Charlie Parr - Roustabout

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 20 / 1 / 2009

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Review

Charlie Parr doesn’t just sing and play the blues apparently; he plays Piedmont-style blues which is characterized by a finger picking approach on the guitar and something to do with using the thumb on the bass string which supports the melody using treble strings usually picked with the fore-finger. Or something like that, look it up like I have just done; I thought the blues was the blues but then what would I know? If I hadn’t been told that Parr plays Piedmont-style blues I would have started this review of his seventh album by simply saying that it is the best raw blues album I have heard in many a year. So called Piedmont-style or not. Whether Parr and his record label like it or not the name of Seasick Steve is going to figure large in many reviews of ‘Roustabout’ without a doubt. I’m not qualified obviously to tell if Seasick Steve also plays Piedmont blues but I tend to think not and it doesn’t really matter. The guy has gained a lot of attention because he seemed to come out of nowhere with his unique style of playing the blues and with an image to fit. It would appear that as this is Charlie Parr’s seventh album that he has been making records for longer than Steve even if he has not physically been on this earth as long as him. Which must really bug him as there is no doubt that some thunder is being stolen somewhere down the line. So with those comparisons to the already quite famous Seasick Steve out of the way it must be said that for most listeners that didn’t know the full details ‘Roustabout’ really does sound like it was recorded eighty odd years ago. It struck me the first time I listened to the album, it was playing on the CD player in the car, and it sounded…different. It sounded real. Authentic. Not just in the way Parr plays his various instruments like the National steel guitar and banjo or in the way his voice sounds like it emanates from a body that has lived just a little too long and a little too fast and has lived and experienced every single word that comes out of his mouth. It was in the overall sound. For all the starkness in say, for example ‘Come Along And See’ (but it applies to almost every song on this album) there is a fullness, a warm dense sound that belies the fact that all the songs are stripped- bare affairs. On reading the basic notes on the CD cover all is revealed. ‘Recorded in true monophonic sound live to tape’ it states before going on to say that the tape was running in someone’s living room or garage or basement. All that shows in the songs. Listening to the album later on headphones it’s apparent that it is truly a mono recording, the likes of what we thought we would never hear on a contemporary recording. After all these years of listening to modern recordings trying to sound old or old recordings remixed and re-mastered to make them sound all nice and shiny it’s refreshing to hear someone actually recapturing the sound of the past by using the right equipment in the first place. Of the twelve tracks nine are Parr originals and three are traditionals. That you can’t tell which songs are originals and which are not says a lot for just how authentic Parr’s song writing is. Listen to ‘Farmer’ with Dave Hundreiser on harmonica and Parr growling away and tell me you are not listening to some genuine blues performer. There are a lot of folk influences infused with Parr’s take on the blues. His version of Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘God Moves On The Water’ is particularly moving, the energy in both Parr’s vocals and guitar playing all but takes your breath away. Parr tours the U.K. in February and also later this year. If folk/ blues played the way it was intended to be played is your thing you’d better not miss him.

Track Listing:-

1 Don't Send Your Child To War
2 Far Cry From Fargo
3 Walk Around My Bedside
4 Warmin' By The Devil's Fire
5 Midnight Has Come & Gone
6 Come Along & See
7 Adrift In Lake Superior At Sunrise
8 Cropduster
9 Last Payday At Coal Creek
10 The B&J Ain't Nothin' But A Hole In The Ground
11 Farmer
12 God Moves On The Water