Reviews from around the world:

"Wow, Charlie, terrific CD! Really impressed with the tone, the variety of your songs. Love the influences — everything from the Beatles and Dylan to Dr. John and the Night Trippers. Like the way you move from lyrical ballads into upbeat rhythmic forays, and the multitude of ways in which you vary the instrumentation and tone of each song. Great singing, terrific musicianship on the part of all of the many participants, and one of the most picturesque CD covers and inner booklets I've ever seen.Here's wishing you well, with full confidence that Long Away and Far Ago will definitely reach a wide and appreciative audience."

Lee Underwood - guitarist for Tim Buckley, Essra Mohawk, reviewer for Downbeat Magazine, poet and author of Blue Melody

 Frank Zappa once mused: “Definition of rock journalism: People who can't write, doing interviews with people who can't think, in order to prepare articles for people who can't read.”  With that in mind I will attempt to write a worthy review of one of the best albums I have ever heard. 

     First, this has one of the best booklet packages to come with a single cd.  Artwork by Ed Unitsky is outstanding.  As for the music Charlie has topped himself once again, producing what looks to me to be his true masterpiece of work.

     Lovely vocal harmonies lace the Tom Maloney dual slide guitar work on the delightful tune "The Beautiful Scar of Scarlet De Lune". I was immediately drawn to its Beatle-ish quality. "She'll always have the scar. I"ll always hide the pain."  Not anymore, I guess.  We can now see it and feel it.

     Back in the day Charlie performed covers of numerous Bob Dylan songs so it would only be fitting that there be at least one to fit that mold.  So what makes a Bob Dylan mold?  Interesting bold expressive lyrics with choice melodies? "First Man on Mars" just might fit that bill with majestic piano backing social commentary about abundant consumerism. Make sure to check your Balance Rewards. The harmonica fits splendidly.

     Although many of the tracks on this compilation are dark "Let Nothing You or I Dismay" reflects an optimistic love of life itself.  Bass voicing played by Dino Asaro counters the chord structure nicely and the melody is accompanied by Jay Hutson's brilliant saxophone expression and Mike Honeywell's guitar.  The false ending with reprise works well, too.

    Ok, I'll tell you now. "Alice Liddell" has become my favorite cut on this album.  While Charlie is truly the master of timbre and delivers airy cascading glissando-ing down the rabbit hole it is only fitting that the project title comes from within this song. It makes me want to find an imaginary beach in Oxford.

    Next is an epic surrealistic journey "The Parting" which deals with separation at death.  The unresolved will be resolved when we remove our coats of clay that dry and blow in the wind.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, sand to glass to clay where "forever has no meaning". Nothing lite about this track. The middle staccato section features on top of it a sweet sustaining guitar solo delivered by Roine Stolt. His is a delightful contribution throughout this song recorded in Sweden. After a dreamy transition the primary theme then returns with a Leslie on the voice and a swelling volume pedal guitar again played by Roine.

    Now for something completely different.  When I close my eyes listening to "Crocadoggie," I not only see a Fantasian Potomaus diving off the board into a moat of chomping dogs but experience the channeling of Captain Beefheart, just one more of Charlie's vocal styles.  Many of Charlie's dogs, past and present, are mentioned in this "hound dog opera of flying dalmatian spots". With the Cajun feel proficiently delivered by Brian Wilkerson's drumming I almost expected to hear one of the verses in French.  One question: Does the elephant escape the crocadoggies in the moat?

   Fast forward the tape to "Little Heads", an instrumental electronic composition leading you on a trip through the forest timbre. Not too much or too little but just right.  Frank Zappa is somewhere in the netherworld nodding his approval.

   We now go into the twilight zone of emotional anguish with "On the Verge" a paean to old age suffering and dying. "I have many books but can't read the words" says it all. There is an absolutely lovely piano interlude played over a synth wash.  Is "so long" a way to say goodbye?

   When the future rules the past you have "Welcome to Dystopia". Textures from outer space where Max Headroom meets Ray Kurzweil all too soon for the singularity.  David Bowie and Brian Eno would be looking down, smiling in envy, only wishing they could even sample the synth patches on this one.  Nice effect with the doubletracked lead vocal, too.  Charlie's brain and imagination is indeed downloaded here.

   Who knew there would be two Cajun grooves? "The Voice" is about self expression deep inside, the truth with no place to hide. There is Mike Honeywell's guitar work, an Anthony Tsai mandolin, a real bass harmonica, a strategically placed slide whistle and even a theremin to augment this cheerful tune. Slick cymbal work by Brian Wilkerson.  

   Piano and organ (great solo) accompany Charlie's gentle vulnerable vocal about love that "walks in like a cat and lays down like a dog."  "As I stumble behind you now I fall and break my heart". Who writes lyrics like that?  "Love Come Rescue Me" is boldly  both sad and uplifting offering an antidote to at least some of the darkness. I was proud and honored to contribute the double tracked guitar solo.

    "Sad House".  Metaphors be with you. The psychologist C.G. Jung sometimes thought that in a dream a house could represent your body.  Falling apart, in disrepair with weeds abound this song has more passion than I am accustomed to.  The narrative movement takes you "up the beanstalk" where loved ones are waiting and it sounds like the angels are singing in the chorus. The case has been made for timeless love, "love like blood that flows between us". 

   With today's individual song downloading  trend the actual song order on a cd  can become inconsequential but if you're listening to this whole disc after so much heart wrenching truth one needs something light. "My Argentina Girl" does the trick. I suspect that this is the lone song that is not a true story but I could be wrong.   Images of palm trees (in Argentina?) with some well placed whammy bar dives and melodic thirds courtesy of Tom Maloney on guitar one can groove with the drunken trumpet and hear about  I can almost see flamingos dancing.

   The first and last thing Charlie wants to say is "Let Nothing You Nor I Dismay" (reprise) with a rich sounding acoustic guitar.

I give this compilation five stars.

Robert Bosch/ USA

I have listened to your record now. It has some very strong lyrics. It is very obvious that it has to do with making up with life. 

There are reflections like dreams, goals, relations and death. You have important questions about life. To mention some of your songs. On the Verge, The Voice, Sad House, Welcome to Dystopia and finally The Parting are all summing up life and preparing for the great journey. 

It's a beautiful album with many emotions. The cover is very good art. The music is mostly a mix with roots from the 60s and the 70s with rock, jazz,  and psychedelic inputs. I can hear influences from The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. You have many different voices. (But I guess you already know that)

It was nice to see that Roine played guitar on Parting. You have done a good job on this album Charlie! 

I will recommend it to others. 

All the best!

Staffan Tronestam/Sweden

Good music can only hope to prod emotions, and the jaunty refrain of 'The Voice" took me back thirty years to a Johnny Hartford banjo and a slow river road in summer. From painfully reflective to playful, there is Harry Chapin in 'The Parting'. In another reminder that it's taken everything we've got to get to this point: 'Sad House' If you've ever petted a dog or been licked by one, just listen. 

Here is a gifted artist and philosopher, flailing against the ravages of time, publicly and pointedly. I had to look up "sardonic" after 'First Man On Mars'. I was right! The cover art is intricate and endless. Wow. So thanks, Charlie. Your range of mastery is quite amazing. At an age when many artists are already dead from a life of excess, Charlie is still out there, making music and making us comfortable, and uncomfortable

Mark Rucker /USA