CHARLIE ROBERTS
DEMO SONGS
Some of my potential
clients ask about getting a demo disk. Because of
copyright and publisher right concerns, I don't record
covers anymore, nor do I place them on my website as
much as I did in the past. Besides, what does a CD
tell you? You don't really know who recorded it, sang or
played the parts, or whether that artist is going to
sound good outside a studio. To me, more important
is the client references, the places one plays and how
often they get invited back.
ONE MAN
BAND
Sharp Dressed Man
THE CHARLIE
ROBERTS BAND
Walk This Way
Bad Case of Loving You
Smoke on the Water
I have been a studio
artist for 15 years, so I have also placed about 20
original songs on my site to allow clients to hear my
singing, guitar and piano playing ability. They
may not be the particular song style you are looking
for, but they do highlight my abilities, then allow you
to check references, sample song lists, and repeat show
dates to make a decision based on the whole package.
THE PRESENT
Since
the late 90's, I have been compiling my original
tunes as I have had time. Below are mp3 samples of
my songs as they are finished.
-
The Way She Looks at Him
Written on the bar top of the old Sir Richard's
lounge in Pensacola, where I played for a year. One
afternoon while sitting at the bar, another Charlie
and I had a contest to write a song on bar napkins
about the barmaid who was serving us, who would then
judge the winner. I won; the napkins ended up in the
storeroom of the bar for two months, where upon my
retrieval of them, I wrote the music and recorded
the song about the third guy down the bar, Joe,
watching the barmaid longingly while she played
darts with her boyfriend. To my knowledge, Joe
never got the girl (and I'm not telling...).
-
Scream From the Dream
Back in 1999 while living on a sailboat in the old
Pitt Slip Marina (now Seville) and playing on the
"Yacht", Deanna Klein collaborated with me on four
tunes based on bits of her poetry. This was
the second one, a song about how the dream of love
becomes a nightmare when physical abuse raises its
ugly head. I wrote the music; she and I wrote the
verses, and I wrote the chorus/hook.
THE PAST
My good friend and
partner Blake Bell and I collaborated
in 1994 as
Ground Zero,
recording the CD "Whistling
Past The Graveyard".
A project that began in 1990 in the old Soundtrack
Studios on Jordan Street in Pensacola, Florida, it was
finished in Cedar Bluff Sound Studios in Holt, Florida
under the engineering direction of Glen Fowler.
With me playing
keyboards, Blake contributing acoustic guitar, both
sharing background vocals, we produced the project,
which Blake took to
Nashville
for mastering, artwork and CD
production. Though each of us brought our own
songs to this production, as well as creating several
new ones together, our partnership's influence touched
everything we produced. A project beginning with
us both in
Pensacola,
then separately in also
Melbourne,
Orlando
and
Ormond Beach
at differing times, traveling back and forth to
Northwest Florida
to complete, this production covered a 5 year period of
time, along with many life experiences for both.
Below are our mp3s of the
Ground Zero
project.
Freedom
The
oldest song on the CD and the first of what was to
originally be a five songs ep
(extended play), this is one I wrote shortly after John
Lennon's death about the memories of famous people
impacting my life who died as I was growing up.
Originally my lead vocal, Blake's was better for this
and is singing the lead on the final take. Sandy Spivey
does the sax work. One of five tunes recorded in the old
Soundtrack Studios in
Pensacola.
Wide Awake
This song
was a collaboration between Blake and I while he was in
Pensacola and I was in Ormond Beach; he supplied the
original theme and I wrote the music and supplied
some supporting lyrics to his. The final song to be
recorded, I was in the process of a bad breakup during
this song's collaboration; the indecision in my life
coming through and melding with his stark concept of not
knowing how to break off a dying relationship. Blake and
I alternate the lead vocals.
Knocking (the abortion
song)
Another
Pensacola/Ormond collaboration; Blake sent me the lyrics
to the Chorus and lyrical parts to this song and one
night, after telling me about a good friend of mine who
ended a bad relationship, had found she was pregnant,
and just had an abortion. The music came quick, along
with the words from the eyes of the lost child. My lead
vocals.
Down and out in
America This
song was one I wrote after the Reagan years after first
coming to
Pensacola.
An almost forgotten song because I wrote it in a key I
could not sing well; Blake saved me with the
crystal lead vocal hook that I could not hit in the
chorus and we decided to put it on the original EP.
Sandy Spivey does the sax. Another Soundtrack recording.
Paul Garcia lent me his Kurzweil for the organ solo at
the end.
Hot August Night
In August of 1993, after
returning to
Ormond Beach,
my former mother in law
Meg Haas died suddenly after a short bout with cervical
cancer. I wrote this song trying to encompass the
incredible grief and loss in the aftermath, combining
the feelings of her widow, her daughter, and myself.
There is one take in existence of me doing the lead
vocals for this, but the song was too emotional for me
to sing for a final take, so Blake comes through with
honors on the disc.
Say Goodbye
A song I
wrote about my love, her daughter, and her daughter's
father. My lead vocals with Sandy Spivey on sax. This
was the first of the recordings made in the new Cedar
Bluff Studios just outside of Crestview, Fl.
Pretending I'm Still
Loving You
A tune I wrote about a
husband who's heart has left
the home, long before his wife faces the truth. My
lead vocals with Walt and Blake along with guitar.
Firestarter another
one of mine, inspired by a
girl I met in Daytona one night while playing on the
beach.
By My Side
A song that
started out as a poem I wrote for a girlfriend while I
was on the road, later putting to music. Sandy
Spivey on sax, and my lead vocals.
Dig
Written by me in Daytona in the early 1980's during the
heydays of Donald Trump and company; Sandy does his
thing with my lead vocals. The third recording at
Soundtrack for the original EP.
In Between
Perhaps one
of the best liked tunes on the cd
by many and another of the original EP 5, Blake wrote
the lyrics and music to this one, and was the only
capable of singing it! His guitar work is there also! I
did the steel drum parts on Yami
rx7. One more Soundtrack recording.
Cherokee
A whirlwind
Spring Break week in Daytona with Sally Lawson from
upstate New York produced two songs for me, "How can I
end these lonely nights", which did not make the
cd, and this song. Her
Native American heritage touched me long after she went
home.
Phantoms in the Night
I wrote this song after a
good friend of mine, Peter Fuentes, tragically took his
life after battling depression. One of our best
friends at the time, John Komara,
also a Vietnam Vet, recounted with me the
haunting of a war never over
in one's mind...one night over the piano, it all came
together for me. My lead vocal;
Sandy's
sax.
Destiny's Way
The final
song of the original EP (and the last recording ever at
Soundtrac),
this is a song that Blake wrote, lyrics and music, with
both of us sharing the vocals. Another kudos to
Paul Garcia's Kurzweil for the keyboard solo and the
horns at the end.
TO RECEIVE A FREE
NO-OBLIGATION RATE QUOTE, PLEASE EMAIL:
charlie@djlivemusic.com
