Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI
A Starke County native is one of 200 artists whose music is being featured at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. Jethro Easyfields, otherwise known as Terry Turner Jr., is a graduate of Knox High School and has been performing for roughly 26 years.
His music was selected by Indianapolis record store Indy CD & Vinyl to be included on a playlist that aims to celebrate the state’s musical history. “I think it’s awesome because a lot of these people, I’ve looked up to or listened to over the years,” he says. “Some of them are friends of my that’s been in bands. Some of them I saw when I first started going to venues and bars when I was 21 and saw them in bands and then started plying with them 10, 15 years later. So it’s cool to be in this big pool of all that.”
The singer-songwriter says that while his musical influences have expanded over the years, Starke County played a large part in shaping his musical identity early on. “I was writing songs like ‘On My Way to Toto Road,’ he says. “‘Easyfields’ is taken from, maybe, the Starke County area. Arrowheads that used to fly in the air – I had a band called The Arrowheads for a while. So some of the topical things – living in the country and pretty much growing up in the woods on a farm – some of that does bleed in, some of that country kind of culture or folklore. We had the railroad that used to be right there, and then they ripped it out, so I had just that country environment, I think, influence that.”
Easyfields, who is currently based in Indianapolis, says he continues to draw inspiration from Hoosier culture. He adds the Indiana State Museum is a great place to learn about that. “I think the last time I went there, I actually had a notepad and I just took phrases of different exhibits and different posters and different things and made a song out of that,” he says. “So you can definitely be inspired by just combining, collaging everything that’s Hoosier, if you’re really into that, which obviously, we live here so we should be.”
Now, Easyfields’ music, as well as that of other Indiana musicians, composers, writers, and producers, can be heard in the museum’s lobby. Other artists on the playlist include John Mellencamp, Cole Porter, and Michael Jackson.
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