Mike Turner will play at April 22 Earth Day Celebration

Mike Turner will play at April 22 Earth Day Celebration
Fairhope songwriter named Gospel Entertainer of the Year

When Mike Turner retired to Fairhope in 2007, he looked forward to sailing on Mobile Bay and enjoying the natural beauties of Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Making music was the furthest thing from his mind.
Now, ten years later, Turner has been named the 2017 Male Entertainer of the Year (Age 50/over) in New Gospel Music, by the North American Country Music Associations International (NACMAI).
“It’s an incredible honor to receive this award, and I’m grateful to NACMAI for this recognition,” says Turner, who will perform a selection of his original folk, blues and country songs at Earth Day MobileBay, April 22 at the Fairhope Pier.
Based in Nashville, NACMAI promotes the country, gospel and bluegrass music industry in the USand Canada. Turner’s award capped a week of over 900 competitive performances by country, gospel and bluegrass artists hosted by NACMAI for its 20th year in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Turner had previously been named by the Alabama Music Association (AMA), as the 2016 Male Gospel Entertainer of the Year, as a prerequisite to the competition. “My thanks go to all the folks at AMA, who encouraged me to share my music,” Turner said.
Turner’s musical journey began in a family steeped in the mountain music and gospel traditions of his parents’ native West Virginia. Raised outside Detroit, he grew up in a vibrant Motown and R&B music scene. But he didn’t make music himself. “I tried to learn guitar as a teenager, but I was never more than a simple strummer,” says Turner.
The guitar sat unused in the back of a closet while Turner pursued a 27-year career in Federal law enforcement, first as an investigator with the US Defense Department and the Air Force, and then as a special agent with the US Customs Service. Rising to become a member of the Senior Executive Service, the Federal Government’s top tier of civil service professionals, he served as head of Customs export enforcement and counterterrorism investigations in Washington DC; was appointed Special Agent in Charge of internal affairs and investigations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix, first with Customs and then Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and retired in 2007 as the Director, Office of Export Enforcement with the US Department of Commerce.
But it was an adult education class in beginner’s ukulele in Fairhope in 2012, that started Turner down his musical road. “The ukulele really opened up the world of music for me. I wrote my first song three weeks after I started the class, and I’ve never looked back,” says Turner. Today, he plays both tenor and baritone ukulele, along with tenor guitar and banjo, dulcitar, and cigar box guitar. “And I still noodle around with 6-string guitar – maybe I’ll figure it out yet,” he says.
As a songwriter, Turner writes in such diverse genres as blues, folk, gospel, country, pop, rock and jazz. His self-produced recordings have received broadcast and Internet streaming airplay in the US, Europe, Ireland, the UK and on the American Forces Network.
“I want to contribute to our community through my music,” says Turner, who performs at charitable and fundraising events on the Eastern Shore and in Mobile. “I’m focusing on music with a message – gospel and folk-style songs on social justice topics and issues. I’m particularly drawn to songs with ties to local history and events.” He has written songs dealing with poverty and homelessness in Mobile, the Gulf oil spill, the 1993 Sunset Limited train wreck in the Tensaw Delta and the 2015 Dauphin Island Race