Easter is fast approaching this weekend and for those of you who observe the holiday, even in a passing manner, will likely be spending time with family. If you’re anything like me and my family, Easter is one of the big holidays, so it’ll be one of the few times during the year t
hat you go to church. And again, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably bored; tired of the stand up-sit down-stand up-sit down-on your knees-pray-stand up-sit down-give us some money routine. If that alone isn’t enough, factor in the music. Whether it’s droning in Latin, a teenage religious rock band telling you to pray while frighteningly hypnotized folk stand with their arms swaying right next to you, or a choir simply speaking in an unusually high pitch so as to sound like music, you’re likely wishing it would end and that you could listen to something good. With this week’s artist, you may not get to hear him at church, but you can be sure to enjoy his foot stomping, hand clapping twang anywhere your head phones go. Ladies and gentlemen, your salvation from terrible religious music is here. Say hello to Charlie Parr.
Parr, not solely a singer/songwriter of religious songs, pulls influences from historical situations and fictional accounts. His songs often deal with people down and out, or general human despair, straying away from the usual blues songs about tough love. Some topics that often turn up in Parr’s music are American tall-tales, biblical stories, and tales of the downtrodden. Though Parr may cover many traditional songs be they religious or otherwise, he makes them his own and is himself a talented songwriter. An experienced yarn-weaver, Parr has the ability to convey stories through his music as though he were a village elder speaking of times long past. Part of this skill is what makes him such a great conveyer of religious music.
Parr, a native of Minnesota, has been compared to other blues and folk musicians such as Tom Waits and Dave Van Ronk. Though Parr, a self-proclaimed shy person w
ho tends to be an anti-advertiser of his own music feels as though he’s lazy and a flawed guitarist (I couldn’t disagree more). Picking up a guitar at age eight, Charlie Parr was self-taught and says that his playing is not out of practice, but as a need to play, reinforcing his bad habits. But when you actually listen to the music, you find a sound that’s immediately moving and deep, penetrating the soul and leaving your heart wrenching. The sounds are almost haunting and feel as though his singing could be your own personal history, despite never having lived anything like it. His fretless banjo and steel guitar twang their way into your mind and take hold, making you feel every word and note.
Parr’s music has a way of haunting you and sending you into pit of darkness that you feel woe in, but don’t want to leave. Bringing this back to Easter and religious music, what is religion if you don’t have some sort of spirit lurking around, watching you at every moment? Don’t think that Mr. Parr only has the ability to haunt, plenty of his songs hold that up-tempo, hand clapping, foot stomping that was mentioned earlier in this article. In each of Charlie Parr’s eight albums are songs featuring drinking, hooting and hollering, and general fisticuffs. The main goal of Parr is to tell a story through his music, and he does that better than most.
So what do you get? Charlie Parr delivers a sound that can take a listener to the old west, fill them with the Holy Spirit, scare them half to death, or leave them weeping like a four year old whose dog ran away from home. His delivery of his music at once make him sound rooted in American history, and as humble as can be. This little known gem deserves a spot in each of our musical collections. So before you’re sitting down in that church this Easter Sunday, wondering when that teenage Jesus band is going to stop, follow the links below and put on some Charlie Parr to get you ready for some resurrection of your own…of the musical variety.
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