Sunday, January 15, 2012

Charlie Collins & Friends LP on the Royal American label



Charlie Collins passed away Thursday, January 12th. So, I thought I`d post this LP he made in the 1970`s. Charlie did have a cd out with this title, and some of these songs are on it, but not all the titles are the same.
Charlie played guitar for Roy Acuff, starting in about 1967 till Roy passed away. Also, Bashful Brother Oswald and Charlie made a team of their own that toured some by theirselves for many years. Charlie was one of the best rhythm guitar players. He was also a flat picked guitar virtuoso. He was also quite good on fiddle and mandolin and was a good singer.
I met Charlie several times in the last 8 years or so, and he was a great guy. One of the nicest, most polite people I ever met.
There is one thing a lttle odd about this LP. They misspelled Charlie`s first name as Charley. Oh Well, everything can`t be perfect!



Click here to download Charlie Collins & Friends

10 comments:

  1. I never heard of this man, but what a great recording ! Thanks for sharing this !

    kindest regards

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  2. Charlie Collins' passing is a loss for those who love old-time country and related musical forms. As you note, he was an amazingly gifted musician, and a genuinely nice person (the kind of musician Ralph Stanley values highly, he always notes that the person is not only a gifted musician, but as importantly - if not more so - a genuinely good person). As I write this I am listening to his great work on the tune 'Ft. Smith' from one of his collaborations with Brother Oswald. I remember seeing Collins with Acuff's band - Acuff was singing 'Night Train to Memphis' and Collins took a guitar break in the middle of it that had me spellbound - simple and elegant, yet not by any means simplistic. I think this was his greatest asset as a musician. He could have dazzled us with amazing licks strung together, and yet it seems his work always had one purpose - to make the aural experience of the piece better and to draw attention to the beauty of the music versus drawing attention to his instrumental virtuosity. I recently had a conversation with Bob Black who played banjo for Monroe for a couple of years. He said that Monroe communicated this idea to him and that it was one of the most important things he learned from his time as a Blue Grass Boy.

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  3. Yes Joe, talent, imagination and ability ain`t worth poop if you don`t have taste!

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  4. Yes, and that is regrettably lost on many musicians across the genres, but it seems even more so at times among those in bluegrass and its musical cousins. Anyone who has ever been a jam session can attest to the at times tasteless stringing of one hot lick after another in a game of oneupmanship that seems to frequently raise its ugly head.

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  5. To Allens Archive,
    I have tried to send you an e-mail to this address which I found on your complete profile. banjothumper@yahoo.com
    But after a few seconds the send mail came back as undeliverd. How els can I reach you? Paul

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  6. Hello Paul, I have no idea why the email is doing that to you. The address is correct. Post your email on here and I will email you. I understand if you don`t want to post that information on here, I won`t post any other information myself---Allen

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  7. Allen, you're right that it is not smart to put my e-mail address here. I will try your e-mail address again at another moment. Are you under the same or other name maybe on facebook? Paul

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    Replies
    1. Dear Alen,

      In your Allen’s Archive I found your Charlie Collins & Friends + the Onie Wheeler LP’s.
      I wanna tell you that I was very pleased with it that I had a chance to download them. Thanks for it. Great music!!!!

      After downloading them, I took out all the scratches and clicks. I made every song with a 0.5 seconds clean start without all the LP noise (clicks). I also made the end of both LP’s free from noise (clicks). That means that both of the LP’s have now a fresh start and end.

      Later I will send you the LP’s back (clean) to this e-mail address from you with WeTransfer.

      I hope you like it.

      Paul

      This morning I have tried (without success) your e-mail address banjothumper@yahoo.com again for sending the LP’s back to you.

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  8. Boy Paul, I can`t imagine why the email isn`t working for you. People email me privately from the blog all the time. Thanks for the work on the clicks and such, but don`t go to the trouble of that for me. I mess with 78`s all the time, so a little noise don`t bother me, lol.

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