August 20, 1944 - July 26, 2007
Uncle John Turner was born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas. He first played drums with Jerry LaCroix. Unc met Johnny Winter as a teenager and performed with him a few times as a substitute. In 1968, Unc convinced Johnny to try a full blown blues band and sent for his friend Tommy Shannon to play bass. This group quickly got natonal recognition and began making records and shortly after that played Woodstock, with Edgar Winter as the fourth memberIn late 1970, the Johnny Winter band split up and Uncle John and Tommy moved to San Francisco where they formed Krackerjack, with original band members Unc and Tommy as well as Jesse Taylor, Bruce Bowland, and Mike Kindred. They moved to Austin and Krackerjack quickly became one of the biggest bands in Texas. Over the next few years, some of the major guitarists included Robin Syler, John Staehely, Gary Myrick, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.Unc then moved to Houston for a while and made records with Isaac Payton Sweat, Ezra Charles, and Joey Long and played and recorded the next four years with Alan Haynes.After this, Johnny Winter, Tommy Shannon, and Uncle John did some recording on Johnny's Third Degree album.Uncle John then joined Paul Orta and traveled Europe for a number of years in a band composed of Hector Watt, Pierre Pelegrin, Paul, and Unc. Unc made three albums with Paul during this time.In 1997, Appa Perry called Unc in Europe and asked him if he wanted to form a band. Unc gladly agreed. This band subsequently became the Blues Power project, which featured Unc and Appa and different "guest" artists, including Alan Haynes, Tony Redman, Mike Keller, Matt Farrell, Matthew Robinson, John McVey, Mark Goodwin, Erin "Icewater" Jaimes, Eve Monsees, Gary Clark Jr., Shawn Pittman, and Sweet Basil McJagger, among others.Uncle John has jammed with B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Lightnin' Hopkins, and many more. Unc has also recorded with Walter "Shakey" Horton, Willie Dixon, Albert Collins, Nuno Mindelis (the Blues King of Brazil), Benoît Blue Boy (the godfather of French blues), Lazy Lester, and many more.On July 26, 2007, Unc lost his battle with Hepatitis C and liver failure. He raised butterflies and orchids and continued to mentor young musicians up until his death. He was married to Austin school teacher Morgan Goldbarth (Turner).
