William Dart catches up with American songwriter Charlie Parr's latest album, Last of the Better Days Ahead and checks out his illustrious and idiosyncratic past.
Photo: Smithsonian Folkways Records
Many first heard American songwriter Charlie Parr as a soundtrack for a slick 2008 Vodafone TV commercial in which a hip young man packs for a journey, folding up his life and slipping it into his pockets.
Those of us who’d already been following Parr’s career for over half a decade would probably have considered him to be one of the musicians least likely to be picked up by marketing media.
Parr’s music tends to be stark in both its sound and its social commitment. His basic house style comes from the guitar playing of musicians like Lightnin’ Hopkins and other old bluesmen that he found in his father’s record collection back in Duluth, Minnesota. Nevertheless he’s not one to lock himself into an easy 12-bar template. 'Miner’s Lament' from his 2004 album King Earl, for instance, features a recurring up-and-down-the-scale idea that has me thinking of Woody Guthrie.
Smithsonian Folkways have done Charlie Parr proud on his new album, his first with the label. Last of the Better Days Ahead comes with a generously handsome 26 page booklet. 11 of those pages are devoted to an engrossing essay by Abraham Smith of the Snarlin' Yarns, who also happens to be a published poet and academic.
The very title of his essay — Shake The Superflux To Them: Notes Toward the Singular Genius & Generosity of Charlie Parr — is an irresistible invitation in 15 words. It’s worth reading for Smith’s rhapsody on Parr’s singular appearance, looking as if there might be a bobolink nest in his beard and moving a little like he can feel the heat from the earth’s score through his canvas Converse loafing-soles.
Last year there was a marvellous conversation between the two men on the American Highways site which set off with Smith asking Parr whether lyric writing was a matter of stepping on a cake while he was asleep or of sweaty lapidary work, chipping away at words as Rodin did with marble.
But then, before words even come into it, you may well be transfixed by the cover of Parr’s new album. It’s an edgy, drawing of the songwriter, with a candle on head and the devil on his shoulder, its colour scheme dominated by a funky punky lime green. The work of fellow songwriter and artist Abe Partridge.
Nestling amongst Partridge’s visions in the booklet is a rather neat summary of just why you should let these powerful new songs into your life: songs about how one looks back on a life lived, as well as forward on what’s still to come. Its spare production, the note continues, foregrounds Parr’s poetic lyricism, his expressive gritty voice ringing clear over deft acoustic guitar playing that references folk and blues motifs in his own exploratory, idiosyncratic style.
Music Details
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: 1922
ALBUM: 1922
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Charlie Parr
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: Miner's Lament
ALBUM: King Earl
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Misplaced
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: True Friends
ALBUM: Barnswallow
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Tin Angel
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: On Stealing a Sailboat
ALBUM: Charlie Parr
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Red House
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: Love is an Unraveling Bird's Nest
ALBUM: Charlie Parr
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Red House
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: Decoration Day
ALBUM: Last of the Better Days Ahead
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Smithsonian Folkways
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975
ALBUM: Last of the Better Days Ahead
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Smithsonian Folkways
ARTIST: Charlie Parr
TITLE: Bed of Wasps
ALBUM: Last of the Better Days Ahead
COMPOSER: Parr
LABEL: Smithsonian Folkways
