Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Hear No Evil
My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost

by Matthew Paul Turner

     

As I read Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost by Matthew Paul Turner, I found myself remembering my church days growing up as a Baptist. Although Turner, too, was Baptist, his upbringing as an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist garnered more restrictions in growing up than I did.

This memoir Turner wrote is definitely his explanation of how, why and what he became as an adult. The limitations on what he could participate in while growing up, and what he believed, according to the gospel he was taught, forced him to escape whenever he could through music. Christian music that is. The tone of his stories is full of true faith but light-hearted whimsy. This made it an easy read. Music gave Turner the means to learn about things he would never have gotten a chance to learn if he had followed the doctrines of Independent Fundamentalist Baptist to the letter. For example, Ms. Lansing, his piano teacher, influenced him somewhat when she understood his attraction to New Age music that sounded like pennywhistle music, the music of Native Americans.

Music was Turner’s muse. He looked to music for inspiration the way the melody of poetry inspires us all, because music was poetry to him. His Holy Ghost was music. He also used it to communicate and explain himself. Having grown up dripping in innocence, without music he would never have been able to express what he felt. As with his desire to go to Nashville to learn all he could about music and life, Turner found that what he expected to learn and what he did learn were not one and the same. He met people of diverse faith, who saw things a little differently than he did. School and life in the Christian music capital of the US showed him what he would never have learned at home. He took it all in stride and found ways to live and enjoy his newfound knowledge.

Overall, if one gets to know Turner through reading Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost, it will help you realize life is full of ups and downs. That no matter what you think your childhood did to you, Turner’s upbringing was different and uncompromising for him. Music allowed him to experienced freedom and liberty as he had never known growing up and surprisingly he turned out ok.

The Book

Waterbook Press
February 16, 2010
Paperback
9781400074723
Memoir / Christian Life
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Sylvia McClain
Reviewed 2010
NOTE: Reviewer Sylvia McClain is the author of the 2nd edition of The Write Life: A Beginning Writers Writing Guide and Skipping Through Life: The Reason I Am. She is also editor of the Scribal News Calendar, a newsletter of writer events and happenings.
© 2010 MyShelf.com