BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//GayOut//Event Export//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:386795@gayout.com DTSTAMP:20261102T185923Z DTSTART:20261119T193000Z DTEND:20261119T000000Z SUMMARY:Charlie Parr at Higher Ground DESCRIPTION:All Ages\\n—\\nBeloved Minnesota songwriting troubadour Cha rlie Parr doesn’t have dental insurance\\, like so many in the United S tates. So when he needed dental work\\, he had to figure out how to respo nd to a hefty bill. “You know\\, I’ve got a few guitars and a big rec ord collection\\, so I started selling stuff off to be able to pay off th is dental bill because I had to get them fixed.” This experience inspir ed him to start writing the song cycle and as-yet-unfinished novella that became Rooming House\\, a conceptual folk opera that chronicles the live s of Upper Midwesterners through his quietly raucous\\, deeply rooted\\, and empathetic blues sound.\\nWhen Parr first moved to Minneapolis from A ustin in the 1980s\\, he lived in rooming houses. “I loved them so much . I really did. It was just a really interesting\\, wonderful bunch of pe ople that I got to know. It felt like this strange family. You had a cros s-section of everybody in these houses.” Parr’s lyrics ensure that yo u can picture these people and spaces—the shared kitchens\\, the makesh ift family\\, the efforts to keep warm. The first single “Rooming House ” sets the scene\\, with imagery and detail that one can clearly pictur e.\\nThese are indelible songs of lost memories and hardship\\, but also of acts of empathy and helping neighbors make do\\; of taking each other in. “The characters in the songs all along have been loosely based on c omposites of people I’ve met\\,” says the songwriter. “I got to thi nk about those folks. I don’t remember anybody ever not using the free clinic\\, which doesn’t exist anymore\\,” he remembers. He writes in a poem included as liner notes\\, “These folks here\\, in this record\\ , have no idea what’s wrong. Or how to help. I know people who can’t afford to see a doctor. I’ve heard them talking about ‘toughing it ou t\\,’ or seeking advice about home remedies that will never work. I hav e a friend who knows someone who does his own dental work.”\\nFor insta nce\\, the character John\\, an orphan whose story Parr builds throughout Rooming House\\, tries home remedies in the album’s second single\\, (what’s so funny about) Universal Healthcare?” When they don’t wo rk\\, decides to get caught robbing a bank (“Bank Robber”)\\, figurin g there are doctors in jail. He hands the teller a note that reads\\, “ I’m sick and I’m tired and I only want some peace.” In the lush and light “Duluth 2026\\,” the cops take him back to the rooming house a nd charges aren’t pressed.\\nLiving in a rooming house on Minneapolis West Bank\\, Parr would see local legends Dave Ray\\, “Spider” John Koerner\\, or Willie Murphy any night of the week. He soaked up an earth y\\, blues-driven sound. He plays a modified Gretsch twelve-string guitar that belonged to Koerner (tuned to either open C or standard) as well as a nine-string Mule resonator on two songs (tuned to open D). Of the reso nator\\, he says\\, “It gives you this Big Joe Williams kind of jangly\ \, weird\\, slightly off-kilter vibe.”\\nTo depict characters who had t o improvise their health care and lives\\, Parr decided that a more spont aneous recording approach made sense. Jazz drummer Dave King (The Bad Plu s\\, Happy Apple) accompanied him on the sessions\\, putting Parr’s gui tar and King’s drums in musical dialogue. Each recorded take differed.\ \nThe narrative thread takes a breather with the twangy and hysterical (what’s so funny about) Universal Health Care?” Yet even that song i s from the main character’s point of view.\\nRolling Stone has called P arr’s music “a gritty blend of Delta blues and Depression-era roots m usic soaked in his hardscrabble voice. It’s a sacred realm of folk wisd om and sorrowful vulnerability.” NPR said he offers “expertly-picked resonator guitar and lyrics that puncture the soul.” Parr tours prolifi cally\\, and has performed at tastemaker events like the Newport Folk Fes t and Pickathon.\\nThe Duluth-based guitarist\\, songwriter\\, and interp reter of traditional music has released twenty albums over two-and-a-half decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows\\, writing and rewriting songs as he plays\\, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead B elly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of bl ues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continu er of a folk tradition.\\nParr’s mastery of his craft is only more appa rent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition to which Pa rr has dedicated his practice. The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him\\, from the hills and valleys of Ho llandale\\, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father.\\nBe fore he was even ten years old\\, Parr was rummaging through his father s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves and listening to country\\, folk\\, and blues legends\\, many of whom ar e staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonato r or 12-string\\, you can hear influences like Koerner\\, Mance Lipscomb\ \, Charley Patton\\, Rev. Gary Davis\\, Dock Boggs\\, Doc Watson\\, and B ooker White.\\nParr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways\\, Last of the Better Days Ahead (2021)\\, foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship an d sophisticated bluesman confidence\\, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his blues poetry. In his 2024 r elease\\, Little Sun\\, Parr weaved together stories celebrating music\\, community\\, and communing with nature. In doing so\\, he put forth an a mbitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr’s sound: his b lend of the blues and folk traditions with the steadfast originality of a poet. Now\\, he continues that tradition with 2026’s poignant and time ly Rooming House\\, which joins the chorus of WPA-era socially-conscious folk operas and outlaw country concept albums of the 1970s to poignantly allegorize his experiences and the experiences of the people around him.\ \nhttps://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/burlington/events/charl ie-parr-at-higher-ground-2026-11-19 LOCATION:UVM Prism Center URL:https://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/burlington/events/charlie-parr-at-higher-ground-2026-11-19 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR