Charlie Mars & Abe Partridge

CHARLIE MARS lives on a gravel paved County Road in the hill country of Yalobusha County, Mississippi. Why? He used to live in a college town with all the college town stuff that musicians like. He fell in love with these Cane Corso Mastiff puppies on Instagram that a guy in Brazil was breeding, and Charlie had recently made some money on a crypto coin called Shiba Inu, that was enough to pay for the dog and shipping. The puppy from Brazil that Charlie picked up in Arkansas would grow to be 130 lbs, and quite a handful. After the dog bit a friend in the little town Charlie was living in, his brother found some clear cut land in the middle of nowhere with a weird house on it, and Charlie decided to buy it and move there. His dog needed some space and he was burned out on the whole “modern thing”. His Grandfather was a cattle farmer and a lot of the people he respected did things close to the land he purchased. He got rid of a television and learned how to harvest vegetables. He introduced himself to his neighbors and started writing about what was around him in his new country home.

Growing up in Mississippi, he was a kid who listened to the radio a lot. WNSL played 80’s pop radio hits, and he also got into classic singer-songwriters like Neil Young and Jackson Browne.

When he was in high school, he formed his first band that played a mix of covers and originals. They would play at the local VFW and Charlie remembers his mother would often need to drive the band members home in her station wagon when they drank too much at gigs.

Charlie would start to write his own songs with the intent of never squeezing himself into a single genre. He tried to keep his initial songs “classic”, and he always liked Country music (the less popular kind). He then got into Jam Bands and Alt-Country music, especially Uncle Tupelo. He majored in English while attending college at SMU in Dallas, and always liked being a wordsmith. A friend introduced Charlie to Daniel Lanois’ music, which inspired him to start experimenting more with atmospheric sounds. Like any songwriter worth his salt, Mars employs his art as a channel towards personal discovery, candidly exploring all the human limitations – from pride and fear to cynicism self-doubt – that stand in the way of his attaining true happiness.

He has released 7 studio albums, a series of EPs, and several singles over the past 20 years. He’s shared the stage with the likes of REM, KT Tunstall and Steve Earle, and has been profiled in Forbes, USA Today, American Songwriter and many major media outlets. If you ask him, Charlie says he’s made a living playing in small clubs and backyards. But he still wants to have a tour bus and play in front of big crowds. “It’s fun to have a dream. It keeps me going” he says. “I can’t believe I made it this far in music. I figure while I had the chance, I should try to represent the people and the culture that shaped me.”

ABE PARTRIDGE is a heralded musician, singer/songwriter, visual artist, and podcaster based in Mobile, Alabama. His 2018 debut, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days earned him rave reviews, with Tony Paris saying in The Bitter Southerner: "He plays guitar the same way he writes lyrics, bashing the strings with abandon until they are just about to come loose, then beautifully picking the notes until every last word falls into place. More to the point, Partridge writes to make you sit up and think. He wants to jar your reality. Sometimes, his lyrics are sly and subtle. Sometimes they come at you with a roar and thunder, as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were approaching, and the heavens were opening up to herald a warning."

Since the release of his debut, Partridge has toured relentlessly, including several tours of the Netherlands and the U.K. developing a reputation for moving, passionate, and sometimes comedic, performances at prestigious songwriter festivals such as 30A Songwriters Festival, Frank Brown Songwriters Festival, and Americanafest. He is a regular at the Bluebird Café in Nashville and Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. He has performed on the syndicated radio programs, Mountain Stage and Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. He has shared the stage with Morgan Wade, Paul Thorn, Steve Poltz, Dan Bern, Jerry Joseph, Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Tommy Stinson, Shawn Mullins, John Fullbright, and more.

Most recently, Partridge and co-producer Ferrill Gibbs released the Alabama Astronaut podcast, where they explore songs previously undocumented at churches in Appalachia. The podcast finds Partridge chatting with Holiness preachers and looking into the practice of snake handling. It was in the Top Ten documentary podcasts on Apple Podcasts within days of its release and now has over 40k downloads and a 4.9-star rating.

When Partridge is not writing or touring, he is also a highly acclaimed visual artist. His paintings, primarily acrylic on tarred board and watercolors, now hang in art galleries around the southeast and in the private collections of Tyler Childers, Mike Wolfe (American Pickers), Rick Hirsch (Wet Willie), and Tommy Prine. His artwork was featured in Stephen King’s 2019 sequel to The Shining - Dr. Sleep. He painted the cover art for Charlie Parr’s, Last Of The Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian Folkways). He also created art for Tyler Childers’ 2022 release, Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?

American Songwriter Magazine said, “Abe Partridge has established himself as one of the most respected songwriters and visual folk artists in the southeast.”

In November of 2022, Partridge released the EP Alabama Skies on Baldwin Co. Public Records label which includes "Abe Partridge’s 403d Freakout". Partridge told Songfacts the story behind the song: " 'Abe Partridge's 403d Freakout' was a song I wrote in about 20 minutes. It took me two weeks to make it rhyme, and then it took me about six months to learn it. I just sat and wrote a couple of pages of thoughts as they came to me. It was my attempt at describing my thoughts chronologically as they sometimes occur in my head before I filter them. It is those thoughts that I often have if I allow myself to mentally wander."

Partridge's exhibit With Signs Following was on exhibition at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, AL from January 13 - May 20 of 2023 and is expected to travel to other city contemporary art centers in the next few years. His full-length studio album, Love In The Dark, on BCPR label, was released on May 12, 2023.