Charlie Mars

Last updated

Charlie Mars
Charlie Mars 2 Saint Asbury Park LHCollins.jpg
Charlie Mars performing at The Saint in Asbury Park, New Jersey on August 25, 2012.
Background information
Born1974 (age 4950)
Laurel, Mississippi
Origin Oxford, Mississippi
Genres Folk rock, Indie, acoustic
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar
Years active1990s–present
LabelsRockingham Records, Thirty Tigers, V2 North America, Dualtone Music
Website charliemars.com

Charlie Mars is a vocalist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter from Mississippi. [1] [2] Mars has performed at Austin City Limits [3] and South by Southwest. [4] [5] Mars was featured in Esquire Magazine's Songwriting Challenge which he says was his brainchild. [6] [7]

Contents

Early life and education

Mars was born in Laurel, Mississippi and grew up in Oxford and Jackson, Mississippi. [2] [8] Mars' parents are David and Sylvia. Mars has two brothers, Sam and Chad. [8] Mars was transformed to a musician at age 15 or 16, when he heard "Thriller" and "Slippery When Wet". The first Violent Femmes record also figured significantly into his development as a musician. He bought everything that had a similar sound. [9] Mars' family moved to Jackson, Mississippi when he was a senior in high school. He graduated from Jackson Preparatory School in 1992. He was lead singer and guitarist in a band called Adley Madidafus in high school. Mars attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Career

Mars started playing for Jack Ingram in 1992 ("The Charlie Mars Band"). [8]

Mars has a floating, mellow croon combined with sensual soul-rock arrangements. [2] Mars has been compared to Jason Mraz and Josh Rouse, [2] and described as a tougher edged version of Jeff Buckley. [10] Mars says that songs come to him spontaneously, and that he relies on the quality and memorability of the material to remember what he creates. Mars says "...the stuff that's any good I remember, and the crap I just forget. I'm a firm believer in the hypothesis that the good shit sticks." [9]

Personal life

In 2010 Mars said he would like to live in Austin, Texas if not for his then-girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker, actress on West Wing, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Weeds. [11] As of 2012, he was living in Brooklyn, New York. [9] He currently owns a home in Yalobusha County, Mississippi. [12]

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynyrd Skynyrd</span> American rock band

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American Southern rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964. The group originally formed as My Backyard and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass), and Bob Burns (drums). The band spent five years touring small venues under various names and with several lineup changes before deciding on "Lynyrd Skynyrd" in 1969. The band released its first album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), in 1973. By then, they had settled on a lineup that included bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell, and guitarist Ed King. Burns left and was replaced by Artimus Pyle in 1974. King left in 1975 and was replaced by Steve Gaines in 1976. At the height of their fame in the 1970s, the band popularized the Southern rock genre with songs such as "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". After releasing five studio albums and one live album, the band's career was abruptly halted on October 20, 1977, when their chartered airplane crashed, killing Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines; and seriously injuring the rest of the band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grenada, Mississippi</span> City in Mississippi, United States

Grenada is a city in Grenada County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1836, the population was 13,092 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Grenada County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roky Erickson</span> American musician (1947–2019)

Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member and the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Johnston</span> American musician (1961–2019)

Daniel Dale Johnston was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded alone in his home, and his music was frequently cited for its "pure" and "childlike" qualities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Austin, Texas</span>

Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the high volume of live music venues in the city. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international lineups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, Central East Austin, the Red River Cultural District, the Warehouse District, the University of Texas, South Congress, and South Lamar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alejandro Escovedo</span> American musician

Pedro Alejandro Escovedo is an American rock musician, songwriter, and singer, who has been recording and touring since the late 1970s. His primary instrument is the guitar. He has played in various rock genres, including punk rock, roots rock and alternative country, and is most closely associated with the music scene in Austin, Texas but also San Francisco and New York. He comes from a family of musicians.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Dee Graham</span> American musician, guitarist and songwriter

Jon Dee Graham is an American musician, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas, United States. Graham was named the Austin Musician of the Year during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in 2006. He was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times: as a solo artist in 2000, again in 2008 as a member of The Skunks, and again in 2009 as a member of the True Believers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rusty Anderson</span> American guitarist

Rusty Anderson is an American musician best known for his work as lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's touring band since 2001. He has worked with an extensive list of other artists in addition to his own solo career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Hendrix</span> American singer-songwriter

Terri Ann Hendrix is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and independent artist who has been writing and performing an eclectic mix of Americana genre, encompassing folk, pop, country, blues, and jazz, since 1990. Since 1988 Hendrix has been based in and near San Marcos, Texas, living as of 2017 in nearby Martindale, after growing up in San Antonio, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Hawkes</span> American musician

Chris Hawkes is a songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer and producer. Hawkes performs with Miranda Dawn as the duo Dawn and Hawkes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Denim</span> American rock band

White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, United States. Their music is influenced by dub, psychedelic rock, blues, punk rock, progressive rock, soul, jazz, experimental rock with home-based recording, jamming approach, intense looping work and unusual song structures.

The Wagoneers are a neo-traditional country band founded in Austin, Texas in 1986 and now enjoying a resurgence. As innovators who attracted critical acclaim with a fresh, high-energy interpretation of a historical country sound—part honky-tonk and part rockabilly—The Wagoneers influenced other artists and helped lay the foundation for the emerging Americana and alt-country movement of the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears</span>

Black Joe Lewis is an American blues, funk and soul artist influenced by Howlin' Wolf and James Brown. He formed Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears in Austin, Texas, in 2007. In March 2009, Esquire listed Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears as one of the "Ten Bands Set to Break Out at 2009's SXSW Festival."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robby Blackwell</span> Musical artist

Robby Blackwell is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist. He released his first single, "Killer" in 2011, and co-founded the R&B/hip hop ensemble REDi in 2012.

Geoff Marslett is an American film director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His early career started with the animated short Monkey vs. Robot which was distributed internationally by Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation on video and Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in theatres. More recently he directed several successful narrative feature films including MARS, as well as producing and acting in the experimental documentary Yakona. He appears onscreen in Josephine Decker's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely which was released theatrically in 2014. He currently resides in Austin, Texas and splits his time between filmmaking and teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lane</span> American country music singer-songwriter (1939–2015)

Red Lane was an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist who was a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1993). A self-taught musician, Lane began writing songs in the early 1960s and over his career wrote or co-wrote 60 songs that reached the U.S. top 100 country charts. Outside of country music, Lane's songs have been recorded by a diverse group of artists including Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Solomon Burke. He has credits as composer or instrumentalist on at least 386 albums.

References

  1. David Swanson (June 10, 2004). "Big, emotional rock from Mississippi". Rolling Stone. Vol. 950. p. 84.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mikael Wood (July 4, 2009). "Like a Bird, Like a Plane". Billboard. Vol. 121, no. 26. p. 48.
  3. "Austin City Limits Website". Austin City Limits. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  4. "SXSW Schedule". South by Southwest. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  5. "SXSW Schedule". South by Southwest. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  6. Charlie Mars (March 30, 2010). "Back of the Room" – Another Free Song from Esquire". Esquire Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  7. Danny Clinch (April 4, 2010). "The Esquire Songwriting Challenge: "Somewhere in Mississippi"". Esquire Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 Krystal Jenkins (1999). "Charlie Mars and Matt Ulmer: A Biography by Krystal Jenkins (SHS)". Mississippi Writers and Musicians. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 Staff (2012). "Griffin House, Charlie Mars". 88Nine Radio Milwaukee. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  10. Sarah Tomlinson (May 21, 2004). "Charlie Mars V2 records". Boston Globe [Boston, Mass]. Vol. 21. p. E12.
  11. Brian T. Atkinson (April 14, 2010). "Mars finds perfect groove with Esquire sessions". Austin 360. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  12. Hiltner, Justin (August 25, 2023). "Step Inside Charlie Mars' Stunning Yalobusha County, Mississippi Home". The Bluegrass Situation. Retrieved August 26, 2023.