Photo by Jason Marck
Part of the Duluth, MN, music scene (Alan Sparhawk and Low, Trampled by Turtles), Charlie Parr is an electrifying performer whose live shows are akin to a religious experience. Propelled by his incredible fingerpicking (12-string and a custom 4-chamber resonator guitar), searing vocals and percussive foot stomps, Charlie gets a huge sound. His songs are populated with a list of characters you wouldn’t ordinarily meet: old ladies going to buy “the cheap wine” (“they ain’t no better than the bums”), a woman with “an uncontrollable temper,” and people getting left out getting of the American Dream. While his albums sound like vintage field recordings, his live shows are anything but retro. Deservedly, he’s a cult hero in some circles.
For the recording of Stumpjumper, Charlie changed things up, traveling to rural North Carolina to record the album with fellow musician Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) for his first full-band release. Charlie’s blistering picking and insightful lyrics have brought him a fervent following that crosses ages and genres. His recent Folk Alley session was just selected as an NPR Favorite Session and Stumpjumper was chosen as one of the best roots/folk albums of last summer by Rhapsody.
In anticipation of his upcoming Filling Station show on April 2nd, the Rolling Zone was able to speak with the man himself about living for the music and making it all work on the road–having just returned home from yet another Australian tour.
RZ: Hey Charlie, how are you today?
CP: I’m doing fine, thanks.
RZ: Happy to be home I would imagine?
CP: Yeah, I’m really happy to be home. I’m a little bit jetlagged, but it’s always good to get home.
RZ: For sure, for sure. How was the Australian tour? How did everything go?
CP: It was really good. It was the shortest one I’ve done, just over two weeks. Normally, I’ve been there for a month, month and a half in the past. All by car this time, which was really nice. I toured with a folk duo called Eagle & The Wolf and they were fantastic, so I got to do some new music. I really had a nice time. It was hot. I got home–it’s been warm here too–but I kind of got used to really hot.
RZ: A little preview for summer, I guess. So you’ve got a pretty busy touring schedule. How do you like being on the road compared to maybe just staying around home and working on music?
CP: Well, I like them both. That’s a tough one, because I really like being on the road now. Initially, I didn’t find it to be really comfortable because I didn’t know how to take care of myself when I was on the road. I feel like I’ve got a handle on that now, whereas I really didn’t have it at one time in my life.
RZ: That’s important.
CP: Now I kind of get it, but the tradeoff is you do have to be a little more creative about making time to make music, or create new music, or practice. Ironically, you don’t get to play guitar on the road. There’s no time to practice and I miss that. When I’m home, I practice upwards of an hour or two, three hours a day just cause that’s what I like to do. But at this point in my life, I really wouldn’t change it for anything. I feel grateful for getting to do this still and I don’t want to do anything else. I’m just kind of making it all work.
RZ: You’ve had thirteen releases since 2002. Would you consider each one a reinvention of your craft or just an extension of the last? How do you jump from one to the next?
CP: I don’t think there’s a rhyme or reason to it. The last one was completely almost a hundred percent congested by the songs I’d been working on. It was definitely different than stuff I’d done before. The stuff that I’ve been working on lately seems kind of a revisiting in a way of some stuff I’ve done before. I feel like–and hopefully this is true–I’m kind of going forward most of the time. I’m sure it probably ends up sounding the same to most folks. In the end of the day, I’m a folk singer. That’s just what I am. I don’t have a lot of weird things up my sleeve. I’m not going to come out with some kind of <I>Trout Mask Replica<I> any time soon. The stuff that I feel like I’m getting better at or expanding on is sometimes kind of subtle, and I guess that’s good enough for me right now.
RZ: You recorded your latest album, <I>Stumpjumper, <I> in North Carolina as opposed to Minnesota. Can you give us a look into your recording process and how it was different for this latest effort?
CP: The last record was very much suggested by this batch of songs I was having a hard time getting a handle on. Usually there’s a bunch of songs [that] I kind of know what I want to do with them, and I do that and it’s fine. With that batch, I had a bunch of songs that just [felt] like they want to go in a different direction. I got a hold of Phil Cook. It was really the first time I decided to let a friend really, really get involved in what it is that I do. Phil is one of the people I have a lot of trust and faith and admiration for.
RZ: What did he bring to the table?
CP: He suggested that I come out to this farm and we just kicked these songs around with this band. I stopped out and it was like all the problems that I had had with the songs, with the misgivings or questions, kind of disappeared and everything came together. We recorded the whole record in no time at all just because everything worked so well. I was really, really happy with the result and I learned something. I learned a little bit about how to play in an ensemble setting. I learned about having faith in other people and not just trying to do it all myself. It was pretty valuable for me, and I’m happy with the record. It was good all over the place.
RZ: What drew you to the folk music you create and play? What helped you decide to become an artist of this genre?
CP: It was definitely growing up. It was my dad’s record collection, which was almost entirely made up of very old folk music and early, early country western and blues music. I listened to a lot of other kinds of music when I was a kid, but when it came down to playing the guitar, all I wanted to do is play in the styles of some of these real old blues guitar players [from] the twenties and thirties. That’s just what I felt drawn to and it never occurred to me to change it and I really haven’t. I still don’t really play much else. There’s a lot of music I like to listen to that I’m not really that interested in trying to play. I credit kind of the way I was raised. My dad’s interest in old music was how I feel about it now.
RZ: Is there any music you listen to we might be surprised to hear you like or enjoy?
CP: Well, maybe. [laughs] I’m kind of a closet Deadhead. I listen to a lot of drone music, Pelt, and I like other kinds of weird experimental guitar players like Bill Orcutt and stuff like that. Sometimes [people are] most surprised I’ve got a gigantic affection for JJ Cale. A lot of people I talk to, they’re surprised I listen to any rock ‘n’ roll music. When I was a teenager, I stopped listening to a lot of folk and blues music and started listening to nothing but The Minutemen and Hüsker Dü and Dead Kennedys. Then I went back to folk and blues music. Then I dove back into the music my sister loves, which was the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. I kind of keep it all with me now. It’s all kind of dear to me in a way.
RZ: You’ve got your show coming up here in Bozeman at the Filling Station on April 2nd. What do you have planned for the show and what can people expect when they come out to see you?
CP: There’s an EP being released for Record Store Day [that has me] doing a lot of new material. There’s some older songs I’ve been learning lately, kind of Memphis blues-style stuff that I’ve been throwing in there. There’s a lot of new material, [but] it’s still just goofy ole me sitting up there doing my thing.
RZ: There are people excited to see you.
CP: I love the Filler. I’m looking forward to coming back.
RZ: Do you have any particular moment or moments jumping out from your career that stand out for you?
CP: Yeah, there are some spots that were big deals to me. I got to open for B.B. King and I got to be on the road with Paul Kelly in Australia some years ago. Little things like that, but I think the most important thing [are] these regular shows where I feel like I’ve kind of connected the dots and did well and for the right reasons. When I can get one of those, I feel grateful. If I can string a couple of them together, I feel ecstatic. If I keep on concentrating on those kinds of things, [it’s] defining for me because it’s why I do it. It’s all I want to do and it’s what I love. If I can get that across, that is a really big deal to me.
RZ: Very cool.
CP: Not to sound too Pollyannaish about the whole thing, but I’m kind of one of those “live in the moment” kind of people. If I find those moments, you can’t get me much happier than that.
RZ: Do you have any new musical projects on the horizon?
CP: There’s a bunch of new songs I’ve been working on for the next record. I haven’t really decided on how to record them yet. I’ve got a really nice schedule coming up this year. I’ve been lucky, I’ve got a lot of shows scheduled and am returning to Europe for the month of August. I’m getting to go to Israel this year, which I’ve never been before. It’s going to be a good year for shows. I just want to concentrate on that. Over the wintertime, I think I’m going to make some decisions on how to put across the next record and get to work on recording.
RZ: The fans are eager to see you at the Filling Station. Anything you’d like to say to them?
CP: I’m really looking forward to getting back and seeing everybody. I’ve loved every single time I’ve ever come to the Filler. It’s such a special place. I can’t wait to see everybody that comes out to the show. It means a lot to me that people come out and hang out for the evening.
RZ: We’re excited to see you on the 2nd. Thanks, Charlie.
CP: Thank you.
Charlie Parr will bring his talents back to the Filling Station on Saturday, April 2nd with a little local help from Russ Chapman beginning at 10pm. On tour in support of his latest effort Stumpjumper, Charlie is sure to put on an excellent performance! Tickets to this 21 and over show are $15 and are available in store and online at cactusrecords.net/ or at the door. Doors open at 9pm. •
