Charlie Roth's last CD ‘Rogues of St. Germain’ which features most of the members of Jonny Lang’s old touring band, Bruce McCabe, Billy Thommes and Paul 'Stretch" Diethelm who co-produced along with Andy Dee. Tim Haussner and Mike Miller from Friends of Yoder co-wrote the song 'Melancholy Jamboree' and sang support vocals. With the release of the new CD 'Tavern Puzzles', singer songwriter Charlie Roth continues to draw from the Roots Americana tradition. It features the talents of world renowned mandolin and fiddle player Sam Bush on 6 of the tracks and one of Minneapolis's and the world's best drummers Michael Bland on 5. Produced by twin cities slide guitar great Andy Dee along with recording engineer Chris Zann. Support vocals features Phil Solem of The Rembrandts and JD Steele. The record also features the talents of Gary Currie on accordion, Gary William Currie passed from this earth Oct. 25th after several hard fought battles against alcoholism. Gary had been a mainstay in Charlie's live show for more than a year. Charlie says "he was a true virtuoso of the instrument; it just sounded great on everything. Ironically the song that we wrote together is called 12 Step Tango and is about relapse. Gary and I wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics about Gary it was hard to watch him struggle and I knew how hard he tried, but in the end he was so tired of fighting he just gave up. I think our song will give people hope and strength to keep fighting at least I hope it will."Charlie is a full time working musician who stays busy almost every night of the week. Living on a horse boarding farm north of St. Cloud Minnesota with his wife and family. "I have made a living here because of the area and because I am good at what I do, I never get tired of it. I hope I will always have the strength to play music, I believe it is the fountain of youth. Unlike allot of songwriters I don't have to tour to make money playing music. I know thousands of songs in most of the genres and I can use that as a songwriter. I often times will be writing and suddenly realize I am borrowing from some classic song and I will always stop short of plagiarism. It is like paying tribute to one of my heroes."About the posted songs;
Tavern Puzzles was written at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas allot of great songwriters made suggestions to help shape the song but it was David Glaser from Baltimore who helped with the chords and wrote the bridge progression. It is a complex lyric I guess part of which I stole from one of my early songs. My biggest thrill was getting Sam Bush to play mandolin on this and Andy Dee my producer added a great dobro part. It is not about anyone in particular but bar romances in general and the dangers and/or pleasures that await you when you meet someone.Bed of Coals came over the telephone in a conversation with my old guitar buddy Howard Meuret. He said that his mother Ruth had said that old love was like a bed of coals and burned hotter that a new fire just that the flames are not as visible. I told him that that I thought it would be a great song and grabbed my pen. I wrote the bridge part the day we recorded it, the song took me 5 days of almost constant focus and then went to tape or computer as the case may be. Sam Bush played fiddle and JD Steele did 15 part harmony with himself! it was a wonder to behold. JD is part of Prince's camp you could tell he had been doing this awhile. Michael Bland also of Prince's camp and currently is a member of Soul Asylum played the drums on this track. All I can say is that to record with guys at that level you don't have to say much. I truly am a lucky man.Star Motel is a remake of one of my earlier songs many consider it to be one of my best. Being a barroom player is second nature to me, it is something I have done my whole adult life. These days it is a balancing act of covers to keep the drunks happy and originals to keep me happy. I know that most musicians at every level of this game can relate to a bad bar gig and a seedy hotel on the road. I think the song sums that up pretty well but also points out that it is something that I choose to do, frankly I wouldn't have it any other way. The late Gary "King Squeeze" Currie was partly the reason I rerecorded this tune. He played so brilliantly live on this and it was one of his favorites and you could tell. I would get goose bumps from him when he played sad stuff. I think we captured that here. Sam Bush also did a fine job, I had told Sam that the lyric quotes the dreaded Brown Eyed Girl and to quote it on the mandolin right after. This is his second take, Sam used the song as a motif throughout the track, and it is subtle and brilliant.The Goddamn War is a true life story of my mom and dad's fear and dread at the thought of my brother John going off to Iraq. It is sometimes perceived as an anti war song but I don't see it that way. It is an anti religious fundamentalism song I guess but mostly it is a prayer with a swear word in it and as far as I know it is the only one. Bruce McCabe who is known mostly for his work with Jonny Lang (Minnesota knows that that is not the only band he was in) played piano and did the intro on a 100 year old pump organ. He had to navigate allot of sour notes and the part he played was odd and beautiful. My guitar hero and long time friend Paul "Stretch" Diethelm played some wicked good country guitar as well.Waiting was written in Minot North Dakota at the height of my despair over the seemingly inevitable break up of my marriage. My wife and I seemed to be living on two separate planets. I was in mid-life crisis. I put the lyrics under her pillow and it caused us to finally talk about our problems and today we are more in love than ever. Once again I believe that I am one of the luckiest people ever. I fell in love in my later years with my wife and got to keep the farm. Donnie LaMarca played some fine piano along with Andy Dee's usual magic lap steel work. Phil Solem of the Rembrandts did an amazing job on the backup vocals.Troubadour was written after my first trip to Folk Alliance in Memphis, the sheer number of songwriters who are great is staggering. I have been involved for many years with a group of people that brings some of these folks to our town. Many of them are the openers who are living in their cars and sleeping on couches all over the country. Danny Schmidt ended up to be the subject of the song. He flew in from Texas to Minneapolis rented a car drove to St. Cloud to open for Kelly Jo Phelps for 50 dollars!! later Danny and I jammed at my gig and I gave him another fifty and he crashed on my couch. he was up early and off to Chicago before the house woke up. My heart goes out to Danny and all the people who have the guts and belief in themselves to do that. Sam Bush was amazing on this track we were going to use drums but after Sam got done it did not need it. Gary Currie played a great accordion part as well.Troubadour
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