Phil takes things and looks at them in a unique way. I had this group of songs coming out, and they weren’t doing their usual thing. You meet him and you love him and it’s like you never could have felt any other way about him. And I was amazed that it only took you guys a day and half. You’ve said that you recording Stumpjumper with Phil helped you get some songs “unstuck”.

RLR: Phil Cook covered “1922” on his new album, which is so good. When someone wants to cover one of my songs and they call me up and say, “hope you don’t mind” and I think “ Mind? I’m honored.” It’s like you’ve been added into the canon when all you ever really thought about your whole life is music. I’m not naturally territorial or competitive. I’m honored and flattered if someone wants to play one of my songs. RLR: How about when other folks might play your songs-there are different feeling these days on ownership of songs than when Lightnin’ Hopkins was playing. You think they’re done, but they’re really not. Even now with my own songs, I’ll play a show I’ll hit something differently and the song will change a bit. And as a teenager, I was constantly finding these other ways people had done these songs, and it started to sparkle really hard for me. I was a latchkey kid, my dad worked a lot and when he was home, we’d listen to his records. It’s one of the things I got a huge kick out of when I was young. and that is part of the thrill–that there’s always a new way to perform or interpret a song. RLR: I read an interview in which you said, “Songs aren’t ever done they’re in progress” and I wondered how much of that perspective you attribute to the type of music you sort of grew up on, where you can find so many different versions of blues songs, murder ballads, etc. Charlie is an incredible performer, one who traces his musical career back to his father’s record collection of Texas bluesmen like Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and other blues greats like Mississippi John Hurt and Spider John Koerner.

I got a chance to have a brief conversation with him about his music and his new album Stumpjumper that came out last April. Charlie Parr is playing Atwood’s Tavern on November 4th.

Big red button with cover parr