Most importantly, it’s an audio tour of his life and career to date and a celebration of more songs and stories to come. It’s a bit of the new, a bit of the old, and a bit of what’s motivated and moved him. Charlie Parr is the first album - and there are 13 others - that Parr he felt like putting his name on. It’s a lonely existence that leaves a lot of time for reflection and reminiscing. “Songs are a different kind of history though, they’re not subject to the rules of time, they never died and they never will, and they grow and evolve right along with the rest of me.”īy 2020, Parr is back on his grueling international tour schedule, mended and reinvigorated, covering the entire country alone in his car, occasionally cooking his vegan meals on his car manifold. He wanted a chance to record them again to capture what they had become. Parr had never really stopped playing those songs completely and, along the way, they had matured along with him. He started digging out songs from early in his career. That’s what counts the most - having pure motives and loving intention.”īy the time Parr hit the road again, he was reinvigorated to play music in a way he had not been for some time. That’s not a music career, it’s just making music. “Part of the effect of the accident was a reaffirming of what’s really important to me. “I’m not really that interested in careerism,” Parr says. Three weeks later he made a pain-filled return to the stage with an appearance on the Live from Big Top Chautauqua radio show. Within days, as soon as he could tabletop his guitar across his lap, Parr was playing again. He underwent surgery that left him with a metal plate and eight pins holding his reconstructed shoulder together. But, when playing the guitar is intertwined with who you are, not playing really isn’t an option. His right shoulder was busted into pieces and his ability to play guitar on stage again was suddenly in question. While skateboarding with his daughter along Lake Superior, he hit pavement.
The accident on Augcould have put an end to Parr’s career. CHARLIE PARR is a stunning folk record that will surely stand the test of time, just like the man himself.
It’s a musical reckoning that came after a freak accident less than a year ago that forced him to relearn how to play guitar, causing him to take stock of the songs he’s written over his lifetime. The album is an honest and raw recording of Parr reflecting on himself and his career up to this point.
Recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Canon Falls, MN, CHARLIE PARR features Charlie’s trademark resonator guitar and 12-string with co-producer Liz Draper on bass, longtime collaborator Mikkel Beckmen on percussion, Jeff Mitchell on electric guitar, accordion, organ, backing vocals, and Dave Hundrieser on harmonica. The album is a collection of new songs and new studio versions of classics/audience favorites from throughout Parr’s career. The experience changed his life, made him more or less unemployable, and brings us to now: 13 recordings, 250 shows a year or more, 200,000 miles on a well broke in Kia, and a nasty fear of heights, creating resonator fueled folk songs from Duluth Minnesota.ĬHARLIE PARR is the eponymous new album by the Minnesota-based folk blues artist the same name. Following a sold-out 2018 performance, Charlie returns to Lanesboro with new music from his recently released self-titled album.Īn easily confused and very shy individual, Charlie Parr has been traveling around singing his songs ever since leaving Austin Minnesota in the 1980’s in search of Spider John Koerner, whom he found about 100 miles north at the Viking Bar one Sunday night. Mane Theatre in downtown Lanesboro on Friday, January 24th at 8 p.m. Lanesboro Arts presents an evening with Charlie Parr at the historic St.
A wait list for any tickets that happen to become available will begin in the lobby of the St.