Charlie Parr with The Black Twig Pickers

When: Tonight, Thursday, October 15, 2009 @ 8pm
Where: Kirk Avenue Music Hall, 22 Kirk Ave. Roanoke, VA
Cost: $10 each

One spring day in 1979, a young Charlie Parr made his way down to East Side Lake in Austin, Minnesota carrying a Johnson 9.9 outboard motor and half of a gallon of gas. His pockets were stuffed with stolen cans of Blatz. The motor did him no good at the lake since he didn’t have a boat, but he was lucky and traded it to a truck driver at a nearby filling station for a beat up Gibson 12-string guitar. He kept the gas.

A confused and shy individual, Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and Piedmont-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and sometimes a banjo. He’s released 6 cd’s, 4 of which are still available, the latest of which is called “Roustabout” and contains something like 14 tracks of original and traditional folk music recorded in true monophonic sound.

Charlie Parr has failed at most things in his life. Music seems to have rendered him unemployable and is the only thing he’s ever done with any confidence. A lot of folks have been saying nice things about Charlie, despite the lingering odors and indecipherable comments he makes. It says a lot about folks; they’re hanging in there with him, in spite of himself.

We’re giving away a set of two tickets to this show…

TO WIN TICKETS: Be the first person to email info [at] upUPperiscope [dot] com with the correct answer to the following question and you’ll win a pair of tickets to tonight’s show.

Where is Charlie Parr from?

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congrats to Michael Domzalski! Have fun tonight!

About The Black Twig Pickers… Started in a dark alley between the campers at the 1999 Galax Old Fiddlers Convention and named for an archaic apple variety from founding fiddler Ralph Berrier Jr.’s family orchard, the Black Twig Pickers’ fiddle/banjo/ guitar/washboard/whatsis racket has sounded in dives, barns, streets and dances from Amsterdam to Atlanta, yet remains solidly rooted in a corner of Southwest Virginia where four other states are closer than the Virginia capital.