About

A Letter From Charlie

If you are here searching to find out what I do, and you can figure that out, please fill me in. Because I have been playing music professionally for most of my life and I am still searching, and wondering what that might be. I started out playing in bands when I was in my early twenties, while holding down a day job as a beer truck driver. So the bar sold beer as I played and then I would replenish their supply. I realized early on that my job was to make people happy and have fun for at least a few hours. Fast forward to 37 years later I am still essentially doing that same job. I quit delivering beer in 1981 but I never quite quit selling it. I am still very happy to be in the fun business!

ENTERTAINER

I have learned and forgotten at least a couple thousand songs; I can still hold in my memory several hundred and perform them solo or with a band. I have always loved learning songs and consider that fun. I have also learned not to play songs that I have grown tired of, because to do a song justice you must first know it by heart and then, most importantly, have your heart in it. Perhaps by learning all those songs I have trained my brain to think lyrically. I started writing my own songs early on, and it is a mystery where they come from, you will be just plunking along and suddenly it just happens. I had been playing music for my living for 20 years before I made my first record. I now have made nine albums and I sell them wherever I can to help fund my traveling habit. In my set I usually mix songs I have written in with songs I love and wished I had written.

SONGWRITER

I have a family; Bev and I have been together since she was 18 and I was 23, we have been married now for 34 years. Dylan was born in 1984 and Jonah in 1991 and since then became grandparents! I

have written songs for both my grand kids Morgan and Carter, those songs have become mainstays when I play concerts and sometimes even in clubs. Bev has her own business training and boarding horses along with riding lessons. We own a farm of 74 acres, that includes a 40+horse stable with a full size heated riding arena, and both a cross-country and stadium jump field. We have a Bobcat, two tractors, a manure spreader, and an old farmhouse in Benton County Minnesota. Bev is hard working and good with the fact that I would never be happy or much good at anything else. I have written several songs for her, most of them are happy. I am one of the luckiest people I know. I also work very hard at my music and have managed to stay booked solidly for decades. I am also smart enough to understand that if something that weighs 1200 lbs wants to come between us it just will.

FAMILY MAN

In 2010 my 5th album, Broken Ground came out and was well received in Europe, and, it went up to #6 on the Euro Americana chart. It was a dream come true. I was invited over for a short tour that year and have since released two more albums and have returned there every year touring mostly in the UK and Ireland.

That same year I joined the Celtic music group Ring of Kerry. When I started learning how to play Celtic music I noticed the similarities right away to the American songs I had been playing, and have always loved, coming mostly from Texas songwriters. I love a good melody and storyline. Country, Rockabilly, Blues, Folk, Cajun, Rock and Roll, I love playing it all. All over the world!!!

Past Tours