Released in 1996 on Sony Music Entertainment, Star Turtle was Harry Connick Jr.’s second step away from the crooner big band style he’d had so much success with in the early ’90s. His first album away from the band stand, She (1994), was his representation of what music from New Orleans could be; with classic grooves only heard in the French Quarter, fused with rock and pop styles, it proved to be a successful sound for Connick.
Star Turtle is essentially a concept album of an intergalactic “Star” Turtle who calls himself “the first of the reptilian rocketeers.” This turtle comes to earth in search of “the soul” in music to return to his home to save his race, and Harry Connick Jr. is the one to help him. There are several tracks spaced throughout the record that further the story of this turtle’s search, titled “Star Turtle 1,” “Star Turtle 2,” etc. The first track is a minor-centric, bombastic introduction to the album. The Star Turtle’s voice enters half way through in a deep, effects-heavy voice; he tells Harry Connick Jr. about his quest, and by the end Connick accepts the turtle’s challenge. The second track, titled “How Do Y’all Know,” starts with a funky mixolydian clavinet line. The song features a classic New Orleans groove on the drum set with bluesy horns and electric guitar playing around minor pentatonic lines.
“Hear Me In the Harmony,” the third track, features Connick on piano and organ, and was the most performed song off the album during its cycle. The song is about a boy coming up from New Orleans to a larger city, “making his bones” through his music. As the overall optimistic tone of the song arrives at the hook, the lyric is “just close your eyes, you can hear me in the harmony!”
Connick calls this album “New Orleans party music,” and that’s exactly what it is! Throughout the album there is a range of several Bayou-centric tunes. “Reason To Believe” is a classic blues/shuffle tune with a riffing horn section, while “Just Like Me” is an extremely intimate ballad that really features the band’s ability to play together. “Little Farley” is a much more funky tune that lives in a mixolydian sound, featuring a synth bass, funky guitar lines and splashes of a B3 organ. “Nobody Like You to Me,” is the largest departure from Connick’s signature New Orleans sound. The tune begins with power chords on an electric guitar; the overall tone of the song is very much pop, more so than the rest of the record. This switch-up shows Harry Connick Jr.’s sensibility as a songwriter, reaching into different styles to affect the listener in many different ways.
The rest of the album returns to the Bayou-centric styles of Louisiana. Songs like “Booze Hound,” “Mind On the Matter,” and “Never Young” are all very different, though. “Booze Hound” begins with a clean, slightly over-driven guitar riffing into a classic-rock-esque song. “Mind On the Matter” pretty much explodes into an energetic double-time New Orleans groove with nothing but drums, single note guitar comping, tight bursts of horn lines, and crowd vocals. The last track on the album, “City Beneath The Sea,” is a love song about New Orleans that opens with Connick on piano. The song is a plea to return to the bayou, beginning with “take me, take me, to the city beneath the sea.” There are also references to places, names, and terms that are essential to the culture of the city. The track features Connick’s ability to fashion a piano solo which references blues, jazz, and even classical styles.
The album closes out with “Star Turtle 4.” The space turtle’s quest ends as he has found the soul of music; he returns to his home and saves his kind. The music mirrors what was heard on track one, a melancholy and epic groove, while the turtle and Connick say their goodbyes.
Below are two selections from Star Turtle, a live performance of “Hear Me In the Harmony,” and “City Beneath the Sea.”
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