Friday April 24 – $15
It must be a crazy world when “authentic” is a term used to separate an artist from the pack. Charlie Parr is a folk and country blues musician who is routinely labeled “authentic” and “the real deal” by fans and critics alike. Charlie shows up with a lived-in rasp of a voice, National resonator and 12-string acoustic guitars, a banjo and a batch of his own songs and well-traveled numbers by Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton, Spider John and other cohorts from another time. He lays it on you, and you sense that the gamblers, the union workers, the criminals and the sinners that wander around his songs are peering right over your shoulder. His self-taught mix of slide, finger-picking and quasi-frailing technique, together with a voice that's low on drama and high on impact is something to behold. The stories he 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. www.charlieparr.com