Country flavored folk and honky tonk blues mark Charlie Strater’s third CD. Simply titled Charlie Strater, the singer-songwriter, who in previous CDs wrote most of his town racks, made full use of the best known songwriters in his New Hampshire seacoast music scene.
Strater opens with a spirited version of Kenny Girard’s “Honk-Tonk Man.” The vivaciousness sets the vibe for the rest of this album. Strater has down home fun with a hillbilly beat, and he manages to make the narration full and exciting with his gritty vocal approach. It’s a little bit country in a twangy guitar, a little bit rock and roll in an edgy guitar.
“Devil In Me,” by Carl Cacho, features Strater’s southern inflected crooning over sweet pedal steel. Fiddler Joyce Andersen, another Portsmouth area superstar, makes her way in and around the guitar melody with an adept light touch, makeing this song feel breezy and feisty at the same time. A lot of Straters’s textures that follow are born out of this contrast between sweet and edgy instruments, especially from his solid rhythm guitar against the fiddle and or pedal steel.
Strater takes his time unfolding Matt Shipman’s “Perfect Combination,” a tale of meeting a girl who is part-redneck, part- sophistication. The gravel in Strater’s voice again contrasts perfectly with Andersen’s sweet fiddle and Bruce Derr’s pedal steel. This song has a special charm all its own, and Strater successfully milked it for all its worth with his warm husky vocal take.
The Bob Dylan song “Down In The Flood” gets a Strater style folk-rock treatment. Producer Jon Nolan plays some nifty honky-tonk guitar phrases over some beefy organ work from Andrew Bowen of local R&B band One Hand Free.
Strater’s “It’s Easy To Sing The Blues” has an authentic vintage acoustic blues feel. The song discusses Robert Johnson and the 12 bar as Strater cleverly juxtaposes some heartbreak images to his history lesson. Voila, a blues song that suceedes on presentation and lyrics is born.
“Don’t Make Me Go To Wakefield,” another Strater original, has plenty of tasty blues guitar and organ from Aaron Katz overlapping each other. The result is a fully organic sound that has momentum and plenty of space for Strater to ride to the top and take command. This one makes it on song structure and pure talent, and it’s good to see Strater’s own work fitting in so well with the tastefully selected material from the other songwriters.
Since Nolan is producer, it is no surprise to see one of his songs on this disc. “Come Back Celia” has a nice drum propulsion from PJ Donahue and a kick from bassist Dan Walker that moves it along with a solid two-step shuffle beat.
Harvey Reid’s “Lullaby” makes for another positive addition to Strater’s album. Stand up bass keeps the beat while acoustic blues guitar and some slow, grinding electric blues guitar do their thing to keep it lively and festive. Strater is still the boss, though, and he makes this one, as active as it is, distinctly his.
“Freak Show” features a rocking beat, fetching fiddle work, and hearty rhythm guitar making their mark in this instrumental jam. Strater and his band get edgy again here with Andersen playing a mean fiddle over knobby bass and Strater’s aggressive rhythm guitar.
Strater closes out with the sad, hauntingly beautiful “Forgetting Caroline,” a bittersweet ode to a lost love. Written by Kenny Girard, Strater sounds grittily handsome on this. He hits the heart here more tenderly than any of the songs that came earlier. The pedal steel melody creates a sweet melancholic beauty that blends in perfectly with Strater’s acoustic. It is a brief song, but it leaves the listeners feeling satisfied in that it uses another color on the pallet to dive deeper into Strater’s ability to project true emotional content.
Strater has recorded a dandy of an album. www.myspace.com/charliestrater
