Charlie Parr – Hollandale

5 stars out of 5
Though he isn’t quite a local musician, Charlie Parr deserves some recognition. Alongside Alan Sparhawk, Parr’s instrumental release, Hollandale, is nothing less than incredible. The guitar is simply a pen, crafting wordless, primal tales of journey and the validity of man. This is the sound that defines solitude as a savage desire, the absolute and necessary drive to step the rope and continue onward. This is the amalgamation of the words of Whitman, Emerson, Kerouac and Alexander Supertramp, to see the sky without another light to distract from the stars. His sounds are nearly haunting in their resilient pursuance of what lies at our core, this ethereal battleground of authentic aspiration versus familiarity and comfort.  It is surely an extraordinary feat to capture such intangible inclinations with only sound.