Charlie Parr

Austin, Hollandale, Duluth

Charlie Parr was born in 1967 in Austin, Minnesota, a meatpacking town where his parents worked at the packing house, and spent part of his childhood in Hollandale. He began his career in Duluth, where he lives. He plays vocals, guitar, harmonica and banjo, on resonator guitars including a National he calls Mule, a fretless open-back banjo and a twelve-string. Wikipedia names Charley Patton, Bukka White, Reverend Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk and Mississippi John Hurt among his influences, and John Spider Koerner as his hero; before his death in 2024 Koerner gave Parr his 12-string Gretsch and asked him to keep playing it on stage.

He told Current Magazine in 2015 that I get categorized into areas I don't really feel I belong into, and that he stopped writing setlists a long time ago, picking an opener and letting the set follow.

Records

His first two albums, Criminals and Sinners and 1922, were self-released in 2002. King Earl (2004), Rooster (2005), Jubilee (2007) and Roustabout (February 17, 2009) followed, then When the Devil Goes Blind (October 19, 2010) and Glory in the Meeting House (2010, with the Black Twig Pickers). He made Keep Your Hands on the Plow (2011) with Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low and Four Mile Portage, a split LP with Glenn Jones the same year, Barnswallow (April 23, 2013) and I Dreamed I Saw Paul Bunyan Last Night (October 1, 2013), the soundtrack to a documentary DVD, Meeting Charlie Parr.

He signed to Red House Records in 2015 and made Stumpjumper (2015), Dog (2017) and Charlie Parr (2019). Last of the Better Days Ahead (July 30, 2021) and Little Sun (March 22, 2024) were on Smithsonian Folkways, and a folk-opera album, Rooming House, is dated October 16, 2026. Concert listings give 19 albums over two decades and up to 275 shows a year, which is promotional copy.

On the road

He toured Australia with Paul Kelly in 2009, and "1922" was used in a Vodafone advertisement in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. His song "Just Like Today" plays over the closing credits of the Australian film Red Hill (2010). He played Pickathon in Oregon in 2011 and the Willamina Wildwood MusicFest in 2012, and recorded Daytrotter sessions in 2013 and 2015. NPR's Folk Alley Presents featured him in August 2015. JamBase has setlists from First Avenue in 2019, the Turf Club in 2020 and Iron Horse Music Hall on July 8, 2026.