Nick Charles

Fingerstyle Roots and Blues

See December shows on the Gig Guide page- just listed!

Please email pac50@bigpond.net.au to be kept up to date with Nick's gigs and other news.

“Guitar Music” out now on

Secure Online Sales now available here!

Black Market Music …Go to https://www.blackmarketmusic.com.au/newa.html

Also available on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kufUC4TgHeOPu8OB7vzxg

Have a look at Nick's YouTube Channel and Subscribe. These were recorded with good audio in mind so do yourself a favour and listen through some good speakers or headphones! You can also enjoy these at full-screen resolution.

CD REVIEW NICK CHARLES – ‘Guitar Music’ released 15 June 2020

I could listen to Nick Charles play guitar all night. And lately I have been doing just that, with his latest CD Guitar Music playing on repeat ad infinitum. There is no doubting Charles is a master of the acoustic guitar and his albums are always sublime showcases of how sweet the instrument can sound in the right hands. His latest offering doesn’t disappoint on that front and is as good as anything Charles has released to date. If not better, if that is possible. Put simply, it’s just great listening. This is not a blues album per se, but there is some great blues on this recording. It includes a spectacular tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, with a beautiful rendition of the classic Monday Morning Blues. There is also a clever tribute to Duane Allman as well as some very cool renditions of long-loved guitar instrumentals and standards. There are eight Charles originals on this album and all superb. We are also reminded how accomplished he is as a vocalist on some tracks – most particularly on a beautiful song he co-wrote with his sister Paulette Gittins all about their mother. Charles had the good sense to invite his friends from the folk world to collaborate on this record. Bassist singer Liz Frenchman and dobro playing Pete Fidler are both well known in the Australian folk music scene and contribute some excellent music here. Frenchman even wrote one of the tracks. Anyone who has seen Charles play live knows just how good he plays. With some artists and some recordings, that great vibe is not always captured in the recording studio. Not so with Charles and particularly this album. It’s like having him play a parlour concert right in front of you. Nick Charles is a finger picking guitarist of the highest order and Guitar Music is testament to that. I love this laidback, beautiful new album from a true maestro. You will too. - Reviewed by Chris Johnson

RHYTHMS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020

REVIEW OF “GUITAR MUSIC” BY TONY HILLIER

Those who have seen him perform live over the past 30 years or so, listened to his recordings or read his excellent Rhythms column will be well aware of Nick Charles’s considerable prowess as an acoustic guitar finger-picker and his expertise over a wide range of roots music.

The Victorian’s penchant for producing engaging and eclectic albums that encompass folk, blues and beyond is endorsed by Guitar Music, in which eight of his own compositions are scattered among immaculately delivered covers of Davey Graham’s well- thumbed solo study “Anji”, Duane Allman’s “Little Martha”, Mississippi John Hurt’s “Monday Morning Blues”, John Fahey’s “Last Steam Engine Train” and the Farina Brother’s standard “Sleepwalk”.

Vocally, Charles excels on a lovely song co-written by his sister that chronicles their mother’s journey “from sadness to happiness”.