Julie Katz

Halifax

Canada

www.calls-to-nothing.com

“'Til I Come Back Again”

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Feb 3, 10

Charlie Faye: Wilson St.

Charlie Faye

With her debut album WILSON St, New York born singer/songwriter Charlie Faye makes a brilliant tapestry of her living experience in Austin, Texas, the sanctuary music city. Charlie Faye’s musical career began in her hometown of New York where she fronted a band called The Jerks, and toured as a side person with Dan Zanes and Friends, playing guitar, mandolin, and vocals. She moved to Austin a few years ago in search of a change of scenery, seeking some new inspiration and a sense of community, which she was quickly enveloped by Austin’s vibrant local music scene and found herself collaborating with local and traveling musicians alike.

The name of her album came from when she ended up on Wilson Street, an area long called home by Austin musicians in the neighborhood’s small affordable cottages.   On Wilson Street, Charlie Faye found her home, as well as her cause, among the run-down cottages that served for decades as a sanctuary for the city’s musicians. When the neighborhood was to be destroyed by a local developer, Charlie single-handedly fought back and devised a plan to relocate the affordable cottages instead. She had discovered magic in that musical enclave, a magic that had been present for generations, and she was not willing to let it go. Her community needed her to save it and she rose to the challenge. An Austinite for two short years, Charlie’s undeniable presence has already left a mark, both on ‘Wilson Street’ and city wide, through music and activism.

The album WILSON St was produced on Wine & Nut Records by Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio. Charlie Faye (guitar, lead vocals) is joined on the record by Will Sexton (bass, guitars, background vocals), David Holt (guitar) and Rick Richards (drums), there are also a tremendous number of musicians who contribute on a song or two such as Gurf Morlix and Abra Moore.

Many of the songs on the debut album were composed on Charlie’s old Gibson in her cottage on that very street and, in true bohemia fashion, are organic and candid. The album features Charlie’s sultry voice and as those many singers, there is something unidentifiable in her voice, some kind of “secret ingredient” that certain singers, such as Shannon McNally have that others don’t; Seems she has captured in her voice the essence and the spirit of her adopted home town. The songs touch on things such as young love, passing time by way of using a bottle and how love can make you act in ways that you know are wrong. Listen to “Coward’s Lament,” a wistful, crooning tale of love’s weakness, be sure you will love it and will wake up tomorrow with it in your head.

This month, Charlie Faye is set to embark on “Travels With Charlie,” an ambitious ten-city tour, during which she will spend one month in every city, establishing a temporary home in each location along the way. The tour will enable the artist to become a part of the local community, set up residencies, form a new band in each city and ultimately record a song with the band before leaving for the next stop.

Of the new tour, she says, “Rather than spending one night in each town, I thought ‘what if I were to spend a month in each place’? I could tour regionally out of each town, but actually get to spend time in a place and get to know it and the people who live there. I could create ten homes along the way.”

So, don’t wait and check out these dates:

01. She’s Gonna Go

02. Coward’s Lament