charlie dodrill profile picture

charlie dodrill

are you looking at me or at my blog? good call

About Me


Who knew a guitar on a mountaintop would be so useful? When Charlie Dodrill headed to Callao, Utah for two years of solitude, he took few possessions with him to the mountain cabin in the high desert between Utah and Nevada. While the situation might drive some inhabitants to distraction, it drove Charlie, who at the time knew five chords, to his guitar. Soon he was “accidentally” writing songs flowing from the longings and desires built into all of us. When he began actually putting them down on paper, they might have looked a little strange to anyone with musical knowledge. With no guitar training, his early writing included such chords as “smiley face" and "Triangle (still does this, actually)." He noticed that when he sang, parts of his heart that were not open in thinking and speaking, would blossom when letting emotion flow through music. Two years later as he was finishing his monastic experience in a rural corner of Missouri, he began sharing his music with others, at which time he learned that while his journey may have been unique, his songs were far more universal than he'd imagined. A friend coaxed him into a garage studio for an early recording session whose charmingly homemade quality did not deter the many friends who wanted to pass them along to others. Eventually he moved to Nashville and found himself playing in places like the Bluebird Café within a year of arriving. When a girl from Texas passed his CD’s along to the wife of producer, Steve Rosen, there began a conversation that became the first step in the creation of "Prologue to this Drama." The addition of gifted studio musicians like Dave Cleveland and Lisa Cochran and the mixing talents of Ben Fowler meant that this would be no ordinary first album. With lyrics which seek to discover the mortal life from the perspective of an immortal God, even in the midst of a broken world, the songs of "Prologue" have played equally well with "test audiences" in venues from colleges to churches to bars and on radio stations scattered through the U.S. and abroad. He’s taken “Prologue” on tour throughout the U.S. and is currently finishing up his sophomore project, “Eyes of the Exception,” with the usual studio suspects, but adding Dan Needham on drums, Scott Dente and acoustics, and Scat Springs on BGV’s. It’s a fun ride of an album, crossing genres, but still possessing rare depth without taking itself too seriously. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan University, Charlie is a trained fine artist who graduated with a BA in painting and was a record breaking pole vaulter for four years. His fluent Spanish and work with street children led to a senior year spent in Montevideo, Uruguay and a post-graduate stint in Medallin, Colombia, the murder capital of the world. Since then he has traveled extensively throughout India and lived and worked in inner-city Kansas City and Jacksonville, FL. He currently lives in Nashville.My profile was designed by Jeremy Mitchell

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/25/2005
Band Website: charliedodrill.com
Band Members:
Influences: Paul Simon (and Garfunkle too), Lyle Lovett, Kevin Prosch, Dave Matthews, John MayerMore recently, I've been listening to a lot of Matt Nathanson, Jack Johnson, and Jason Mraz. Mat Kearney, the Postal Service, Longview, Beck, Relient K, Sesharetnamma, the Streets, Alexi Murdoch, The Gipsy Kings, Sia, Marcos Witt,Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Paul Baloche, Brian Doerkson, Brian Wilson, The Beatles, Old Crow Medicine Show, Elton John, John Mellencamp, The Format, Carlos Vives, Juanes, Chris Tomlin, John Legend, Stephen Delopoulos, Citizen Cope, Phil Collins, Therese of Lisieux, Keane, Coldplay, Marc Cohn, 5 for Fighting, Joy Williams, Amos Lee, Daniel Powter, Death Cab for Cutie,Nickel Creek, Chesapeake, Matt Redman, Polly Paulusma, Bob Lyon, Indigo Girls, Counting Crows, U2, Flipsyde, David Wilcox, Anberlin, Toad, Rusted Root, Elton John, Peter Gabriel, The artist formerly known as Prince....or presently...who can keep up....wierd, but talented...Milli Vanilli (of course!),Carl Cartee,Jeremy Mitchell, Paul the Apostle, India Aire, Joashua Radin, Josh Rouse, Griffin House, Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, Jason Henderson, Mike Bickle, Terry Bennet, Kip and Kris Unruh, Kings of Convenience, Gabe Dixon, Dispatch, MuteMath, Matt Wertz, Hayley Westenra, Imogen Heap,Me'Shell Ndegocello, The Decemberists, Sting and the Police, , Blues Traveler, Phish, Arrested Development, Josh Kelley,Julieta Venegas, .....like the Replacements...I like a lot of people... Donovan Frankenreiter and Matt Costa. I seem to like a lot of musicians named Matt...Damian Rice. I like Iron and Wine (Can't listen to them very long, but I love them in short doses), Teiter, Dave Barnes, John, Virginia Coalition, Don Chaffer, The Khrusty Brothers, David Gray, Josh Rouse, The Weepies, Colin Haye, the Fray, PAGE FRANCE, Brett Dennen, Rosie Thomas. I don't know how many of these are influences, but that's who I like. I'd like to think my biggest influence is Jesus Christ, seeing how He's IT for me....that would translate into a pretty big influence if I'm paying any attention!
Sounds Like: When people break down and just HAVE to figure it out, here are the names that usually pop up:John Mayer Jack Johnson Dave Matthews Jason Mraz David Wilcox David Gray Paul Simon James Taylor Barenaked Ladies Rob Thomas Rich Mullinsand, most everyone says Ethel Merman!!!! Ha! One Background singer I used told me I sounded like a cross between Cat Stevens and Nina Simone!!! How weird is that?!?!No one has every told me I sound like Lyle Lovett yet, but I'm holding out hope!!! That has changed...someone told me that I did......yes!!!

Click on the covers to buy the cds!!!

Record Label: I'm on a roll...time to go solo
Type of Label: None

My Blog

figured it out

Hey guys,I finally figured out how to upload stuff, so if you want the illustrated (with live flag video) version of the blog, go to www.charliedodrill.com and click on the blog and it will give you t...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:01:00 PST

KC, vacation, flag boy, garden rest, the Lie & the Light, down undah

Hello everyone,Where were we?....Oh yeah, singing at urinals and pringles from the sky....First of all, how are you? How's your mother? That's good to hear (unless either you or your mother is not d...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:19:00 PST

craziness of love, circle of life at the urinal, pringles from heaven

Hey everybody! I've missed you too (and stop sending me nasty e-mails heaping shame and condemnation on me for not blogging ;)&.oh no&the dilemma of putting two regular parentheses in a row to make th...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:32:00 PST

fast and furious

I have 9 minutes to write a blog. I've been getting mean, nasty e-mails from people who want a blog, so......here it comes!Gary Coleman turned 40 last month. I think the shock of this is what has kep...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:25:00 PST

SHHHHOOK, Shack, Shimmy, Awkward gramma moment

So, a friend and I are hiking in the Tennessee hills and we come to a clearing containing a forked tree (this is all after we were picked up by a police-lady....excuse me....police-person, and made to...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:55:00 PST

not nearly as cool as I used to be (what’s so funny?)

I was at a church somewhere on the road and I was sitting beside this 60-something year old Chinese lady who had a Bible in Chinese and everything. She was very nice. When she got up to walk out, I ...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:56:00 PST

Website, sadistic fashionistas, Blind drunk man driving, brambles and lessons

Thing 1. The new website is more fully operational (like the Death Star), so the music is now playing and it says something cool on the tab on your browser and stuff like that...so....new and improv...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:13:00 PST

Tell ’em I said Hi (doh!), sweaty, NEW WEBSITE, FREE CD’s, yelling at cats

"Tell Everybody I said hi!" I just said that to someone who(m) (I just use the parenthesis[ese] because I don't know when to use who or whom, or parenthesis or parenthesese...if you have any advice, ...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:17:00 PST

sad, elderly, attention seeking cat-woman, virb page, i-tunes, website coming soon

Lots to cover...LOTS to cover.Do you want to start with the ridiculous story or with newsy bits?  Newsy bits? O.K., but I make no claim on what bits of the news  they are.....just  so w...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:14:00 PST

sad, elderly, attention seeking cat-woman, virb page, i-tunes, website coming soon

Lots to cover...LOTS to cover.Do you want to start with the ridiculous story or with newsy bits?  Newsy bits? O.K., but I make no claim on what bits of the news  they are.....just  so w...
Posted by charlie dodrill on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:21:00 PST