By Martin Popoff
I love seeing this. Joe's a guy doing it all, just working, working his work ethic, working his mojo. He's an entertainer who knows where he stands, understands his surroundings, and has many a good-natured tale to tell about some of those he visits. But back to the work. Joe's got at least three things on the go, notwithstanding the behind the scenes fulminations to get a message through to Ritchie Blackmore that it is time to put the most commercially successful version of Rainbow back together. Now.
First off, Mr. Stone Cold has a new album coming (see the most excellent www.joelynnturner.com for more), and it proves to be a cruncher. "It's melodic but it's hard and heavy, harder and heavier than most of my recent stuff. I'm using all the same guys so it sounds like a band. It's heavier than Holy Man. On Holy Man I had some guest stars but this one is Akira Kajiyama on guitar, who co-wrote all the tracks, a Japanese guitarist who I think is excellent. You've got Eric Czar on bass, Kenny Kramme on drums and we used Paul Morris on some keyboards, although it's not a heavily keyboard-oriented record. But it's there; it's Purple-esque. Some of the titles are 'Bloodsucker', 'Dark Days', 'Possession'... I mean this stuff is evil and seriously dark."
JOE LYNN TURNER - Ballad Of A Working Man Page 2