 12 countries, blended to perform a piece of his in perfect harmony. Previously, he’s done five of the virtual choirs (performing existing pieces), each one bigger than the last.
I cannot imagine the time and patience it took to assemble so many voices together in this simple, transcendent, comforting piece – so it all sounds seamless. That also embodied the conundrum of Covid – having to be alone at home, yet seeking connection with others and producing something so beautiful that can offer us solace while we’re alone. It immediately got added to my Spotify playlist.
Augustana College, Rock Island, put together a similar virtual choir in August 2020. First-year students fittingly performed “Hope Lingers On” after taking a virtual class with conductors Jon Hurty and Michael Zemek that summer. Augustana invited members of the Class of 2024 to take a free virtual summer class as a way to meet new friends and professors before arriving on campus.
Hurty, Augie’s director of choral activities, also bravely pursued virtual rehearsals in fall 2020 for a totally reconceived Handel’s “Messiah. My Nov. 14 story looked at the challenging process.
Performing for Bucktown Revue at Davenport Junior Theatre.
Under the direction of Nova Singers’ fearless, passionate founder, Dr. Laura Lane, the 20-member vocal ensemble presented its first livestream event on Dec. 12, 2020. On Facebook Live, “Peace, Love, Joy!” featured solos, small group performances, and songs by the whole ensemble, with commentary by the amazing Lane, director of choral activities at Knox College, who started Nova in 1986.
Typically offering concerts throughout the year in the Q-C and Galesburg, Nova in late August recorded in a gazebo at Galesburg’s Lincoln Park, with each member performing in special singer’s masks.
In May 2020, Lane and 36 members of the Knox College Choir (which had its spring European
Josh Turner with Sophia Pike after a Bettendorf High “Beauty & The Beast” performance.
tour canceled) worked individually to create a virtual choir video – of “Locus Iste” (which means “this place”) by Paul Mealor, edited by Knox Professor Pierce Gradone.
Everyone recorded their part individually from home, without the benefit of accompaniment. You can watch it HERE.
Josh and The Grinnell Singers too, took the lonely task of recording individually from home to make this touching wordless video for the holidays. Again, fitting for 2020, there are no words…the music starts at 1:17. And luckily, Josh is just the second singer to add his voice to the piece, which he recorded from Alex’s bedroom.
That’s kind of what I did occasionally from spring 2020 to spring 2021, recording hymns and psalms from home, for our church’s online services, which typically just lasted 25-30 minutes. It was immensely sad to not be able to gather in person for the most important holiday of the year – Easter Sunday – both last year and this year. Last Christmas, I had the depressing task of recording two Christmas carols from inside the church, an empty church.
Fortunately, with our superb new pastor (Clark Olson-Smith), Zion has been gradually getting back to normal, meeting in person for over three months now, and adding more pieces to the service – though no congregational singing, choir, or contemporary ensemble yet.
Writing about performance, but not performing
Even after the pandemic shutdown, I didn’t have a shortage of things to write about, Q-C culture wise. So many creative musicians, actors,
Josh and Jonathan Turner at the Bucktown Revue, Davenport.
theaters, and other arts organizations were finding a way to get their talents out to the public – whether it was outdoors or online. I was thrilled to keep in touch with so many of these people and promote their efforts, but at the same time became jealous of the fact that in-person performances or filming was happening and I couldn’t be personally involved, by playing or attending.
Because our family was being extra cautious about Covid, I’ve had to turn down several opportunities to play for musicals, cabarets, or other performances. The drought ended for once this past May 3 (about two weeks after the glorious second Covid shot), when I put on a mask and got to play for Circa ’21 auditions. Playing for real people in person is something I’ll never take for granted again.
Fortunately, I got back to reviewing actual shows in person, the first one was April 29 in a nearly empty Outing Club ballroom, to see a dress rehearsal for Ballet Quad Cities’ “Alice in Wonderland.” The first in-person indoor show I got to see with an audience was June 2 for Circa’s “Beehive.”
Korah Winn and Jonathan Turner getting ready for a Bucktown Revue.
Josh and I got to see a couple great shows together this summer – “Red” at Augustana College and “Mamma Mia!” at Music Guild.
A definite musical highlight this year was hosting an informal backyard concert for a handful of friends on May 29 (coincidentally my late mother’s birthday, she would have been 80 this year). We played and sang from our back deck a slew of our favorites, and I had the privilege of kicking it off with a couple standards with my fiddle friend Matt Manweiler, a veteran of my old Bucktown Revue days.
You can see a brief clip from our outdoor “Yellow” (by Coldplay) HERE.
Working alone from home has been a challenge (though the commute is a breeze), but having family so close by has made surviving these strange times much easier. I think I’ve become much closer to Betsy, Josh and Alex, and we’ve come to appreciate each other more. Fortunately, we took our last big family vacation in January 2020, including to the Grand Canyon.
In addition to sharing a bountiful amount of music (including recording “Dear Theodosia” from “Hamilton”), Josh and I have enjoyed playing tennis and basketball together during the pandemic, and the three of us a number of times went on hikes in the beautiful Blackhawk
Jonathan playing at Davenport’s The Grape Life in the before times.
State Park in Rock Island, as well as innumerable walks around our neighborhood (yet I somehow still put on many pandemic pounds!).
Josh also has served as an example to me, for my physical and mental health. He (and Alex and Betsy for that matter) has such greater self-control than I do, and naturally has greater ability to avoid the temptation of unhealthy food, drink and screen time. On his downstairs computer (where he worked every day), he literally had a block on the thing that didn’t allow him to access websites like Facebook, Netflix and YouTube. Josh also made time to meditate and exercise every day (EVERY day). And he’s one of the nicest, kindest guys I know.
There weren’t many great nights in 2020, but from invaluable healthcare workers, first responders, grocery stores’ staff, restaurants and other struggling businesses, to the innumerable artists and cultural groups that make the Q-C what it is – we’ve been lucky enough to survive and try to make a better 2021. (If only more people would get vaccinated…)
The Quad Cities Cultural Trust tagline is “Culture Matters Here,” and that’s taken on even greater resonance and importance this past year and a half. For anyone around the world during quarantine, music, theater, dance, art, and film have provided priceless comfort, joy, distraction, entertainment, inspiration, wisdom, encouragement, and vital outlets for our deepest desires and talents.
To everyone in Q-C arts endeavors, thank you all for helping me make it through this year, as we work to make QuadCities.com the best source for arts and entertainment coverage in the area (spoiler alert: I think it already is).
Interesting times and looking skyward
In the time-honored tradition of taking lemons and making lemonade, I adapted my 2020 year-end essay for QuadCities.com, and rewrote it for a new anthology of the disaster of a year, “These Interesting Times: Surviving 2020 in the Quad-Cities.” A collection of essays and poems, it will be published in late September by the Rock Island-based Midwest Writing Center.
The All Sweat Productions “Abbey Road” show at Schwiebert Park, Rock Island, on Aug. 7, 2021.
“For some of us, isolation was a chance to breathe, take long walks, and read. For others, it was a long descent into darkness. Some of us grappled with life-threatening illness. Some of us found new peace. Yet we made it through,” says the promo page for the book. “With humor, precision, and ruthless clarity, the artists in this collection present a stunning mosaic of the ruptures, beauties, gifts, and costs of this utterly unprecedented year. Each piece is a glimpse into what was happening inside our personal pockets of isolation and virtual realities. Each piece is a celebration.
“Join us in relishing our resilience and savoring our lessons as we reflect on what the year brought and took,” the description says. “Whatever else you can say about 2020, it was a very interesting time.”
Because I tend to take for granted beautiful things others may not have, I unnecessarily isolated myself from Betsy and Josh too often. So now when Josh is back at school, of course I miss him and miss singing with him. I can’t imagine the isolation he felt even more over this time – having to miss his friends and fellow students at such a key part of life, and take classes remotely.
Such a large, influential part of college is being on campus, admiring the people and surroundings of the school – taking advantage of its amenities and the essential relationships. At least for my job, I have been constantly interviewing other people, and in recent months more in person than ever before. Josh did get back to Grinnell a couple times this year to see some friends, at least (they typically didn’t have more than a few hundred students on campus at one time; there are 1,600 total).
A Covid family portrait by Meg McLaughlin in June 2020 — Alex (left), Betsy, Josh and Jonathan Turner.
To collect our duets and some other pandemic music, I created this new YouTube channel, where you can check out our informal videos. They mean the world to me. There’s one brief clip on there of a sensational musical experience we attended but didn’t perform in – the Aug. 7 All Sweat Productions “Abbey Road” at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island.
Attended by at least 900 people, Josh and I got to hear Beatles classics performed with passion and outstanding commitment and authenticity by a wide variety of the Q-C’s best. The first half did a dozen hits (led by Ben Schwind, but sharing lead vocals with many), and the second half primarily the entire “Abbey Road” album – unleashed by leader Alan Sweet, trading off lead vocals (song by song) with Schwind, Kole Shuda, Jason Carl, Jake Ott, Zach Harris, Derek Fortin, Sarena Whitmer, Steve Krug, Charlotte Boyer and Lewis Knudsen.
It was extra special since “Abbey Road” (1969) was recorded after the Beatles stopped touring, so they never did these songs live. My clip is from the harmony-filled, supernatural “Because,” here performed by seven singers. It was an exhilarating, unforgettable night.
During this unprecedented pandemic period, Josh also really got into astronomy and studying the skies. He bought a telescope, and even before assembling, he several times would drive out to nearby farm country (with more night sky viewing without lights in the area). Recently, we took the drive out Utica Ridge Road, about 20 minutes north, drove down a gravel road and took in the starry sky and the profound stillness. It was the time of a meteor shower, and though I didn’t spy anything spectacular, it was a transcendent experience, sharing it with Josh and Betsy.
We really didn’t need to travel so far to see stars. With Josh and Alex at home, they were here already.
