Home Through The Streets was the third vinyl by Australian Blues Rocker, Michael Charles. Released originally in 1986 tunes from Home Through The Streets charted in Charles' homeland. In keeping with the intentions of MC's record labels, Moonlight Label in the USA and Newmarket Music in Australia, to re-release all of MC's former recordings, Home Through The Streets took on a special path. When Michael was asked to perform the greater state of Arizona's Blind and Deaf Children's foundation fundraiser, it was then decided that a limited edition of Home Through The Streets would be released to commemorate, celebrate, and to help raise funds for this worthy charity. In addition to the original album, the 2008 CD version of Home Through The Streets will include new versions of three of the original songs on the album, plus three live bonus cuts. This special edition release date is scheduled for November 2008 and will bear the logo of the Arizona Blind and Deaf Children's foundation. Fifty percent of the profits will be given directly to the foundation.

Can they play the blues in Australia? After listening to this CD the only answer I can give is HELL YES! Michael Charles plays straight ahead blues like he was straight from the Mississippi Delta. Songs like The Tune (the chords my daddy taught me) and Jumbo (a catchy blues instrumental) show Michael is equally at home with both acoustic and electric blues. Charles can do more than boogie though. "One Two Ten" is a slow Claptonesque blues instrumental. "I Can't Hear Our Song" displays a bit of Neil Young influence- and is all of 26 seconds long. There's even an instrumental reprise- which is also 26 seconds long. Certainly Michael Charles plays by nobody's rules. That's a good thing for us, as it makes for inventive, infectious music. There's even a country blues anthem of sorts, "Gave It All Away," that has a very catchy melody. This collection of 15 varied blues tunes is recommended.

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Last night (04-15-0 I had the priviledge of catching bluesman Michael Charles jamming live at The Elbo Room on Lincoln & Diversey in Chicago.
Having been a young kid on the South Side way back, and then having been moved to the west burbs, I'd say I've gotten a unique appreciation for things with a "Chicago flavor" to them, for example the buildings in the city.
I just love the older feel to them, the way they're built, the history that just emenates from them. And having lived for so long "just out of reach" of them, it's also a bit of a nostalgic feel as well.
Such was the case last night at The Elbo Room. From the front, even if you know what to be looking for, you just might miss it, that's how small the front is. I got lucky and after driving a block past I found THE last empty parking spot WITHOUT a meter on it!
Crossing the street, I opened the door and went inside, up the couple of stairs into the bar. At first I was thinking perhaps this was the wrong venue: certainly a band couldn't be playing HERE. This bar wasn't much bigger than my friends' family room in their house. I told the kid watching the door that I was looking for the Michael Charles show, and he then informed me that the downstairs door would be opened at 9:00. Ok, well, that answered that question.
The aforementioned door led literally to the basement: small, cramped, making the absolute MOST of the minimal space underneath the building, and complete with the at-first musty smell that served to remind you that yes indeed you were beneath ground-level. Some might find it claustrophobic. Some might be "artistically put-off" or even insulted to be in such a confine. Not me, brother. This was Chicago, this was a part of the core that makes Chicago what it is to me. Next to come would be another staple of Chicago: good blues music.

I had the time and opportunity to meet Michael before the show, and introduce myself to him in person. I've been playing his music on my radio show "Damn Right I've Got The Blues" for a couple of weeks now, and just last week devoted just over an entire hour of my two-hour show to songs from his new album "I'm Nobody's Fool". Michael is a very cool, very open, down-to-earth regular guy, and we hit it off immediately. I also was introduced to Laura, one of Michael's assistants at Moonlight Label; shortly after, the band took to the stage and began warming up, and without flare or fanfare jumping right into the show.

Autralian-born Michael Charles has been living in the U.S. for about 20 years now, having come here to play at the invitation of none other than Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy himself, to play at Buddy Guy's Legends. Now, one might think that in twenty years, any artist would be clamoring for the bright lights offered by one of the largest cities in the world. Some do, but that's for those who are in it for the money. Sure, the money's good, but what it all boils and distills down to is the music. Unless you're The Stones, nobody will pay to come see you perform like crap.

Distilled down to just the music and the good feeling from it was exactly what this night was. The environment was perfect for this: the dark, enclosed basement space, leaving barely 55 ft between the bar in the bar and the tiny riser devoted to being the stage; the black-painted walls and ceilings; the arm-rest sized tables with two stools apiece, stationed at every concrete support column...
I have always noticed an overlooked trait that seems inborn in Chicagoans, and that is the ability to make the absolute most of the tiniest cramped basement spaces.

If your idea of a live show is perhaps Slipknot moshing all over a concert stage, or even Van Halen or KISS running amok in an auditorium, then you'd be shocked to be at a show like this. There was scarcely room on this stage to contain all six musicians, let alone comfortably. But this isnt about theatrics or acrobatics. This is the blues. And the bl