Hello reader,
Welcome back.
Today, we’ll delve into Charlie Parr. A multi-instrumentalist and true troubadour in blues, bluegrass, folk, and gospel. A musician proficient on the following instruments: a Mule brand resonator guitar, a National brand resonator guitar, a fretless open-back banjo, and a twelve-string guitar, often played in the beautiful Piedmont blues style.
We’ve covered Parr at least once a year in SWT’s existence. I reviewed his 2024 album Little Sun, which I liked. The album made its way to Josh’s favorite albums of 2024 list. We also featured Charlie as part of our pre-Blue Ox 2025 coverage preview.
Parr’s discography is quite impressive; a prolific outpouring of music. Mostly in the country blues, folk, and bluegrass scene. He’s been on the road often for the past twenty years. His fifteen studio albums and one EP include: Criminals & Sinners (2002), 1922 (2002), Rooster (2005), Backslider (2006), Jubilee (2007), Roustabout (2008), When the Devil Goes Blind (2010), Keep Your Hands on the Plow (2011), King Earl (2014), Barnswallow (2014), Stumpjumper (2015), I Ain’t Dead Yet EP (2016), Dog (2017), Charlie Parr (2019), Last of the Better Days Ahead (2021) and the aforementioned Little Sun (2024). Parr has also released many live recordings digitally, and I highly recommend you listen to those releases as well.
And via the wonderful Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Parr’s newest album, Rooming House, comes on Friday, October 16th. As the press release for the album notes, “Rooming House unfolds as a collection of interconnected vignettes centered on a shared home and the people who pass through it. Parr’s own experiences, and years spent living in Minneapolis rooming houses, became a catalyst for a larger meditation on economic insecurity in America and the difficult decisions countless people make simply to survive. Those memories inform the detailed settings throughout the album, from communal kitchens and drafty hallways to the makeshift families that formed under one roof. The characters face impossible choices shaped by poverty, illness, unstable housing, and disappearing social services, yet the album is equally concerned with the quiet compassion found in shared meals, borrowed favors, and small acts of generosity that help people endure.” A true conceptual folk opera.
The press release continues, “The album’s title track serves as an introduction to this world, painting a vivid picture and inviting you into a place that feels both deeply personal and universally familiar.” And Parr explains, “‘Rooming House’ is where the listener is introduced to the characters in this musical play while they’re going about a normal evening of preparing food together. A terminal illness is introduced here, too, kind of another character or at least assuming the role of one, when our hero realizes that the pain he’s feeling is more than food poisoning. There are two movements to this song, divided in time by something less than a couple months and on the album by just three songs, and Dave King and I played the entire thing as one song so we had to fade it out in the middle and fade it back in later.”
That being said, the press release concludes, “While the themes may be heavy, Rooming House ultimately finds hope in the humanity of its characters. Parr’s songwriting shines a light on people who often go unseen, revealing how empathy and mutual support can flourish even in the harshest conditions. The result is a deeply compassionate work that refuses to look away from struggle while celebrating the resilience found in everyday lives and the communities built when there is nowhere else to turn.”
And now let’s begin the listening process by starting with some hype for your ears and eyes via the Smithsonian Folkways YouTube channel:
The official video for the titular song, “Rooming House”:
(All credits and rights to Charlie Parr and Smithsonian Folkways)
The visualizer for the song, “(what’s so funny about) Universal Healthcare?”:
(All credits and rights to Charlie Parr and Smithsonian Folkways)
Overall, Rooming House is an excellent concept and execution by Parr. It opens with the tone-setting song, “Duluth 1964,” where Parr wastes no time establishing the setting and some of the characters, quickly developing the tone, and his amazing musicianship is on display for all to hear. He doesn’t showboat; he stays deliberate and still mesmerizes new and long-time listeners as he plays the hell out of his guitar up and down the fretboard with incredible back-and-forth notes that stick with you. The following songs continue to introduce more characters in the room, beautifully shedding light on humanity and the humans themselves. Parr remains an advocate for the working class in his songwriting and storytelling. In some ways, I see Parr as a modern-day Bukowski, advocating for Minnesota and the upper Midwest instead of L.A., and using more eloquent, less colorful, and more respectful language than Charles. The album also feels like it could’ve been part of a historical Lomax recording in how well it captures an American time and its people. Personally, I’ll never get tired of listening to those recordings, and I’m often amazed to discover new ones (to me) and will always love others that advocate and share music of this ilk. And if you’re here, I think you do as well.
On this album, there’s a great deal of relatability for all listeners unless you were born with two silver spoons in your mouth. Then you may not understand how one could struggle, much less empathize with these very real characters and frustrations. Listeners will be captivated throughout the album by its outstanding song compositions, with guitar-driven melodies paired with Parr’s vocal delivery. While many songs have a raucous, relentless edge thanks to their fantastic composition and storycraft, the one that shows Parr most impassioned and outwardly frustrated is the fabulous “(what’s so funny about) Universal Healthcare?” I don’t think it reaches Phil Ochs levels of a call-to-arms political folk activism, or Zohran Mamdani levels of political activism for the better, but it is a damn good song everyone should listen to.
The closing song, “Liliput Park,” is a lovely journey of a song. The longest on the album, it features melancholy, sorrowful strings in a gorgeous way and gives us one last chance to enjoy Parr’s vocals, storytelling, and guitar. I think many will be left wanting more songs.
All that being said, Rooming House gets 4.5 out of 5 Scum Drops from me. The album has a lot to like. The album is deeply empathetic and full of truly fantastic storytelling and musicianship you come to expect from Charlie Parr. The narrative feels like Parr too in the best ways. He gives life and voices to his own experiences and to others’ on behalf. Those who were silenced before are no less deserving of sharing their stories with us. While this concept is a grand one and one of Parr’s biggest in his career in terms of his folk opera epic, it works for Parr. Kudos for planning and executing it this way. Thankfully, this isn’t Metallica trying to play a jazz album. I hope that never occurs, as it couldn’t work. We jazz lovers wouldn’t stand for that abomination, as on the surface it would be beyond their talents and capabilities. I think we could all agree on that.
Back to Parr, the album fits well within Parr’s previous works. I’d say this album slides into the upper third of his current discography, ranking among his best overall releases. Firmly into that 84th-95th percentile of all new albums released this year. View more about our rating scale here. Though the album is of decent length, I wouldn’t have complained if it was a song or two longer.
I’ll always advocate taking the time to listen to every album in its entirety. Listening to Rooming House will take a mere 35 minutes from start to finish, a little more than an hour if you listen twice back-to-back. Along the way, you’ll discover your own favorite songs free from the influence or bias of others. After several listens, I found the songs highlighted in green below to be my favorites on this album.
The tracklist for Rooming House [song length]
- Duluth 1964 [7:32]
- Rooming House [4:24]
- Mother Sara [3:44]
- (what’s so funny about) Universal Healthcare? [3:26]
- Bank Robber [4:16]
- Duluth 2026 [2:55]
- Liliput Park [8:44]
Total runtime: 35:01
For more info about tours, merch, Charlie’s gear, and more, check out his website and his Linktree. To hear more music, check out his Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube pages, and his linked socials: Instagram and Facebook.
Thank you for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews. And all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
