Charlie Parr + Bity Booker | Brighton
Charlie Parr Brighton
Charlie Parr live in Brighton at Green Door Store on 19th May 2026! Get tickets above, or from SeeTickets.
In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.”
With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.
Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spider John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by listening to records and watching musicians he admired.
Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have passed while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr’s sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.
https://charlieparrmusic.bandcamp.com/
+ Bity Booker is an alternative folk musician and visual artist based in Thanet and London. She is a lover of nature, animals and folklore, she writes and sings gorgeous, wistful songs channeling a lyrical folk tradition. Bity doesn’t just perform songs, she casts them. Armed with classical guitar, a voice that sounds like it stepped out of a myth, and lyrics full of animals, dreams, ghosts, and forest whispers, Bity crafts a world that’s both familiar and entirely her own.
Upcoming Love Thy Neighbour shows:
07042026 – Bibi Club. The Prince Albert
17042026 – SUEP. Alphabet
20042026 – Lande Hekt. Prince Albert
22042026 – Oslo Twins. Prince Albert
25042026 – New German Cinema. Folklore Rooms
29042026 – Acid Mothers Temple. Hope & Ruin
01052026 – Love. Concorde 2
02052026 – House of All. Hope & Ruin
05052026 – Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. The Hope & Ruin
07052026 – LYR. Komedia
10052026 – Sean Rowe. Green Door Store
10052026 – Lucrecia Dalt. Chalk
19052026 – Charlie Parr. Green Door Store
02062026 – Real Farmer. The Prince Albert
02062026 – The Bug Club. Concorde 2
04072026 – My Precious Bunny. Revenge
24082026 – Weird Nightmare. Alphabet
10092026 – Ohtis. The Prince Albert
10102026 – A Certain Ratio. Lewes Constitutional Club
22102026 – Kristin Hersh. The Old Market
01112026 – Stu Larsen. The Prince Albert
13112026 – The Boo Radleys. Lewes Constitutional Club
25112026 – Ozric Tentacles. Lewes Constitutional Club
06022027 – Jim Moray. Komedia Brighton
Accessibility: Fully accessible, on one floor. Disabled toilet, ask at bar for key. Full gender neutral toilets. Warning, cobbled floors which are uneven in places. If you require a carer ticket, please contact us at info@lovethyneighbourmusic.co.uk with evidence such as a blue badge or access card. If strobe lighting or standing for long periods of time is an issue, please contact us in advance so we can make arrangements.
Charlie Parr Brighton
Charlie Parr Brighton