CHARLIE ROBERTS DEMO SONGS
Some of Charlie's potential clients ask about getting a demo disk. Because of copyright and publisher right concerns, he doesn't record covers anymore, nor does he place them on his website as much as he did in the past. Besides, he would say, 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 Charlie, the client references, the places one plays and how often one gets invited back are the important factors when gauging the professionality of an entertainer for your special event.
Below are four covers that highlight Charlie's abilities as a one man band using midi sequenced backup tracks.
In addition to performing live, Charlie Roberts is also a studio musician recording his original music, as well as recording for hire. He has placed 21 original songs on his site to allow clients to hear his singing, guitar and piano playing ability. They may not be the particular song style you are looking for, but they do highlight his abilities, which then allows you to check references, sample song lists, and repeat show dates to make a decision based on the whole package.
THE PRESENT
Hi there. I'm Charlie. 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.
Helpless - This is a song I wrote about an old lover looking back with longing at a lost relationship that has married and moved on. The last song I ever wrote in Ormond before moving back to Pensacola.
Nights in Savannah - A song about losing a love to romantic weekend trips to an old southern town.
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...).
Prison of Your Arms - This is a song I wrote about the efforts to free oneself from an emotionally destructive relationship...and the price the struggle exacts.
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 Lynn 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.
Bitch - Every guy has had a psycho like this in his life....this one was mine (CAUTION: VERY EXPLICIT LYRICS).
Celtic Son - A man looks back at his ancestry, feeling the call of the Old Ones.
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 when 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. The hook was inspired by an ABC documentary by the late Peter Jennings.
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 widower, 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 in Holt, just outside of Crestview, Fl.
Pretending - 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 Blake on guitar.
Firestarter - Another one of mine, inspired by a girl I met in Daytona one night while playing in a band 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 first heydays of Donald Trump and company; Sandy does his thing with my lead vocals. The third recording at Soundtrack for the original EP.
Inbetween - Perhaps one of the most popular 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 weekend in Daytona Beach with Sally Lawson from Mount Morris, 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 mutual 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.