Charlie Parr on tour - "Stumpjumper" film trailer premiering at PASTE

Charlie Parr Film trailer for "Stumpjumper" premiering at Paste Magazine Filmed on location in Minnesota and North Carolina Narrated by Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) "The raw metallic resonator guitar sound of Charlie Parr registers as a magnet of sorts – in the same way we’re drawn to the curious sounds of Tom Waits and even the indie folk of The Mountain Goats." - Glide Magazine June 18, 2015:  Charlie Parr's new album, Stumpjumper, was not only the first album the folk blues artist has recorded outside of his native Minnesota but his first to feature a full band. The album was recorded in rural North Carolina with producer Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger). Cook put together a band of local players, setting up in an old outbuilding on the “Down Yonder Farm” near Hillsborough, NC to record the album.  Now, Cook and filmmaker Adam Heathcott have put together a short film trailer of the sessions, using additional footage shot around Duluth by Maxwell McGruder.  Phil Cook, a longtime friend and fan of Parr's, provides the narration and captures the feel of the North-South musical collaboration.  "Phil is such an important person to me, so the fact that he's taken the time to do that film is a big deal to me - I feel pretty lucky to be working with him," says Parr. "That part of Hillsborough, NC really reminded me of home and that's what made the record what it is. The first hour we played together there it felt like we'd been playing together for years, the guys were just so comfortable and accomodating. They all give off that 'everything is OK' vibe, and you can hear it in the music." View the trailer now at Paste Magazine.  Listen to the first single, "Over the Red Cedar" While a legend in some circles, Northwoods songwriter/guitarist Charlie Parr may be a new name to some music fans. Long a part of the vibrant Duluth, MN, music scene (Alan Sparhawk and Low, Trampled by Turtles), Stumpjumper is Charlie's first album on Grammy-winning Minnesota indie label Red House. Parr has announced extensive tour dates through 2015; scroll down for a complete listing. Press: "Parr is a picker -- whether on National resonator guitars, dobro, or banjo -- who cut his musical teeth on Charley Patton, Woody Guthrie, and Lightnin' Hopkins, and his actual teeth on the canned meat packed at the Hormel plant in his hometown. A product of both elements, Parr's songs ring out with a working class ethos and a welcome home energy."   - The Bluegrass Situation "Stumpjumper is a deep blues album first and foremost, but it’s Charlie Parr’s master craftsmanship at fingerpicking rhythms, and his folk-leaning songwriting that has liberated him from specific categorization."  - Saving Country Music "The native Minnesotan’s style can best be described as new music from an older time – sometimes dark and desolate, sometimes raucous and danceable."  - Dan Forte (Vintage Guitar) “Parr may have been born during the Nixon era, but you can taste the grit of the Dust Bowl in his music.”  - Dusted “Among the contenders in the every burgeoning indie folk, or new folk, genre, there are a lot of pretenders and acts trying desperately to “look and play the part”, but five seconds in front of Charlie Parr and you know you’re dealing with the real thing.”  - Jim Beckman (KEXP) “John Fahey described the music he collected on American Primitive Vol. 1 as ‘made under the influence of enthusiasm.’ The enthusiasm he spoke of was a kind of possession, whether Christian or diabolical he couldn’t be sure; a mode of ecstatic communication that intervened in the delivery of sacred and secular messages alike. Charlie Parr’s recordings, which make splendid companions to Fahey’s anthology, are similarly enthusiastic.”  - Popmatters Tour Dates: WE 6/24      Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle TH 6/25       Charlotte, NC - US National Whitewater Center FR 6/26       Wilmington, DE - World Cafe Live SA 6/27       Windham, VT - The Frendly Gathering TU 6/30       Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark WE 7/1        Nashville, IN - BigWoods Brewing TH 7/2         Cincinnati, OH - Washington Park FR 7/3         Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald's-Berwin SA 7/4         Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House TU 7/07       Cleveland, MA - Beachland Tavern TH 7/9         Cambridge, MA - Atwoods Tavern FR 7/10       New York, NY - Rockwood Music Hall 2 SA 7/11       Greenfield, MA - Green River Music Fest SU 7/12       Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena FR 7/17       Remer, MN - Double Barrel Blues Fest SA 7/18       Stillwater, MN - Stillwater Log Jam SA 7/18       Minneapolis, MN - Patrick’s Cabaret TH 7/30       Dubuque, IA - The Lift FR 7/31       Red Wind, MN - Falconer Vineyard SA 8/1         Somerset, WI - Somerset Amphitheater SU 8/2         Marquette, MI - Ore Dock Brewing FR 8/7         Shell Lake, WI - The Potters Shed SA 8/8         Appleton, WI - Mile of Music SU 8/9         Appleton, WI - Mile of Music FR 8/21       Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train SA 8/22       Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train SU 8/23       Lyons, CO - Oskar Blues Grill & Brew TH 8/27       St. Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair FR 8/28       St. Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair SA 8/29       Friendship, IN - Whispering Beard Folk Festival WE 9/2        Minneapolis, MN - Midwest Music Showcase @ Target Field SA 9/5         Duluth, MN - Red Herring Lounge SA 9/12       Ames, IA - DG's Taphouse SU 9/27      Johnsville, CA - Lost Sierra Hoedown WE 10/14    St Cloud, MN - Pioneer Place on Fifth Theatre SA 10/24     Austin, MN - Paramount Theatre SA 12/19     Lake City, MN - Oak Center General Store Charlie Parr on the web: Facebook Twitter Web Site

Charlie Parr - Stumpjumper

Charlie Parr   New album "Stumpjumper" premiering now at NPR Folk Alley Release date April 28 on Red House Records Available for pre-order here  "The raw metallic resonator guitar sound of Charlie Parr registers as a magnet of sorts – in the same way we’re drawn to the curious sounds of Tom Waits and even the indie folk of The Mountain Goats." - Glide Magazine

APRIL 21, 2015:  While a legend in some circles, Northwoods songwriter/guitarist Charlie Parr may be a new name to some music fans. Long a part of the vibrant Duluth, MN, music scene (Alan Sparhawk and Low, Trampled by Turtles), Charlie will release Stumpjumper, his first album with Grammy-winning Minnesota indie label Red House, on April 28. He's announced additional tour dates  through fall (scroll down for complete dates). NPR Folk Alley is streaming the album in its entirety this week, preview it here.  As well as being the first album Charlie has recorded outside of his native Minnesota, Stumpjumper is his first to feature a full band and was recorded in rural North Carolina with producer Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger). Percussive and raw, the 11 songs on Stumpjumper, 10 originals and his version of the venerable murder ballad, “Delia,” could be lost field recordings from another era. Charlie's blistering picking -- he switches between acoustic guitar (he plays National resonator guitars), dobro and banjo -- and keening, cut-through-the-crowd vocals resonate with a conviction that runs deep and true. Parr’s inspiration is drawn from the alternately fertile and frozen soil of Minnesota; his songs exude a Midwestern sensibility and humility. He grew up in the Hormel meatpacking city of Austin, MN (population 25,000) where most of the world's favorite tinned meat, Spam, is still manufactured. (He won't eat hot dogs to this day.) The combination of growing up with both of his parents working proud union jobs in an industrial meat factory and his largely rural environment had a broad impact on his songwriting. Growing up around hard physical work and being close to the land are what comes through in Charlie's songs. Most of his recordings to date have eschewed typical studio settings; he’s recorded in warehouses, garages, basements and storefronts, usually on vintage equipment, which gives his work the historic feel of field recordings. It's not because he wants to sound like he was discovered 75 years ago by Alan Lomax, it’s because most modern recording studios make the reticent and self-effacing Parr feel uncomfortable.   His heartfelt and plaintive original folk blues and traditional spirituals don't strive for authenticity: they are authentic.   Press: "Parr's songs ring out with a working-class ethos and a welcome-home energy." - The Bluegrass Situation "The native Minnesotan’s style can best be described as new music from an older time – sometimes dark and desolate, sometimes raucous and danceable." - Dan Forte (Vintage Guitar)   "He draws from the well of human suffering, but does so with humor and just a dash of folk tale mystery." - American Standard Time   “Parr may have been born during the Nixon era, but you can taste the grit of the Dust Bowl in his music.” - Dusted “Among the contenders in the every burgeoning indie folk, or new folk, genre, there are a lot of pretenders and acts trying desperately to “look and play the part”, but five seconds in front of Charlie Parr and you know you’re dealing with the real thing.”- Jim Beckman (KEXP) “John Fahey described the music he collected on American Primitive Vol. 1 as ‘made under the influence of enthusiasm.’ The enthusiasm he spoke of was a kind of possession, whether Christian or diabolical he couldn’t be sure; a mode of ecstatic communication that intervened in the delivery of sacred and secular messages alike. Charlie Parr’s recordings, which make splendid companions to Fahey’s anthology, are similarly enthusiastic.” - Popmatters Tour Dates: TU 4/21 Duluth, MN - Tycoons Alehouse and Eatry WE 4/22 Duluth, MN - The Red Herring Lounge TH 4/23 Winona, MN - Midwest Music Festival (Broken World Records) FR 4/24 Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House SA 4/25 Zumbrota, MN - Crossings At Carnegie TU 4/28 Duluth, MN - Duluth Homegrown Music Festival TH 4/30 Duluth, MN - Duluth Homegrown Music Festival FR 5/1 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater SA 5/2 Fargo, ND - Aquarium FR 6/5 Ft. Collins, CO - Moe’s Original BBQ - Choice City Stomp TH 6/11 Eau Claire, WI - Blue Ox Music Festival Country Jam FR 6/12 Duluth, MN - Red Herring Lounge FR 6/19 Bayport, MN - Bayport BBQ SA 6/20 Hancock, MI - The Orpheum Theater WE 6/24 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle TH 6/25 Charlotte, NC - US National Whitewater Center FR 6/26 Wilmington, DE - World Cafe Live SA 6/27 Windham, VT - The Frendly Gathering TU 6/30 Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark WE 7/1 Nashville, IN - BigWoods Brewing TH 7/2 Cincinnati, OH - Washington Park FR 7/3 Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald's-Berwin SA 7/4 Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House WE 7/8 Buffalo, NY - Sportsman's Tavern TH 7/9 Cambridge, MA - Atwoods Tavern SA 7/11 Greenfield, MA - Green River Music Fest SU 7/12 Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena FR 7/17 Remer, MN - Double Barrel Blues Fest SA 7/18 Stillwater, MN - Stillwater Log Jam SA 7/18 Minneapolis, MN - Patrick’s Cabaret FR 7/31 Red Wind, MN - Falconer Vineyard SA 8/1 Somerset, WI - Somerset Amphitheater FR 8/21 Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train SA 8/22 Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train TH 8/27 St, Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair FR 8/28 St, Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair SA 8/29 Friendship, IN - Whispering Beard Folk Festival WE 9/2 Minneapolis, MN - Midwest Music Showcase @ Target Field SA 9/5 Duluth, MN - Red Herring Lounge SA 9/12 Ames, IA - DG's Taphouse SU 9/27 Johnsville, CA - Lost Sierra Hoedown WE 10/14 St Could, MN - Pioneer Place on Fifth Theatre SA 10/24 Austin, MN - Paramount Theatre SA 12/19 Lake City, MN - Oak Center General Store

Red House records artist: Charlie Parr - Stumpjumper - New Release Review

I just received the newest release (April 28, 2015), Stumpjumper, from Charlie Parr and it's a dandy! With his wailing vocals and deft finger picking on his resonator, he gets the set started with Evil Companion. backed by Phil Cook revival like on piano, Ryan Gufstafson on banjo and James Wallace on drums, this track is a real kicker. Empty Out Your Pockets has the sound of a field holler backed by a nice banjo roll and only minimal percussion, rhythm and slide by Parr and Emily Parr on vocal harmony. Very nice! Falcon has a really rural feel... gutsy strumming and bluesy vocals. Remember Me If I Forget is a fast paced folk track with a finger picking /slide technique reminiscent of Leo Kottke. Nicely blended with Emily Parr fits nicely with the overall country blues feel. On Marrying a Woman With an Uncontrollable Temper has a real bluegrass basis but just that twist of blues that is present in the humble roots of all American music. Very nice! The most contemporary folk ballad on the release is Over The Red Cedar, a track with a simple forward melody/harmony blending and cleanly articulated guitar picking. Resurrection has a real swampy sound of original delta blues. A lone resonator guitar with slide and simple vocal melody makes this track particularly effective. Title track Stumpjumper is a uptempo foot stomper with nice resonator slide backing. Simple snare work from Wallace is particularly effective in focus. Temperance River Blues is another simple country blues but with a waltz tempo in this case. Emily is particularly successful in creating the country harmony and Charlie in capturing the rudimentary slide. Frank Miller Blues is a cool acoustic blues track with resonator and drums. Parr hits the blues square on vocally and his guitar pacing is relentless. Cool! Wrapping the release is Delia with a simple soft touch. Keeping the strings on the minimal percussive side, parr carries the track almost exclusively on his strong vocals. Very nice close to a particularly acute country/folk/blues roots release.

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CHARLIE PARR signs to Red House, premieres first track from the new album

CHARLIE PARR   Signs to Red House, new album, "Stumpjumper," set for release on April 28 Listen to an album track, "Over the Red Cedar," now at MPR The Current  Recorded with a full band in North Carolina with producer Phil Cook   St. Paul, MN: Red House Records is proud to announce that songwriter/guitarist CHARLIE PARR has joined its roster. Parr will be releasing a new studio album, Stumpjumper, on April 28, 2015.  You can listen to a track from the album, "Over the Red Cedar," today premiering at MPR The Current here. Charlie has announced tour dates through April (scroll down for complete dates), including a Nashville show at Ryman Auditorium on Saturday February 7 supporting fellow Minnesota players Trampled by Turtles.    Long a part of the vibrant Duluth, MN, music scene (Low, Trampled by Turtles), Charlie traveled to North Carolina to record this album with fellow musician Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger). As well as being the first album Charlie has recorded outside of his native Minnesota -- he joined Cook and a cast of local players, setting up in an old outbuilding on the “Down Yonder Farm” in rural North Carolina -- it’s also the first to feature a full band.   Percussive and raw, the 11 songs on Stumpjumper, 10 originals and his version of the venerable murder ballad, “Delia,” could be lost field recordings from another era. His blistering picking -- he switches between acoustic guitar, dobro and banjo -- and keening, cut-through-the-crowd vocals resonate with a conviction that runs deep and true. It's the music of a self-taught guitarist and banjo player who grew up listening to his dad's recordings of America's musical founding fathers, including Charley Patton and Lightnin' Hopkins, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. His heartfelt and plaintive original folk blues and traditional spirituals don't strive for authenticity: they are authentic.    “Red House has always held an exalted place in my heart because of their connectedness to the Midwest, because of Greg Brown, because of Koerner Ray and Glover, Paul Geremia, Guy Davis and so on and on,” Parr says. “Greg Brown introduced me to [late Red House founder] Bob Feldman at least 12 years ago on a farm in Wisconsin and he was so gracious and kind. I'm looking forward to being part of the family.”   “Signing Charlie is one of the most exciting things we have done in recent years,” says Red House president Eric Peltoneimi. “He is a mesmerizing artist and we have been fans of his for a long time. Charlie is one of only a very few these days whose music sprouts from the true vine ... from that deep-rooted place in the American soul."   Parr’s inspiration is drawn from the alternately fertile and frozen soil of Minnesota; his songs exude a Midwestern sensibility and humility. Parr  grew up in the Hormel meat packing city of Austin, MN (population 25,000) where most of the world's favorite tinned meat, Spam, is still manufactured. The combination of growing up with both of his parents working proud union jobs in an industrial meat factory and his largely rural environment had a broad impact on Parr.   "Every morning you'd hear the [factory] whistles blow, when I was a kid they had the stockyards and  animals there, so you were surrounded by this atmosphere," Parr says. Out the back door were soybean fields, as far as the eye could see. "As a kid I thought it was kind of boring, but now I go and visit my mom and I think it's the most beautiful landscape there is."    Most of his recordings to date have eschewed typical studio settings; he’s recorded in warehouses, garages, basements and storefronts, usually on vintage equipment, which gives his work the historic feel of field recordings. It's not because he wants to sound like he was discovered 75 years ago by Alan Lomax; it’s because most modern recording studios make the reticent and self-effacing Parr feel uncomfortable. After a health scare a few years back, he lives very simply, no alcohol and a vegan diet, often cooking up his rice and beans on his engine manifold on the lonely, cross-country drives. He doesn’t go in much for fashion and frills and lives simply on the road, usually sleeping in his car.   The songs for Stumpjumper were written on the road, where Parr, touring solo, spends a few hundred days a year. “I was in a cocoon, traveling alone with my guitar, spending entire days without saying a word out loud.” Overwhelmed by the endless stream of bad news he was hearing, Charlie flipped off his radio and drove in silence to North Carolina to record at producer Phil Cook’s studio in rural Hillsborough, NC, where he met his “band” for the first time.   “I drove through the trees and into a clearing where a group of buildings and some horses and a couple donkeys stood around. Phil stepped out from the barn to welcome me to my new home, at least it felt like home,” Parr says. “I left North Carolina after we recorded these songs, all live, mostly first takes, and drove with all the windows down all the way to Knoxville, listening to the world's wind rush by, hearing its news. It was good news, finally.”   The songs are inspired by family members, the Bible, overheard conversations and places in his life. A native Minnesotan, he draws sustenance from the surprisingly large, thriving and mutually  supportive music scene of Duluth: Parr's 2011 album of traditional songs, Keep Your Hands on the Plow, features locals including Charlie's wife, Emily Parr, old-timey banjo/fiddle band Four Mile Portage and Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low.    The title track finds Charlie tapping into his childhood. “Songs aren't normally very autobiographical for me, they're more like stories, but this one is different,” he says. “I can see a 1966 International Harvester pickup truck with no hood and four snow tires, breaking field road land-speed records on my way to my job in a filling station.”   Tracks include “Evil Companion,” “Frank Miller Blues” (Death visits Frank to take him home but Frank needs to finish his chores and so Death helps out. Frank's wife is pissed) and “Remember Me If I Forget” which Parr dedicates to his Aunt Mid. “She was a tough customer ... also wise, sensitive, and hilariously funny. She stomped the terra, as they say.”   “Empty Out Your Pockets” is a song Parr describes as “another angry hymn from me.”   “All of the ones I've written so far seem to rely on God being a kind of big brother who shows up one day after you've been getting your ass kicked all over town by bullies and he takes care of business. I know, it's juvenile, but take a close look at a lot of legitimate hymns - ‘when I die I'm gonna tell God what you did to me’ comes to mind.”   Quiet and thoughtful, Parr always includes a few traditional songs of the hard life and the hereafter in his live sets. Such music isn't necessarily rooted in the Methodist church in which he grew up: "It was more like, let's get the service over quick so we can get downstairs and drink coffee and have pie!"    But faith, though undefined, underlines all of Charlie's music, both in the listening, the covering, the writing and performing. For more information on Charlie, go to              Charlie Parr on Tour * With Trampled by Turtles # With J.D. Wilkes + With Betse Ellis             TH 2/5             Bloomington, IN - Bluebird Nightclub *             FR 2/6             St. Louis, MO - The Pageant *             SA 2/7             Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium *             FR 2/13           Dresser, WI - Trollhaugen             SA 2/14           La Crosse, WI - The Root Note             FR 2/20           Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald’s Nightclub             SA 2/21           Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center             SA 2/28           Ludlow, KY - Ludlow Theater #             MO 3/2            New York, NY - The Iridium             WE 3/4            Northampton, MA - The Parlor Room #             TH 3/5             Cambridge, MA - Atwoods Tavern #             FR 3/6             Winooski, VT - The Monkey House             SA 3/7             Rochester, NY - Abilene Bar and Lounge #             SU 3/8             Albany, NY - The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio #             TU 3/10           Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe #             WE 3/11          Maumee, OH - Village Idiot #             TH 3/12           Milwaukee, WI - Linneman’s             FR 3/13           Bayport, MN - Bayport BBQ             FR 3/20           Minocqua, WI - Minocqua Brewing Company             SA 3/21           North Mankato, MN - Equinox Fair, Best Western Mankato             MO 3/23         Lutsen, MN - Papa Charlie’s             FR 3/27           Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theater             SA 3/28           Denver, CO - Hi-Dive +             WE 4/1            Boise, ID – Nerolux +             TH 4/2             Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern +             FR 4/3             Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios +             SA 4/4             Missoula, MT - Top Hat Lounge             MO 4/6-WE 4/8          Reno, NV - Peppermill Resort Spa Casino +             TH 4/9             Berkeley, CA - Freight and Salvage +             TH 4/23           Winona, MN - Midwest Music Festival (Broken World Records)             FR 4/24           Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House             SA 4/25           Zumbrota, MN - Crossings At Carnegie - 7pm   CHARLIE PARR ONLINE Official Website Facebook Twitter