by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
WHO: Charlie Louvin
WHERE: Cafe Eleven, St. Augustin
WHEN: Thursday, May 31st
When I called up country music legend Charlie Louvin’s cell, he was fishing. So between bites, we chatted about his first studio album in ten years, If Only in a Song. Charlie, who is 80 years old, is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He’s been an important country artist for 65 years, and counting. His career dates back to when he and his brother Ira performed as the Louvin Brothers back in the early1940s. Of course, WWII put a big hole in the Louvin Brothers’ career from 1941, when America entered the war, until 1945 when the war ended.
Back then, brother duos were all the rage, such as the Monroe Brothers and the Delmore Brothers. The Louvin Brothers dominated the charts in the early 1950s.
Interestingly, Charlie and Ira recorded hits in country, gospel, folk, hillbilly, and 1950s pop. But as a solo artist, Charlie settled into country music as his bread-and-butter genre. In 1955, the Louvin Brothers joined the Grand Ole Opry, where they performed with great acclaim until 1963. Tragically, Ira was killed in a 1965 car crash. After that, Charlie went solo, writing many hit songs for other performers and himself. Charlie recorded with Capital Records until 1972. During that time, Charlie had two top ten hits, ‘I Don’t Love Her Anymore’ and ‘See The Big Man Cry’. More importantly, Charlie had many minor hits, while other performers made hits out of his songs. Charlie continued to record on various labels through the 1990s.
When I asked Charlie what made him jump back into the game after a long hiatus, he made it clear to me that he never retired or quit.
“I finally found a record company that had distribution so that I could go out and play some dates to promote the product and know that the album was available nationally at anywhere records were sold. But I continue to play as many gigs as I want. From 2000 to just before I released the album, I had cut back a bit, and it has been ten years since I released an album, but I’ve always been working as a performing artist.”
“We are playing St. Augustine, Orlando, and Tampa on the Florida segment of my tour. I’m finding that the young people really like my songs, which I sing in the same style as I did years ago. This is very gratifying for me to communicate musically with today’s young people. On the new album, If Only in a Song, I wrote one song dedicated to Ira, my late brother. But the songs are classic hits from the Carter Family, and many of my old friends from the old days. On the Circle of Friends cut, Dolly Parton and Alison Kraus performed. I’m very proud of this album,” Charlie said.
Indeed, Charlie is an inspiration for my campaign against ageism in our society. By performing for young people, he is both a living example of a person in his eighties still plying his craft, and his songs go directly to a person’s psyche. In other words, music is a special means of communication that bypasses the BS and goes directly to a person’s consciousness. In this way, our youth learn that older people can still have their careers and still do important things in our society. Seeing musical legends like Charlie Louvain gives everyone hope and helps to abolish age prejudice.
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