YORTON - If you like the blues the City Limits Inn in Yorkton will be the place to be April 11.
That is the night Michael Charles and his Band will be performing.
The Yorkton stop is part of Charles 18th international tour; ‘Guitars, Music and Miles 2025’ which will take him to the far corners of the USA, Canada, and Australia.
Charles is originally from Australia, but fully evolved as a blues man upon a move to the United States where he has resided for some 30 years.
“When I was living in Australia the blues scene was there but it was a small thing,” he told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview. “Now it’s just as big as anywhere else.”
Once arriving stateside, Charles said he became more immersed in the blues.
“I realized how much blues influence I had,” he said, adding that coupled with the opportunity to play “with really high end blues musicians” really set his course in music.
So what is it about blues that has kept Charles so focused for decades?
“It’s real,” he said. “I like that way it sounds – the honesty behind it.”
Charles added that the blues is one of the foundational forms of music in his mind.
“Blues and jazz is where music all really started,” he said, adding he recalls Chuck Berry saying he really just took blues and sped things up a bit to create rock ‘n roll.”
Certainly the blues has worked for Charles.
Through the years, the 10-times Grammy elected artist, has been featured in numerous television and radio broadcasts and several music magazines, along with gracing countless stages and pages including Chicago Blues Fest, Philadelphia Jazz and Blues Fest, Windy City Live Television, WGN TV, JBTV, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, and The College Music Journal.
And, in 2015 Michael Charles received the extreme honour of an induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
While having toured extensively in Canada the April 11 gig will be his first in Yorkton.
“I’ve been touring Canada for at least 17 years,” he said, adding he recalls passing through Yorkton in past years, but not playing a local venue.
The venue really is important to what sort of experience it is for both musician and audience, said Charles.
“In a small local bar you get a different audience,” he said, adding it really allows for him to interact with those attending. That is a huge element because it affords an opportunity to find out what they liked and that helps create future show playlists.
The playlist of course will be largely Charles' own compositions.
“I’m a songwriter,” he said, adding he is a huge believer “that the world always needs new songs.”
So 95 per cent of his shows will be his own music, the remaining five per cent of songs “I like from other blues artists,” he said, adding even those he modifies a little, “I turn them into a way that suits me.”
The Yorkton gig is set to hit the stage at 10 pm. on the 11th.
