Description
Nick Charles – Further Down the Line
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2568-91 – $20
TN168 Jan 25
Fans of Nick Charles, who is perhaps Australia’s best finger picking guitarist, will probably have some doubts that he can be keeping getting better and better, but this 2024 album proves that he does!
Most of these tracks, whether songs or instrumentals, are Charles’ own work.
He shares writing credits for ‘Sleeping in a Strange Bed’ with Doc White, covers Dylan’s ‘One More Night’ and gives an instrumental rendition of Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’.
He also mentions that he has been performing ‘forever’ Travis’ ‘Cannonball Rag’ and has finally recorded his own version.
In ‘My Father’s Books’, Nick Charles acknowledges that his father left him far more than he had earlier realised.
In ‘The Photo’, he muses on the first published image of blues Legend Robert Johnson.
The photo is not very clear and Charles remarks that it is ‘bluesy and raggy like the great man’s music’.
Chances are that future admirers will note how suitable to the blues is Charles’ own husky voice.
‘Macfarland Street’ and the revisited ‘Lullaby for Hamish’ are very listenable guitar tracks.
The bonus track ‘Once, I Knew You’ was recorded at Toyland Studio Northcote by Adam Calaitzis during a ‘Guitar Music’ session.
By far my favourite tracks are ‘Along the Milky Way’ and ‘Right Before Our Eyes’.
Charles rightly describes the former as ‘instrumental jazzy blues with a debt to Ellington’s beautiful melodies’.
He says that the Milky Way is endlessly inspiring, and this love of the natural environment pairs neatly with the latter song which is enhanced by Liz Frencham and Ed Bates.
There are many songs which draw our attention to climate change.
Some shout into our faces while others bemoan the loss of species and the inaction of governments.
Charles’ take is gentle and simple, but also uncompromising in its impact.
Charles thanks Craig Pilkington (Audrey studios, Coburg), Troy Burg, Damien Sutton and Barry Gittins for production work, but mainly the album is a Nick Charles production.
As well as playing guitars, mandolin and percussion, Nick Charles is chief vocalist on these tracks.
That great collaborator, Liz Frencham, provides double bass and vocal harmonies and Ed Bates plays pedal steel.
Charles endorses Maton guitars, John Pearse strings and Lucas Miles amplifiers and it is good to know what hardware is helping him to produce these beautiful sounds.
The album sleeve has a photo of Charles looking relaxed on a park bench.
Indeed, his style is so laid back that it might seem effortless.
But all the aspiring finger style pickers out there should be warned that Nick Charles’ unique skill is the result of hours of patient work building on huge natural talent.
If you enjoy Further Down the Line, best look forward to another CD even further down the line.
Nick’s latest release (Sept 24), this album features well-crafted original songs along with wonderful arrangements of some old favourites.
Nick Charles tenth solo album and twentieth overall here and in the US, features trademark instrumentals, bluesy folk songs and glorious ensemble workouts with his string band colleagues (including Liz Frencham on double bass and Ed Bates on steel guitar) . You’ll find his acclaimed instrumental interpretation of the Clapton classic Wonderful Tonight , a new version of Dylan’s One More Night (from Nashville Skyline) and a stellar working of the fingerstyle anthem Cannonball Rag. Crisply recorded at Melbourne’s Audrey Studio with attention to a live feel, minimal trickery and just plain good old guitar and vocal work. If you love blues, folk and guitar picking this is for you.
