Faces*
written by Amy E. Dixon
Faces*
written by Amy E. Dixon
Angie Turner (that's Miss Angie to you) was really shocked
when record label executives wanted to sign her. "I thought, You what?
You wanna make a what? A record? I couldn't believe it.
Youth With A Mission and Teen Mania Mission were where
21-year-old Miss Angie thought she was headed. "I always felt like I had
such purpose when I thought about changing the world for God and going to
people who have never heard about Jesus.
But when high school graduation came along, it was obvious
to Angie's peers where she was headed. "I had 15 people in my class and we
were all suposed to say what we wanted to do when we grow up. Everybody said
something like, I wanna be an astronaut! And I was like I want
to do...what God wants me to do," she says with a nervous chuckle.
"I was with those same 15 people my whole life, and when
we graduated we all gave things to each other that we thought we would use
when we were older. They gave me a toy microphone. That's the only thing
people thought I'd do. Funny to me, I didn't hink I would."
Miss Angie says her dad had always been in Christian
rock bands, playing Wal-Mart parking lots and preaching. As a kid she went
along to sing background vocals and bounce around. Then younger brother Shawn
Turner (now 20) joined the band jonny Q. public. Angie tagged along there,
too, before her own band came to be.
"I had been writing songs on the piano and guitar. They
were just three-chord praise and worship songs. I was singing those at johnny
Q. public concerts when we had an invitation and prayer time." Then she and
Oran Rhornton, then guitar player for johnny Q. public, now her co-producer,
started writing songs together. "We didn't start writing songs for a record,"
she notes. "We wanted to go play in this hole-in-the-wall downtown (Springfield,
Ill.). We wrote songs to play acoustic there."
Music was just an everyday part of the Turner family.
But, with no intention of polishing off her musical skills for a career and
ministry of her own, Miss Angie got a little kick start. "About a year and
a half ago, my dad decided I was going to make a demo tape. And I had decided
that, not, I wasn't. My brother was successful in music and I didn't want
to have to get into the whole music scene. I just wanted to be a missionary
and work with Teen Mania or something like that. Also, I was scared that
I wouldmake something that wasn't good enough."
Along with the shock of great response to her demo, came
a concession to doing music as her ministry instead of missions. "I really
prayed about it and God just showed me how powerful music is and how He can
use that just as well as he can use someone out on the mission field. He
has something for each and every one of us to do. I can't bury the gifts
God has given me. I'd better use them."
Produced by Shawn Turner, Dan Fritz, David Zaffiro and
Thornton, Miss Angie's debut 100 Million Eyeballs released in September.
Driving rhythms and light, sugary vocals combine '80's girl pop-rock and
even admits to a former fondness for New Kids On The Block. "But Stryper
was my favorite," she says.
"Lift My Eyes Up," the frist single and video, is a shinning
example of Angie's "stardusty" rock 'n' roll, as she calls it. As in all
of her music, "Lift My Eyes Up" sings praise to God, but particularly for
her own salvation. Soely from her explnation of the song, it's obvious how
much Angie's motivation for doing music is to golirfy God. "I went to church
all the time. I went to all the functions they had, all the youth group parties,
but I wasn't following God, that's for sure. Id din't really know God even
though I heard about Him all the time. He was told to me all my life but
I just pretended like He wasn't there and I did whatever I wanted to do.
Tha's why I'm so shocked that He let me know Him in a real way.
"I think a lot of kids grow up hearing about God and
they think they're saved because they hear about God and their parents go
to church and they're in youth group. Maybe they said a little prayer like
, Jesus, come into my heart. But they dont dive God anything...like
their life.
"Jesus said, You've got to repent before I'll come
into your heart. And what I really understood at 16 was, Angie, you
just can't go riding on your parents coatails into Heaven.
* taken from Release magazine October/November 1997
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