Minnesota singer/songwriter Charlie Maguire moves into darker terrain on his 8th release, confronting issues of the day with expert backing by Prairie Home Companion's Rich Dworsky, guitar greats Dean Magraw and Dakota Dave Hull and more.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, ROCK: Folk Rock



Details:
www.charliemaguire.com

With his new CD, "Good Eye Blind," Charlie Maguire has taken an unexpected turn. The award-winning songwriting, who has won lasting acclaim during his three-decade career, is as engaging as ever. And the rich voice, guitar work and harmonica playing are still deft. But on this recording, his eighth, Charlie ventures out to a darker edge.

"The whole album is about consequences," Maguire says, "the consequences of living blind to the realities of life." On the title track, Charlie voices dismay over societal neglect of children â one generationâs scars are inevitably passed down to the next. "GI Nightingale" pays tribute to military nurses â past and present, and "The Lost Ones" reflects on U.S. war dead â their numbers growing now as they have in all wars. (Army Specialist Ramses Byron, a veteran of the Iraqi war whom Maguire befriended via the Internet, helped update this song Charlie wrote years ago.) Thereâs "Interstate of Broken Hearts," a Hank Williams-inspired lament for the lovesick; and "Hotels," a tribute to those really great places to stay â many now victims of the wrecking ball. And from the popular Maguire-penned musical Orphan Train, "I Remember Love."

Perhaps the most ambitious work in the collection is "The Rough Trade Suite," a 17-minute, four-song, sweeping view of the lives of sailors. Itâs a bold departure for Maguire, who calls the work "a collection of audio short stories."

Good Eye Blind, engineered by Steve Wiese at Creation Audio, features an impressive line-up of backing musicians: Richard Dworsky on piano (from "A Prairie Home Companion"), accordionist Dan Newton, guitar wizards Dakota Dave Hull and Dean Magraw, veteran studio musicians Peter Johnson (drums) and Gordy Johnson (bass), and David Douglas on vocals.

For Maguire, growing up in upstate New York, the die was cast early on: When a friend's brother joined the Navy and left a guitar behind, a teenage Charlie borrowed the instrument, paid $2.95 for a book entitled Play the Guitar in 30 Minutes, and unceremoniously commenced what would become his life's work. Now with some 800 songs and a stack of albums to his credit, his work has been featured on the CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Car Talk, Hometime, As It Happens, and other nationally broadcast programs. In addition to composing the music for Orphan Train, a play about the trainloads of immigrant orphan children who made their way from the slums of New York to Minnesota a century ago, he also co-wrote the musical Mesabi Red, which chronicles a 1916 miners' strike on Minnesota's Iron Range.

Music lovers who know Charlie Maguire from his thousands of coffeehouse and festival gigs will applaud Good Eye Blind. So will those who have caught his performances as "Centennial Troubadour" for the Minnesota State Parks, or with the National Park Service as the first and only "Singing Ranger" for the U.S. Department of Interior/Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in Saint Paul. And this intriguing new project promises to considerably widen the fan base.

With "Good Eye Blind," Charlie Maguire clearly has his heart and both eyes open.