Charlie Parr – Charlie Parr
Red House Records – 30 August 2019
Charlie Parr’s self-titled release features a mix of new material and revisitation of old favourites, some written 20 years ago, although he’s accompanied by co-producer Liz Draper on bass, percussionist Mikkel Beckman, Dave Hundriesser on harmonica and Jeff Mitchell playing guitar and accordion this is essentially about the Minnesota folk-blues singer-songwriter and his resonator and 12 string electric.
It opens with one of the new numbers, the spare fingerpicked acoustic blues song of resilience Love Is An Unraveling Bird’s Nest before hitting the circling guitar pattern of the homelessness-themed To A Scrapyard Bus Stop from 1922, here with added harmonica. The nimbly resonator picked talking blues On Stealing A Sailboat is another new song, one about choosing your friends wisely, while, although the title would seem to come from a line in Lowdown off 2017’s Dog, the fingerpicked Mag Wheels is also new, a song, as you might assume, about a car, a battered old Galaxy, and the prestige and thrill it brings its young driver, interlaced with his reflections as an older man.
The final new track returns to resonator for the classic dustbowl blues styled Heavy. There are also two covers to add to the new material, a stomping, mouth harp buzzing version of Spider John Koerner’s talking blues Running, Jumping, Standing, Still and a slowed down strummed take on the late Grant Hart’s Twenty-five Forty-one, a break-up song about moving into a new place together for the first – and last – time.
Returning to the back catalogue, a decision made after suffering an accident to his shoulder, led him to reassess and relive his old songs, upping the tempo and adding harmonica to Asa Jones’ Blues from 2001’s Criminals and Sinners and making it more of a hooch house stomp. Originally featured on the same album and again reworked at a faster pace Annie Melton recounts a Civil War tale of a soldier returning home to find two women waiting for him, one killing the other and he ending up hanging or it.
The album’s closing numbers are two live favourites, firstly, from the 2007 album of the same name, the urgently played leg-slapping rhythm of Jubilee with its salvationist spirit and, finally, from 2005’s Rooster and arguably his signature tune, the five minute narrative drama of Cheap Wine, the tale of a lonely liquor store owner with a drinking problem wishing he could pack up and get away from the bums and boozing old dears.
Between live and studio recordings, this is actually Parr’s 17th album in as many years and those who’ve followed his journey will most definitely want this in the collection.
Editor’s note:
For the guitar heads out there, Charlie has an extra seventh octave G string on his resonator mule inspired by Spider John Koener…he tells the folks at Mule guitars why:
Charlie is on tour in the UK & Europe now:
Fri, AUG 30 – End of the Road festival, Salisbury
Sat, AUG 31 – The Art Shop & Chapel, Abergavenny
Sun, SEP 01 – Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham
Mon, SEP 02 – The Cluny, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tue, SEP 03 – St Mary’s Creative Space, Chester
Wed, SEP 04 – The Lexington, London
Thu, SEP 05 – Lewes Con Club, Lewes
Sat, SEP 07 – Burgerweeshuis, Deventer, Netherlands
Sun, SEP 08 – Misty Fields, Heusden Gem Asten, Netherlands
Mon, SEP 09 – Bitterzoet, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tue, SEP 10 – Merleyn, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Wed, SEP 11 – El Lokal, Zurich, Switzerland
Thu, SEP 12 – Blue Devils, Orléans, France
Fri, SEP 13 – Nebia poche, Bienne, Switzerland
Sat, SEP 14 – Café De Snabbelaar, Klaaswaal, Netherlands
Sun, SEP 15 – Vera, Groningen, Netherlands