Folk singer/guitarist Charlie Parr expressed appreciation for his long-standing Turf Club residency as he wrapped up the last of four sold-out Sunday shows at the 350-person capacity University Avenue music venue.
He encored with his take on Claude Ely’s, “Ain’t No Grave.”
On the opening night (Jan. 5) of the residency, Parr had said he wasn’t sure when he’d feel comfortable performing the song again. This was in the context of the recent loss of his mother to Parkinson’s disease.
It’s a song his powerful pipes have filled and thundered the towering Palace Theatre hall in recent years.
But he had grown uneasy performing the traditional gospel song written by a tuberculosis-ridden 12-year-old Ely in 1934.
Parr dedicated the song to his mother, performing it sans guitar and backed up by washboard player Mikkel Beckmen.
Beckmen accompanied him for most of the set.
Paper Wings’ Wila Frank and Emily Mann won over the Turf Club audience.
Nashville folk duo Paper Wings, made up of Emily Mann and Wila Frank, opened the show.
The two revealed in the set learning fiddle together in their youth at fiddle camp. But they switched up the instrumentation, with Mann frequently using a banjo, and both players taking up guitars at different points.
The banjo picking on the song “Troubled Soul,” pulled at heart strings.
Frank set up the next song, “Shoe Shiner,” first telling a personal story of applying brown shoe polish to a pair of leather boots.
“It wasn’t a good look,” she said.
But the high-energy instrumental with a fiddle and banjo was far better received, drawing out a rousing applause.
Parr seemingly went unnoticed as he adjusted his mic and chair just before launching his set.
He started out alone on the dimly-lit stage, and played several songs before being joined for much of the show by Beckmen.
Mikkel Beckmen and Charlie Parr both wrote and published books about their recent travels through Europe and the U.K.
At one point he joked about his recent six-week tour through Europe with his beloved friend Beckmen, in a small, French-made van. But Parr kept his “half of the van” clean, he said.
Whichever packet of food Beckmen was opening throughout the trip exploded everywhere.
“In my face,” Beckmen added.
Here’s a few of things that really stuck in my head:
“Last of the Better Days Ahead.” I wrote down a line Charlie would have improvised, assuming he did sing it this way: “You don’t even know what is was you lost.”
“True Friends.” The line, “To get one you have to be one.”
Of course one of the reasons Parr is such a gem is the undeniable truths in his writing, to say nothing of his vocal abilities, guitar playing and overall sound, which reminds you of a hobo’s ride on a train.
Parr brought a pair of 12-string guitars with him, one which he proclaimed was the most priceless thing he owned.
He performed “Dog,” “Red Cedar,” and “Cheap Wine,” a trio of songs that likely pierced every soul in the room.
He did bring out his cherished 12-string Gretsch guitar that had been gifted to him in 2022 by the now-late Minneapolis folk-blues legend Spider John Koerner, who is a noted influence on both Parr and Bob Dylan.
“This guitar is the most priceless thing that I own,” he said.
Parr joked about bringing on stage a humidifier with a multicolored light next year, “If they let me do this again, because I love this.”
He was talking about this long-standing residency at the storied music club. He’s been doing this January residency for several years now, though skipped in 2024 and shifted it to the First Avenue mainroom in 2021.
“It’s kind of sad to see this month end,” he said. “(The Turf Club residency) is one of my favorite things in the world.”
Sculptor and artist Steve Bateman designed the print for the month-long residency. Bateman also designed the banner for this website.
Parr shared the story of when him and Beckmen first played at the Viking Bar in the nearby Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
“When Mikkel and I first started playing together, he had a case of empty Bock bottles,” Parr said. “You never knew what we were going to do.”
“They actually sounded great,” Beckmen said, when I pressed a little afterward.
Parr shared a quick story about the first time him and Beckmen performed together at the Viking Bar.
The duo played “Ain’t Dead Yet,” which Parr proclaimed the end of the set, but noting that he had one more for an encore, the aforementioned “Ain’t No Grave.”
“I haven’t been playing this much because it’s been hard on my heart,” he said.
He proceeded to put everything he had into singing the song.