Charlie Parr is a folk and blues musician from Minnesota who has spent roughly two decades drawing on the music of artists like Dave Van Ronk, Charley Patton, Reverend Gary Davis, and Mississippi John Hurt. Parr taught himself to play guitar by listening to records and studying the musicians he admired.
His latest album, Rooming House, is a collection of interconnected stories about people living on the margins—and the ways they take care of one another when they have very little to give.
The idea of community has been part of Parr’s life from an early age. His mother grew up during the Depression and told him stories about communal living. As a child, Parr seemed to take that idea literally. At one point, he nailed a metal “2” to his bedroom door and announced to his family that he lived in Apartment 2 and they were all neighbors.
Years later, while living in a boarding house in the 1980s, Parr saw that same sense of community play out in real life. Despite the financial difficulties everyone faced, the residents became something like a family, helping each other however they could. The characters on Rooming House are composites of some of the people he knew during that time.
The album opens with Duluth 1964, which introduces the residents and establishes the setting. The house belongs to John, who inherited it after his mother abandoned him. When John learns that what he thought was food poisoning is actually a terminal illness, he faces a grim reality — he has no money and no health insurance.
So he comes up with a desperate plan. He decides to rob a bank—not really to steal money, but to get himself arrested so he can receive medical treatment in jail.
It doesn’t go according to plan.
The story unfolds across three songs. In (what’s so funny about) Universal Health Care, John hands the banker a note that reads, “Give me a buck and call the cops.” Despite the album’s darker themes, the song's wry sense of humor offers a brief respite from the weight of the story.
Bank Robber retells the incident from the teller’s perspective. Recalling the strange and unsettling day to someone named Mrs. Moore, the teller remembers a very different note: “I’m sick and I’m tired and I just want some peace.”
Then, in Duluth 2026, John returns to the rooming house, where his roommates offer what they can — comfort, companionship and a reminder to see what tomorrow brings.
The juxtaposition of people living so desperately, but showing genuine concern for each other and sharing what they can to help one another is part of the beauty Parr sees in human nature. It’s a theme Parr has explored before. His 2024 album Little Sun included Stray, a poignant song about people experiencing homelessness. Its message—help one another, carry one another’s burdens—runs through Rooming House as well.
Musically, the album is stripped down. There are no big choruses or obvious hooks. Parr plays his custom nine-string resonator guitar, accompanied by Dave King, best known for his work with The Bad Plus and Happy Apple, on percussion. The sparse arrangements leave plenty of room for the stories—and for the humanity at the center of them—to come through.
We’ll be playing tracks from Rooming House on Open Air and The Folk Show on the Rhythm and News Service of JPR.
