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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 and other cohorts from another time.
Raised in Minnesota on Alan Lomax field recordings and his father’s first-hand accounts of the Depression, riding the freight trains and traveling to places like the Piedmont region (a North Carolina country blues mecca). While his peers were immersed in so-called “classic rock,” Charlie soaked up the music of Furry Lewis, Rev. Gary Davis and Mance Lipscomb.
Now Charlie Parr is getting plaudits for his own exquisitely raw and direct music, as evidenced by his relentless gig schedule in the US, Australia and Europe.
With famous fans like folk music icon Greg Brown, noted eccentric and illustrator R. Crumb and fellow Duluthian Alan Sparhawk of Low, Parr has received some well-credentialed endorsements. When you hear all of these people from all of these outlooks describe Charlie Parr, one thing is evident. Their admiration for his music is, indeed, authentic.
The California based fiddle, guitar and banjo player and ardent 78 collector Frank Fairfield sings soaring hillbilly ballads, arcane rambling songs and murder ballads delivered in a reedy tenor with that irresistible dust to digital quality. Still in his early twenties but steeped in the pre-War Americana of Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs, he cut his teeth as a street performer in LA and has the raw intensity and spellbinding technique to make your hairs stand on end.
Fleet Foxes handpicked him to open for them on their 2008 US tour and he has found fans elsewhere in Grammy winning producer Chris King (Charley Patton, People Take Warning box set), Phil Alexander (Mojo) and Greil Marcus. His debut album is out now on Tompkins Square and picked up rave reviews across the board. Tompkins Square are also giving him his own reissue label Pawn Records. A first compilation of rare as hen's teeth 78's from Frank's collection is due out in June.
“A young Californian who sings and plays as someone who’s crawled out of the Virginia mountains carrying familiar songs that in his hands sound forgotten: broken lines, a dissonant drone, the fiddle or the banjo all percussion, every rising moment louder than the one before it.” - Greil Marcus
http://www.charlieparr.com
http://www.myspace.com/frankfairfield

Sunday 5th September 2010 - Saturday 11th September 2010
Artists: Charlie Parr Frank Fairfield
Sept 5 LONDON What’s Cookin’ @ The North Star
Browning Rd, Leytonstone, E11
Sept 6 CARDIFF The Globe
125 Albany Road, CF24 3NS
Sept 7 COVENTRY Taylor John’s House
Coal Vaults, Canal Basin, CV1 4LY
Sept 8 PENRYN Miss Peapods
Jubilee Wharf, TR10 8FG
Sept 9 PLYMOUTH B-Bar
Barbican Theatre, Castle St, PL1 2NJ
Sept 10 END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL
Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset, SP5 5PY
Sept 11 BRISTOL Bonaventures
Berkeley Road, Off Gloucester Road, BS7 8HQ
Its not often the phrase ‘barnstorming’ is used appropriately but this raucous and raw touring double bill of Virginia’s Black Twig Pickers and Minnesota’s Charlie Parr surely justifies such rabid anticipation.
You might have seen the Black Twig Pickers teaming up with the late great Jack Rose last year and setting various UK stages alight with their divine mix of virtuosity and fervour. Now the trio return to hurl more old-time goodness and a growing gospel influence at you via righteous employment of fiddle, banjo, guitar, washboard, bone and hollers. There are strong Twigs overlaps with drone godfathers Pelt, of course, but fervent attendances at country fairs and barn dances around Virginia meant an outlet for the irresistible influence of all that hardcore mountain music made the rise of the Black Twig Pickers inevitable.
No wonder the mighty Thrill Jockey have signed them up – the Twigs first release for the US ‘major indie’ is the album ‘Ironto Special’, which comes out just ahead of the tour. There’s also a Twigs/Parr joint 7” in production to come out on the cult label Great Pop Supplement during the tour too – don’t forget GPS’s Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers 7” sold out in 24 hours, so get yours fast!
Charlie Parr was raised in Minnesota on Alan Lomax field recordings and his father’s first-hand accounts of the Depression, riding the freight trains and traveling to places like the Piedmont region (a North Carolina country blues mecca). While his peers were immersed in so-called “classic rock,” Charlie soaked up the music of Furry Lewis, Rev. Gary Davis and Mance Lipscomb.
Now Charlie Parr is getting plaudits for his own exquisitely raw and direct music, as evidenced by his relentless gig schedule in the US, Australia and Europe.
With famous fans like folk music icon Greg Brown, Robert Crumb and Low’s Alan Sparhawk, Parr has received some well-credentialed endorsements. He also has tracks in the forthcoming Aussie Western movie Red Hill, and releases his next album later this year on the UK’s Tin Angel label.
With little more than a National resonator guitar and his earnestly rasping voice, Charlie is rapidly becoming a cult proposition in the UK and elsewhere. And teaming up with the Black twig Pickers for this tour will only increase that. The two acts often play together in the US, so these shows will be a real musical tinderbox that can soon escalate into wild whisky-fuelled sessions where the boundaries between the two acts evaporate and the audience erupts.
See you there!
http://www.myspace.com/blacktwigs
http://www.charlieparr.com/

Sunday 12th September 2010 - Monday 19th July 2010
Artists: The Black Twig Pickers and Charlie Parr
12th – NEWCASTLE Cluny2
8pm £12
http://www.jumpinhot.com/
13th - LEEDS Nation Of Shopkeepers
http://thegoldenowl.co.uk
14th MANCHESTER Band On the Wall
7.30 £10
http://bandonthewall.org/events/2830/
15th GLASGOW CCA
8pm £6
http://cca-glasgow.com
16th AVIEMORE The Old Bridge Inn
7.30pm £tbc
http://www.oldbridgeinn.co.uk
17th – SKYE Sabhal Mor Ostaig
7.30pm £9/6/3
http://www.seall.co.uk
18th LOCH LOMOND Memorial Hall
Milton Of Buchanan by Drymen
7.30PM £10
http://www.myspace.com/jukejointfever
19th EDINBURGH Roxy Art House
http://brawmusic.tumblr.com/