About Charlie Parr

CHARLIE PARR - Too Much Liquor And Not Enough Gasoline
Format: CD & Download / Catalogue No.: INDCD 80 Barcode:  5390533301190 / Release Date: 11th September
“I worked all summer / couldn’t save a cent, I gave all of my money to the government, I don’t know how it get spent but the banks are coming for my deeds boys”.
Having stumbled into Charlie Parr in a small room in Galway on one of his guerilla trips to Europe from his home of Duluth, Minnesota, Independent Records has spent the best part of a year getting to know the various parts of his catalogue which, although mostly recorded this century, mostly sound like the last century. At the time, we thought, people wouldn’t be too into the blues, things are too good, the futures too bright and Charlie’s beard is way too long. His Walmart pants and worn out check shirts have no place in a country awash with skinny young and handsome indie kids. Initially we released Charlie’s last album of field recordings ‘Roustabout.’ No point in depressing people too much. Then something strange happened, people started sitting in rooms with Charlie and listened to his stories of depression, dead cats, bank closures, striking fathers and cheap wine, songs of bygone era’s. In the meantime we were compiling what we thought were Charlie’s best songs onto one coherent album. After we listened and compiled for a few months it felt like we were in a Charlie Parr song and we had worn holes in the knees of our Levi’s. Times suddenly changed and Charlie’s Blues stomps don’t seem so out of time no more. Listen to him pick through the instrumental ‘Rooster’ or the striking union tale of ‘Hogkill Blues’ as a son waits in vain for his father come home from a picket. The stories Charlie tells get into some dark spots; that place where regret and remorse part company. A bit of a modern take on timeless conditions.  Check him out and you'll probably agree – Charlie Parr is coming from a very real place, and this has, in fact, always been a crazy world. Both Charlie’s parents were union workers at Austin's Hormel plant – picket line fixtures during bitter labor strikes in the mid-1980s – Charlie himself got a first-hand view of what those old songs were talking about so his modern day songs are infused with a genuine understanding of blues and it’s roots. Too Much Liquor And Not Enough Gasoline is an album for the times from a great undiscovered talent who’s been lurking far too long in the undergrowth.

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Charlie Parr grew up in Austin, Minnesota, in a house filled with the music that would inform his style.  His late father loved the music found on collections like the field recordings by Alan Lomax released on the Folkways / Smithsonian label and Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. The elder Parr's first-hand accounts of growing up during the Depression, riding the freight trains and traveling to places like the Piedmont region (a North Carolina country blues mecca), made the music all the more visceral to Charlie. While his peers were immersed in what is now called "classic rock," Charlie was soaking up the music of Furry Lewis, Rev. Gary Davis and Mance Lipscomb. Parr picked up the guitar around age eight, however, music lessons never held his interest.  He's one of those self-taught guys who inevitably brings his own twists to music. He dropped out of high school as a freshman, eventually earning his GED after moving to Minneapolis.  Parr's performing career began in 1988, playing in Twin Cities coffeehouses and clubs where he also spent a lot of time listening to (and learning from) resident greats like Dave Ray and "Spider" John Koerner. Dignity, and the struggle to keep it, are central themes in Parr's songs, and he's not the kind of guy to trade it on the cheap.
www.charlieparr.com
www.myspace.com/charlieparr

Latest news

Hi Res album cover available [31 August 2009]

Too Much Liquor Not Enough Gasoline out 11th Sept [20 August 2009]

in Sunday Tribune and in Australia [26 May 2009]

Coming back to Ireland in May ! [19 February 2009]

Irish Times & Tribune Reviews [06 February 2009]

Upcoming shows

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Images

Photos courtesy of Peter Martin.

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