Charlie Parr‘s new album, Last of the Better Days Ahead, is to be released on July 30 via Smithsonian Folkways. To mark the occasion, Parr has released the title track and its companion video, directed by Charlie himself and filmed Salton Sea, Bombay Beach and Slab City, CA.
This is Parr’s first release on the non-profit record label. Folkways Records was founded in 1948 and led by Moses Asch (1905-1986), Folkways sought to document the entire world of sound. The Smithsonian Institution acquired the label in 1987. Aside from an incredibly diverse discography, every recording made is kept in print.
Their roster includes contemporary artists Our Native Daughters and Kronos Quartet to more historical recordings from artists like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotten and more.
Charlie Parr’s new album is a collection of powerful songs about how one looks back on a life lived, as well as forward on what’s still to come. Its spare production foregrounds Parr’s poetic lyricism, his expressive, gritty voice ringing clear over deft acoustic guitar playing that references folk and blues motifs in Parr’s own exploratory, idiosyncratic style.
“Last of the Better Days Ahead is a way for me to refer to the times I’m living in,” says Parr. “I’m getting on in years, experiencing a shift in perspective that was once described by my mom as ‘a time when we turn from gazing into the future to gazing back at the past, as if we’re adrift in the current, slowly turning around.’ Some songs came from meditations on the fact that the portion of our brain devoted to memory is also the portion responsible for imagination, and what that entails for the collected experiences that we refer to as our lives. Other songs are cultivated primarily from the imagination, but also contain memories of what may be a real landscape, or at least one inspired by vivid dreaming.”
Born and raised in northern Minnesota, Charlie Parr first grabbed a guitar at age 8. To date, he has never had a formal lesson, but wows crowds with his incredible fingerpicking on his 12 string baritone resonator, guitar and banjo. All that locomotive melodic work is simply the scenery in the tales he’s spinning lyrically. Early in his career, Parr was employed by the Salvation Army as an outreach worker. He spent his days tracking the homeless in Minneapolis, providing blankets and resources. But they offered him something greater in return. The experience completely rewired him and left him with a newfound respect for human resilience. And along the way, he collected stories from the folks he would meet. These characters continue to show up in Parr’s songs even today.
Throughout Charlie’s music you can hear his sense of place. These are songs from the iron country. They are tales from the paper mill. You can hear the fisheries and the Boundary Waters. In Last of the Better Days you are met by someone who prizes quiet reflection over hustle and who shuns distraction for a long walk in the woods.
“It’s one thing to be able to say that I’m not what I own or what I do,” says Parr, “but it still leaves behind the original question of what am I unanswered.”
Last of the Better Days Ahead was written and produced by Parr and co-producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby). You can pre-order it here.
Last Of The Better Days Ahead
Track Listing:
01 Last of the Better Days Ahead
02 Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975
03 Walking Back from Willmar
04 Anaconda
05 Everyday Opus
06 On Fading Away
07 817 Oakland Avenue
08 On Listening to Robert Johnson
09 Bed of Wasps
10 Rain
11 Decoration Day
2021 Tour Dates:
05.15 | Ft. Collins, CO – Ravensdale Farm (SOLD OUT)
06.11 | Austin, MN – Historic Paramount Theatre
06.12 | Harris, MN – North Folk Winery
06.20 | Superior, WI – Earth Rider Brewery
06.26 | St. Joseph, MN – Milk & Honey Ciders
06.27 | Superior, WI – Earth Rider Brewery
07.01 | Custer, SD – Custer Beacon
07.02 | Livingston, MT – Pine Creek Lodge
07.03 | Cody, WY – Sleeping Giant Ski Area
08.20 | Eau Claire, WI – Blue Ox Music Festival
08.27 | Roxbury, NY – Roxbury Arts Center
08.28 | Greenfield, MA – Green River Festival
09.25 | Boise, ID – Treefort Music Festival
09.29 | Bend, OR – Volcanic Theater Pub
09.30 | Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
10.01 | Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
10.09 | Denver, CO – Globe Hall
11.13 | St. Paul, MN – Palace Theater
Photo Credit: Shelly Mosman