Reviews
Charlie Brown’s “The Basement Tapes”
A polished, minimal, debut from singer/songwriter Charlie Brown celebrates the light, even when viewed from the darkness. Recorded in one fast move in his basement, the eponymously named “Basement Tapes” features six original tracks and one hauntingly beautiful rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.”
From the opening song “Come On Up”, which sounds like a lo-fi Black Keys tune, Brown’s razor smooth voice carries the album, accompanied by guitar played with raw passion and skill.
The EP is a progression of personal growth, of reflection on the rural landscape of the musician’s home. The tropes associated with youth: love, loss, desire, are there—but never feel saccharine or phony. Maybe it’s because these songs are dually anchored in a reverence and awareness for the hardships of rural life that resonates through the album. “Down the Line” imagines the singer as a high school drop out trying to make amends with a broken past. “Burn” is a heartbreaker of a song, and again, the opening lines reemphasize failure and a desire for flight, freedom from a rough life. The lyrics “I stood with the flame for a while, and walked out the door.” are followed by “There’s no finding me now, so don’t ask yourself how I could run. As those photographs smolder to dust I’m a hundred miles gone.”
On the more upbeat “Heading Out”, the song manages to be both full of hope and a wanderlust while never trying to wipe away the thin layer of dust covering the world the singer inhabits. There’s a maturity to these songs that’s refreshing.
The final track, “Enough” is a true love song: “Let these hard times roll, I’ll break the waves” the singer’s voice cracking like a thrown ember into the dark. And this contrast, where the light casts a shadow and small revelations are explored, this cohesion makes “The Basement Tapes” worth repeated listens.
If there is anything to want for in this release, it’s hard to say. What Brown imagines through guitar, and the faint sweep of a cross harp, feels right for this project. There’s plenty to love about these songs, and what may be more exciting is the possibility of a full album complete with a broader musical arrangement. If the past is an indication of what’s to come, we should all be on the lookout for more music from Charlie Brown.
- Matthew Wimberly
Matthew Wimberley is a poet from North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. His chapbook "Snake Mountain Almanac" was selected by Eduardo C. Corral as the winner of the 2014 Rane Arroyo Chapbook Contest from Seven Kitchens Press. Winner of the 2015 William Matthews Prize from the Asheville Review, and a finalist for the 2015 Narrative Poetry Contest, his writing has appeared widely. His full length collection "All the Great Territories" was a finalist for the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Book Award. Wimberley received his MFA from NYU where he worked with children at St. Mary's Hospital as a Starworks Fellow. You can find him on Instagram at @blueridgepoet.