{"id":144882,"date":"2024-06-21T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=144882"},"modified":"2024-06-21T07:55:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T14:55:55","slug":"the-comic-and-the-cosmic-two-sides-of-charlie-parr-acoustic-guitar-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/the-comic-and-the-cosmic-two-sides-of-charlie-parr-acoustic-guitar-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Comic and the Cosmic: Two Sides of Charlie Parr | Acoustic Guitar Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Two Sides of Charlie Parr | Acoustic Guitar Sessions\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tdGm_QpbrnA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In this <em>AG<\/em> Session, Charlie Parr performs a pair of tunes that help define the underground folk-blues artist\u2019s approach to his music. On the first, \u201cBoombox,\u201d we get Parr\u2019s signature foot-stomping fingerpicking and masterfully played slide, and on \u201cPale Fire\u201d he ventures beyond the mortal realm (and beyond first position, with a capo at the seventh fret) with a hypnotic, poetic meditation on life and death and reincarnation. Both songs appear on Parr\u2019s latest album, <em>Little Sun, <\/em>his eighteenth. The tunes sound different here than on the record; the session features no backing band, just Charlie and his \u201cParr Mule\u201d from Mule Resophonics, a signature all-mahogany tricone with a roasted maple neck and ebony fingerboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBoombox,\u201d feels like an altruistic interpretation of a \u2018Don&#8217;t Tread on Me&#8217; flag; it&#8217;s not that Parr wants to be left alone, but rather wants us to appreciate our individuality and not try and drag each other down. \u201cI see so many people picking on other people for doing something that doesn\u2019t hurt anyone. The way they dress, or the way they dance. I grew up in a small town, and people could be hard on each other.\u201d \u201cBoombox\u201d paints a funny picture, but the simple message at its core feels increasingly profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked if he can explain what the deceptively simple \u201cPale Fire\u201d is about, Parr hesitates: \u201cYeah&#8230; well, no. It started out about aliens, and I split it into two different songs because it was dumb.\u201d But instead of fully scrapping the song, he salvaged what he could. \u201cSome of the words were good, some of them were really dumb,\u201d he says, \u201cso I just started taking it apart, because songs are like bike parts in a shed, you can mix and match and create something new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But like all good art, Parr\u2019s songs are perhaps best experienced without explanation; they\u2019re stories you can hear\u2014and feel\u2014and find your own meaning in. You\u2019ll find both the comic and the cosmic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Support\u00a0<em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em>\u00a0on Patreon\u00a0and get access to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/private-lesson-106201538\">an exclusive video lesson with Charlie Parr,<\/a> exploring his approach to slide.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/private-lesson-106201538\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-144921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Charlie-Parr-Slide-Style.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roots, Blues, Life, and Death; Charlie Parr performs two tunes from his newest record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1524],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1542],"class_list":["post-144882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues-videos"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Charlue-Parr-Acoustic-Guitar-Sessions-2024.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1542,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"joeystringletter-com","display_name":"Joey Lusterman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/436b88127a7aed4992dc57eb6efc6353?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Lusterman","first_name":"Joey","job_title":"","description":"Opinionated creative slash beginning guitarist. Joey has worked in every department at <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em> in the past 10+ years: front desk, ad sales, editorial, sound guy, camera man, booth babe, email coder, podcast editor, photographer, book designer\u2026"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144882"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145022,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144882\/revisions\/145022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144882"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=144882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}