Charlie Parr is no stranger to playing in barns, long before he first came to Codfish years ago. Given his history, growing up in the Midwest playing Folk/Americana music inspired by the Blue-Collar cities and citizens he was surrounded by, such a fact seems fitting. His songs echo the stories of these individuals, and you can feel the passion he carries for these people and places, along with the life that they live…the life he lives as well, even at times if only vicariously through the eyes of those hearty individuals that help supply the heartbeat for his songs. Charlie is a very interesting, easy-to-talk-to person, and I had the chance to sit down with him while his tea steeped and a trio of farm dogs passed by, distracting both of us at times from the questions hanging in the air. We spoke about what originally sparked his love for music in Austin, Minnesota, to his adoration of folk art and artist Bill Traylor, and there’s even a random Prince story thrown in, because if you were that involved in the Minneapolis music scene in the 80’s you’ve got at least one good Prince story.
Matthew: Okay. Let's just as an introduction for people who aren't familiar with you, who are you. how long have you been playing and where do you call home?
Charlie: Sure. My name is Charlie Parr. I've been playing, well I've been playing shows since the late 80s. I've been playing professionally, since 2001. I haven't had a job since then.
Matthew: Okay. As a professional artist myself, I know sometimes that there's just not another option. But what originally got you into making music and then trying to pursue it in a professional sense?
Charlie: Well, I mean, I think it's partially the usual thing. When I was a kid, I became obsessed, and I played all the time. That's all I wanted to do. I dropped out of high school because that's all I thought about…practicing. It became hard to hold a job. You know and I had a couple of good jobs, and I was working and stuff, and I didn't really think about making music a career. I never really did that. I just thought, I just like doing this.
Matthew: It wasn't the goal necessarily.
Charlie: It wasn't really the goal. And when my son was born and learning about how expensive daycare was, you know, I stopped working my day job so I could take care of him.
Matthew: Yeah, that makes sense.
Charlie: And I went on hiatus, which I'm still on, I guess, technically, but, you know, I was gigging and it was going well. Eventually he starts school, and, you know, I started playing more and more and more and then thought, well, I'll just do this because I was keeping my nose above the water, and I still am.
Matthew: Nice. That's always good.
Charlie: Yeah.
Matthew: I do a lot of photo work and I've shown a lot of my stuff in Minnesota, so I've always found a lot of like a lot of inspiration there and always kind of felt like it gets underappreciated with a lot of like being seen as a big art scene. What has inspired you about your roots from Minnesota? Or continues to inspire you about them?
Charlie: That's a big question, and Minnesota is such a big place. I grew up in the south-central portion in Austin, Minnesota. Looks like Iowa.
Matthew: I’ve definitely been through there.
Charlie: So it's all farms. My family, if they didn't work in the packing house, they were farmers. You know, labor. The labor union was kind of our church when I was a kid, and it was inspiring, you know?
Matthew: Yeah, I’m sure
Charlie: Music is a huge part of the labor movement. And so my dad and my mother knew those songs backwards and forwards and played records in the house all the time. So I grew up hearing a lot of those voices.
Matthew: That's great.
Charlie: Then moving north, you know, Duluth has its own you know, it's a different set of industries, but it's industry nonetheless. And I found that to be inspiring. I find the lives of folks just working a job and getting along, I find that to be inspiring.
Matthew: Yeah, it definitely shows through your music.
Charlie: So I've never lived anywhere else. I've traveled a lot. I've been, you know, in what, 25 countries and all over the United States. I've never really had the urge to live anywhere else. I love visiting places, but I like living where I live.
Matthew: That kind of answers one of my next questions. A lot of Minnesota-based musicians play here. And speaking of Austin, Gear Daddies were just here, so we talked a little about Austin with them. Who are some of your favorite Minnesota-based musicians, you know, past or present?
Charlie: Another giant question. So Billy Dankert from the Gear Daddies has been my friend since preschool.
Matthew: Wow.
Charlie: And I'm still friends with him. We've never not been friends.
Matthew: That's really cool.
Charlie: We still play music together on a rare occasion. You know, the Gear Daddies were our hometown heroes, and Austin was a weird place. Because you were either, you know, a gearhead, you were into cars, you were a jock, and you played football, or you were one of these weirdos like me, and music was their thing. Then when I moved to Minneapolis I was a kid, you know, I dropped out of high school. I just moved to Minneapolis, and I was shocked because music was everywhere in the 80s.
Matthew: Yeah. Especially then.
Charlie: Early on, I was downtown and back then the drinking age was younger, so I could be drinking. I was watching a jazz band play downtown at the Fine Line, and at some point Prince walks in and gets on stage and plays. I was flabbergasted. And he's amazing, of course he was incredible. You know every week at that time I would see Spider John Koerner play. I'd see Dave Ray and Tony Glover play. Willie Murphy. I went to see The Replacements. I saw Husker Du all the time. I went deaf seeing Husker Du. You know, a lot of bands that didn't really make it that big, like the Cows. I saw those guys all the time. And muskellunge. I saw music all the time. And I was a permanent fixture on the Gear Daddy guest list. So I saw music almost every night of the week.
Matthew: Playing great music.
Charlie: I was paying $60 a month to live in a rooming house on the West Bank. I could make that busking so I didn't have a job. I didn't need a job. All I did was practice the guitar, go see music, read books, you know, figure out what I could find for free for food, you know, for years. So it was amazing. And as far as a list of, like, musicians that I love, I don't even know where to start. You know, Spider John is probably near the top of the list, but so is Paul Westerberg..
Matthew: So a wide mix. When it comes to songwriting, I mean, obviously you've spent decades writing songs. Do you spend a lot of time sitting down intending to write songs, or is it more that they kind of come organically?
Charlie: Yeah, I let them come organically. I used to try to write songs and I didn't find it to be possible for me.
Matthew: Yeah, I write and I'm not a fan of forcing anything.
Charlie: I could force myself to write a song, and it's terrible, and I can see it. I can see how I forced it, you know. And then other times, a song will show up and I'll be prepared to receive it, as they say. And I write it down and I think this isn't even me. You know, I think Tom Waits was right. It's a thing that comes, and if you're ready for it and you're able to access it, you can have it. And if you're not, it'll go on and find the next person who's ready for it. I think that's true.
Matthew: I agree.
Charlie: Because that's how it feels to me. So now I just let myself be receptive. And when I feel like, oh, I can tell there's something there. I get ready.
Matthew: Yeah. And take advantage of it then.
Charlie: Exactly.
Matthew: I've seen you perform several times. Always just you as a solo act. I know on your most recent album, you have a pretty good backing band with you. Do you. I mean, I'm sure you've done a lot more of the solo stuff. Do you have a preference, and what shifts when you're playing with a full band as opposed to by yourself?
Charlie: I prefer playing solo. My guitar heroes are all solo guitarists. You know, John and the first generation of recorded guitarists like Charley Patton. You know, these guys, you don't hear him with a band. That's that's the music that I find the most inspiring to what I do. So that's what I like to do, but that being said you know, playing with people who are like, sympathetic is a really unique experience that I love. Creating music with someone else is about as close as you're going to get to being intimate with them. It is an intimate relationship
Matthew: It’s a serious connection.
Charlie: It's a serious connection if you're both in that same place, and if you're not, it won't work. You can't do it. And I love that feeling. I don't really seek it out much because I really love just being able to drive my car, you know, and do whatever I want. You know maybe the guitar is not really in tune, but it doesn't matter because I'm by myself
Matthew: So there's a reason Codfish has so many returning artists and obviously the kind of music you make, and what inspires you, I think is perfect for a place like this. What was your first, reaction when you first played here, and what makes it stand out from other places other than it just being a barn?
Charlie: I’ve played in so many barns. I love playing in places like this, and when I first came here, I felt immediately comfortable. I have played in a lot of barns, but I think music, and probably art in general, is kind of at its best when it's in a space like this that is already an art piece very much already This wasn't created to do this.
Matthew: No, not at all. You know, they were pretty reluctant to do it at the start from what I heard too.
Charlie: So it's being repurposed, but it's already a piece of art, you know, and a lot of places, like new places that I play, they don't feel like that. They feel like, okay, this was created specifically for us to do this in. It’s like a very clean container, and the art is fine because the art is the focus and the clean container doesn't infect it. But I miss playing in a place like this where you get infected with the container, and I like that feeling because that adds to what I'm doing. I play differently when I play in places like this
Matthew: I would imagine so. I think the crowds respond differently in a place like this too.
Charlie: I think so, and it's a good difference.
Matthew: Very much so. Obviously you do more guitar than any other instrument. But you also play banjo. Do you lean more towards a guitar? And when you do the banjo, is it more because you feel a song calls for it?
Charlie: Well, I don't play banjo anymore. In 2009 I was diagnosed with focal dystonia, which is a brain disorder that effectively stopped me from using my right hand until eventually the doctor said, stop playing the guitar…and I can't. So I was able to relearn how to play the guitar. Banjo never came back.
Matthew: Okay. Yeah.
Charlie: The banjo is a totally different thing. Definitely, and holding my hand, even holding my hand in the way that I would hold it to play the banjo is painful. So I miss playing the banjo. I kept it for a long time thinking that someday it'll come back and I'll pick it up, but it broke my heart. You know, it hurt. And so finally, I met this young woman who's a freight train hopper. She had jumped off a train and broke her banjo in half. So I gave her mine, and I thought that was right.
Matthew: That’s a great continuation of an instrument.
Charlie: So I kind of doubled down on the guitar, and now that I'm comfortable with the way I can play, it's good, and I don't think too much about those other times.
Matthew: Yeah. That's really good. Okay. This might be a hard one too. What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten from another musician, or that you would give to an aspiring musician?
Charlie: I think the best piece, and I didn't get this advice specifically. Sonny Rollins said this. Keep your karma clean. I think that's good advice for everybody.
Matthew: Oh, yeah.
Charlie: But I think about it in this world, you know, where like, if I'm on tour and I'm out for, if I'm in Europe, I'm in Europe for six weeks or in Australia for two months at a time, you know, it's a big chunk of time and you're just like one place, the next place, the next place, the next place. You never stop. And so if you if you start to kind of act badly in the midst of that, you'll feel it a hundredfold.
Matthew: Oh, yeah.
Charlie: Being mindful, and kind of treating every moment with gratitude is extremely important to me. So a lot of young musicians I talk to I always tell them that. Do your best, but be grateful every day. Be grateful and start with the simple things. You know, when you wake up and you draw that big breath, that's your first point of gratitude. You can play your instrument even if you don't have a gig. You can play an instrument that is another one, you know. Just do that. Sink into this idea of being grateful for stuff. And it goes a long, long way.
Matthew: Especially with the simple things, because those are the ones that are going to come back every day.
Charlie: The most important ones. You know, you take your breath for granted, but when you stop breathing you notice.
Matthew: What are you passionate about outside of the world of music?
Charlie: Well, a lot of stuff. I'm a big reader. I love art. My partner and I collect art especially folk art. Yeah. Love folk art. Bill Traylor is my guy.
Matthew: I don’t think I'm familiar with him.
Charlie: Bill Traylor. So in the 30s maybe Bill Traylor was homeless in Birmingham, Alabama. And he'd go through the garbage and he'd find shirt cardboards. Shirts used to come with a cardboard.
Matthew: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Charlie: He would take those out of the garbage and he'd draw on them.
Matthew: Interesting. That would be his canvas.
Charlie: Yeah. And then, of course, he would just throw them away because, you know he was homeless at the time. They also thought he probably had mental health issues. Those drawings are absolutely stunning. They’re simple and they're not. To me, they epitomize folk art.
Matthew: It sounds like they would.
Charlie: They're amazing. So eventually, some guy who like, walks to work every day and sees this guy started grabbing those out of the garbage. And he would start collecting shirt cardboards and give them to Bill, and sometimes he would bring him art supplies. They became friends, and he amassed this massive collection of Bill's work. Bill dies, and this guy has all this stuff and just kind of forgets about it. Well, eventually, he realizes what he has and starts telling the world about Bill Traylor. At the Intuit Gallery in Chicago they have original shirt cardboards from Bill Traylor.
Matthew: That's really cool.
Charlie: I go there every once in a while just to look. You know, if you like art, you see the actual thing.
Matthew: Yeah, it's a totally different experience.
Charlie: It is. It's like I didn't expect that. I'm like, my God it kind of hurts, you know? I got a print of one of these cardboards and I have it framed on my wall. It's my favorite one. It's this giant dog with this little tiny guy wearing a top hat with a leash attached to this giant dog.
Matthew: Nice.
Charlie: Yeah I love that. You know, I have kids. I'm very invested in their lives.
Matthew: Of course
Charlie: I've got a dog that I love. My partner and I do a lot of stuff together, you know? We bought a house together, so we do some gardening. And I just I like being outside. I like going for walks.
Matthew: Is this the same dog that inspired the music a couple of records ago.
Charlie: No, this is a different one. This one is only two years old. But yeah, I kind of want to be passionate about life in general.
Matthew: Yeah.
Charlie: You know I don't do a lot of internetting.
Matthew: I'm sure that helps.
Charlie: I have a manager, which is bittersweet. I love him, and he's kind of saved my career because I don't pay attention. And he does all the internetting. So I don't look at social media I don't really pay attention. I don't have a television. I read a lot of books.
Matthew: I’m sure that's really good for the mental health to detach a little bit from it.
Charlie: I have severe anxiety disorder and clinical depression.
Matthew: I can fully relate to that.
Charlie: I do DBT religiously and I'm not religious, but about that I am about. I do a lot of mindfulness exercises, and I do walking meditation every day because I can't sit and meditate. It doesn't work.
Matthew: Yeah, I've tried too. It doesn't work.
Charlie: Walking meditation. You know, Nan Han wrote this beautiful little piece on walking meditation and taught me a ton. And I do that every day. And then my guitar practices are like three parts, you know, the learning part, the practicing part, and then the meditative part. So, all that stuff is important.
Matthew: That's great. All right, last question. I know that you released the album Little Sun last year. Have you been working on anything new or do you have anything planned moving forward?
Charlie: Lots of stuff. I feel really nice right now. The new record is done. I just I haven't recorded it yet, but the writing part is done, and it's going really well. Then I'm working on another book, but this probably won't be stories. I think it's going to end up being, like, a long piece. The way it's going so far, I've got it all outlined and I'm like, this is longer than everything else so far because I like writing short stories. But this is a lot longer than that, so we'll see where it goes. I'm doing that, a,nd then, you know, I'm booked halfway through the next year.
Matthew: Oh, great.
Charlie: Including a six week run through Europe again. So I've got work coming up. I feel pretty creative in my mind.
Matthew: That's great, and after doing it for so long I'm sure there's lulls where it's tough to find that.
Charlie: Yeah, but even then, I know enough to just let it go and it'll show up, and if it doesn't show up, it's not supposed to show up. I don't want to make stuff that I'm not happy or proud of. So I'm not forcing it. I've got a lot to do. I'm a senior citizen I'm content with my life. I'm satisfied, you know. And if I can't create anything else, I'm perfectly happy to go for walks and mow the grass or, you know, sit and poke at the guitar. It's all good.
Matthew: Yeah, definitely. That’s awesome. Like you said, it's all stuff to be grateful for.
Charlie: Yeah. And, you know, when I get older I'd like to learn how to paint pictures like Bill Traylor.
Matthew: Well, yeah, that's all I had. But that was great. I really appreciate it.
Charlie: Well thank you I appreciate that.
