The Sit Down with Charlie Worsham
Since his first UK appearance at the CMA Songwriters Series show during Country to Country back in 2016, Charlie Worsham has captivated the audience with regularity on this side of the Atlantic. The award-winning guitarist who has previously played British shows with Lee Ann Womack, Lucie Silvas and Frankie Ballard along with appearing at The Long Road festival, has just finished his latest UK tour where he has been opening up for Ward Thomas on thirteen dates across the country. The Mississippi native concluded this latest trip to the UK with his own headline show at The Slaughtered Lamb in London, where we were able to sit down with Charlie to hear all about plans for new music and life on the road with Dierks Bentley.
It great to finally get to meet you and chat properly.
“Likewise, it’s great to see you.”
We have always seem to pass each other when you have been over here before and it feels like you now have played pretty much every venue in London.
“Well, you know, after tonight I do feel as though I’ve earned my London venue badge.”
It’s almost like you are collecting them like trading cards.
“Totally and I know there is still a few rooms to play that I want to play but that is good because it gives me a reason to come back.”
It kind of feels to me that because you have kept coming back to play shows that you have been coming over here for a lot longer than you have because the CMA Songwriter show at C2C in 2016 was the first time.
“That’s right. Well, to perform it was because I came here as a tourist when I was a kid but that was the first time singing over here.”
Whenever you talk to other fans over here, the Songwriters to kick off C2C is always a highlight that everyone brings up but the round that you played in 2016 with Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Ashley Monroe, Charles Esten and Miranda (Lambert) hopping up to make a guest appearance is the one that stands out in so many people’s memories. It must feel great for all of you to see that the whole writers rounds like you do in Nashville really works and is valued so much over here.
“Yes, and it all clicked when I was on stage. The first thing that I noticed was that even the bartenders wouldn’t let the bottles clink whilst we were singing, and I was like WOW! These folks are being super respectful and listening. When that happens it sort of gives you free reign as a performer to go anywhere you want because you know that you can trust that the audience is going to go with you and that is what helped me fall in love with singing and performing over here, and I’ve never looked back.”
It great to finally get to meet you and chat properly.
“Likewise, it’s great to see you.”
We have always seem to pass each other when you have been over here before and it feels like you now have played pretty much every venue in London.
“Well, you know, after tonight I do feel as though I’ve earned my London venue badge.”
It’s almost like you are collecting them like trading cards.
“Totally and I know there is still a few rooms to play that I want to play but that is good because it gives me a reason to come back.”
It kind of feels to me that because you have kept coming back to play shows that you have been coming over here for a lot longer than you have because the CMA Songwriter show at C2C in 2016 was the first time.
“That’s right. Well, to perform it was because I came here as a tourist when I was a kid but that was the first time singing over here.”
Whenever you talk to other fans over here, the Songwriters to kick off C2C is always a highlight that everyone brings up but the round that you played in 2016 with Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Ashley Monroe, Charles Esten and Miranda (Lambert) hopping up to make a guest appearance is the one that stands out in so many people’s memories. It must feel great for all of you to see that the whole writers rounds like you do in Nashville really works and is valued so much over here.
“Yes, and it all clicked when I was on stage. The first thing that I noticed was that even the bartenders wouldn’t let the bottles clink whilst we were singing, and I was like WOW! These folks are being super respectful and listening. When that happens it sort of gives you free reign as a performer to go anywhere you want because you know that you can trust that the audience is going to go with you and that is what helped me fall in love with singing and performing over here, and I’ve never looked back.”
I imagine that for you, where back home you are seen and regarded as this incredible musician, who is highly decorated, has played with pretty much everyone that is anyone and is a great songwriter but here you are completely “Charlie Worsham the artist” a lot more.
“Totally, but the cool thing too and it speaks again back to that first experience of playing over here is that people come up to the merch table after my set and ask me questions about the liner notes, the session players and the songwriters. People here care so much about the people behind the scenes and that has always been a part of who I am, even when I’m in the spotlight, I just get to weave it into my performance here a little bit more. That is one of the things that I love so much about performing here and I love getting to juggle all of those different roles, but I had missed playing my own songs on stage and it’s been a great three weeks of doing that.”
How has it been touring with the twins (Ward Thomas) and I guess that whilst you have been coming over here a lot, there may have been a few new places that you hadn’t visited before?
“Absolutely, this was easily the most extensive UK tour that I’ve been on. We started in Glasgow, where I have played before, but the venues have been lovely, it was my first time to see Liverpool where I just had to go to the Cavern Club, I went to York and had a full day off there where I went all over the city and fell in love with York. Then Bexhill-on-Sea was a highlight for me because Worsham’s can be traced back to Worsham Farm on the outskirts of there, so it was pretty great to get to see that and where my people come from. Catherine and Lizzy are just wonderful, and their fans are just wonderful so it was great to be on the road with them.”
That is one of the really great things about being on the road with acts based here in that most people come over for shows and just tend to see London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Belfast maybe. Our outlook on old buildings is very different to how it is in the States as we see a hundred-year-old building and it becomes protected or you can’t go near it, where you guys look at thirty-year-old buildings being old and need knocking down to be rebuilt.
“Oh yeah, for sure. Somebody told me that in America, a hundred years is a long time and in England, a hundred miles is a long way or something like that and it’s very true. The history here is so rich and getting to see a few new places along the way this trip was really special, I went to Cardiff and that was my first time to be in Wales then heading back to Cambridge. I had actually spent time in Cambridge when I was in high school on a summer program, but I had not been back there until this trip.”
Coming back to your music, it’s been a little while since you put something out yourself and you have said that it is great to play your own songs again so there must be plenty in the tank with something new on the way very soon?
“Yes, and I have this tradition now from performing in the UK of playing new material that is yet to be released and playing it here first because like I said, the audiences will go with you to anywhere that you want to go. I do have new music on the way, I believe by September this year, I’ll have some new songs coming out which is a collaborations project, so every song has a duet partner. Tt is a combination of brand new music, we rerecorded a song off my first album called “How I Learned To Pray” then we re-imagined an old favourite by Patty Loveless and I’m really excited to share that with the world and can’t wait to tell everybody who is on what song and everything. I’m not quite there yet but it’s coming!”
“Totally, but the cool thing too and it speaks again back to that first experience of playing over here is that people come up to the merch table after my set and ask me questions about the liner notes, the session players and the songwriters. People here care so much about the people behind the scenes and that has always been a part of who I am, even when I’m in the spotlight, I just get to weave it into my performance here a little bit more. That is one of the things that I love so much about performing here and I love getting to juggle all of those different roles, but I had missed playing my own songs on stage and it’s been a great three weeks of doing that.”
How has it been touring with the twins (Ward Thomas) and I guess that whilst you have been coming over here a lot, there may have been a few new places that you hadn’t visited before?
“Absolutely, this was easily the most extensive UK tour that I’ve been on. We started in Glasgow, where I have played before, but the venues have been lovely, it was my first time to see Liverpool where I just had to go to the Cavern Club, I went to York and had a full day off there where I went all over the city and fell in love with York. Then Bexhill-on-Sea was a highlight for me because Worsham’s can be traced back to Worsham Farm on the outskirts of there, so it was pretty great to get to see that and where my people come from. Catherine and Lizzy are just wonderful, and their fans are just wonderful so it was great to be on the road with them.”
That is one of the really great things about being on the road with acts based here in that most people come over for shows and just tend to see London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Belfast maybe. Our outlook on old buildings is very different to how it is in the States as we see a hundred-year-old building and it becomes protected or you can’t go near it, where you guys look at thirty-year-old buildings being old and need knocking down to be rebuilt.
“Oh yeah, for sure. Somebody told me that in America, a hundred years is a long time and in England, a hundred miles is a long way or something like that and it’s very true. The history here is so rich and getting to see a few new places along the way this trip was really special, I went to Cardiff and that was my first time to be in Wales then heading back to Cambridge. I had actually spent time in Cambridge when I was in high school on a summer program, but I had not been back there until this trip.”
Coming back to your music, it’s been a little while since you put something out yourself and you have said that it is great to play your own songs again so there must be plenty in the tank with something new on the way very soon?
“Yes, and I have this tradition now from performing in the UK of playing new material that is yet to be released and playing it here first because like I said, the audiences will go with you to anywhere that you want to go. I do have new music on the way, I believe by September this year, I’ll have some new songs coming out which is a collaborations project, so every song has a duet partner. Tt is a combination of brand new music, we rerecorded a song off my first album called “How I Learned To Pray” then we re-imagined an old favourite by Patty Loveless and I’m really excited to share that with the world and can’t wait to tell everybody who is on what song and everything. I’m not quite there yet but it’s coming!”
The other thing that is new with you is Pickers Radio on Apple Music Country and having listened to the episodes I think it’s so cool that it isn’t just purely geeking out about guitars, like you had Jenee Fleenor on and she’s like the greatest fiddle player in all of country music and we all know that those guys that play fiddle really are their own breed!
“Oh, for sure and with Pickers, we’ve yet to get a bass player on, I’m aware of that and working on that, then I really want to get a producer and an engineer, but I love it because especially during Covid and touring not happening, I ended up playing more and more in the studio on sessions. It has always been one of my favourite things to do but one of my favourite things about session work is the conversations that you have in-between takes and the breaks between sessions because session players are some of the funniest people that you’ll ever meet. They have the best stories, and they know so much about not just music but about record making. What I love about Pickers Radio and I’m so grateful to Apple Music for this opportunity, is that those are the conversations that I want to share with the world and this show gives me a vehicle to do that and we can talk about the stories behind a recording, then play the recording.”
Through the summer you are heading back out with Dierks, and he is just a guy that everyone is so positive about. Dierks Bentley is not just a great artist with a monster catalogue of hits but there just seems so much about him as a person.
“Well right before I went out on that gig, I was hanging out with my buddy John Osborne who I have known for ever, then him and has brother have toured extensively with Dierks over the years and he said something that is the perfect explanation. He said man, Dierks takes what he does very seriously, but he does not take himself seriously. That is true because when you see him on stage, I don’t care how much fun you are having in the crowd, he is having more fun and that is the key ingredient. He is also such a great dad and as a new dad myself, I am so grateful for what I’m getting to witness and learn from how he manages things because it is something that I’ll take with me for my own touring, how to balance this crazy with a family life. Dierks also just loves so much of the same music that I love like the old bluegrass stuff. We play a monthly gig at the Station Inn as Long Jon, our bluegrass alter ego and we’re not making money doing it, you know what I mean. If we’re lucky we get like eighty bucks at the end of the night or whatever but it’s because we love playing music. That’s really the key ingredient, it’s doing what you love and not taking yourself too seriously.”
You really see that point of how he takes his music really seriously but doesn’t take himself seriously so clearly. It must be purely a coincide that him and Doug Douglason have never been on stage together at the same time.
“Yeah, I think they’ve got a bit of an ongoing feud and there may be one or two ego issues there.”
I’ve noticed that those Hot Country Knights are teasing that they might be coming back into the picture just as Dierks is about to head out on tour.
“It’s interesting that they always seem to show up and I don’t know how because that van that they drive runs on fumes, it smokes, and the wheels are about to fall off. I don’t know how they make it to a gig, but they somehow seem to.”
It’s been a while since Dierks was last here so it would be nice if those guys can keep that van running and if DB heads back over that they could try and gate-crash a European tour too.
“Well, I’m twisting the arms of both Dierks and Doug to get them both over here so we will see.”
The fact that you keep coming back here and have been a part of most of our bigger festivals, so we must be doing something right over here.
“Oh absolutely, it is one of the first things that I bring up when I’m hanging out with an artist, I’m meeting for the first time and especially if they are new. I’m like man, you’ve got to get over top the UK, tour it and interact because they are such great fans. I’ll keep preaching the gospel of sending Nashville folks over here!”
“Oh, for sure and with Pickers, we’ve yet to get a bass player on, I’m aware of that and working on that, then I really want to get a producer and an engineer, but I love it because especially during Covid and touring not happening, I ended up playing more and more in the studio on sessions. It has always been one of my favourite things to do but one of my favourite things about session work is the conversations that you have in-between takes and the breaks between sessions because session players are some of the funniest people that you’ll ever meet. They have the best stories, and they know so much about not just music but about record making. What I love about Pickers Radio and I’m so grateful to Apple Music for this opportunity, is that those are the conversations that I want to share with the world and this show gives me a vehicle to do that and we can talk about the stories behind a recording, then play the recording.”
Through the summer you are heading back out with Dierks, and he is just a guy that everyone is so positive about. Dierks Bentley is not just a great artist with a monster catalogue of hits but there just seems so much about him as a person.
“Well right before I went out on that gig, I was hanging out with my buddy John Osborne who I have known for ever, then him and has brother have toured extensively with Dierks over the years and he said something that is the perfect explanation. He said man, Dierks takes what he does very seriously, but he does not take himself seriously. That is true because when you see him on stage, I don’t care how much fun you are having in the crowd, he is having more fun and that is the key ingredient. He is also such a great dad and as a new dad myself, I am so grateful for what I’m getting to witness and learn from how he manages things because it is something that I’ll take with me for my own touring, how to balance this crazy with a family life. Dierks also just loves so much of the same music that I love like the old bluegrass stuff. We play a monthly gig at the Station Inn as Long Jon, our bluegrass alter ego and we’re not making money doing it, you know what I mean. If we’re lucky we get like eighty bucks at the end of the night or whatever but it’s because we love playing music. That’s really the key ingredient, it’s doing what you love and not taking yourself too seriously.”
You really see that point of how he takes his music really seriously but doesn’t take himself seriously so clearly. It must be purely a coincide that him and Doug Douglason have never been on stage together at the same time.
“Yeah, I think they’ve got a bit of an ongoing feud and there may be one or two ego issues there.”
I’ve noticed that those Hot Country Knights are teasing that they might be coming back into the picture just as Dierks is about to head out on tour.
“It’s interesting that they always seem to show up and I don’t know how because that van that they drive runs on fumes, it smokes, and the wheels are about to fall off. I don’t know how they make it to a gig, but they somehow seem to.”
It’s been a while since Dierks was last here so it would be nice if those guys can keep that van running and if DB heads back over that they could try and gate-crash a European tour too.
“Well, I’m twisting the arms of both Dierks and Doug to get them both over here so we will see.”
The fact that you keep coming back here and have been a part of most of our bigger festivals, so we must be doing something right over here.
“Oh absolutely, it is one of the first things that I bring up when I’m hanging out with an artist, I’m meeting for the first time and especially if they are new. I’m like man, you’ve got to get over top the UK, tour it and interact because they are such great fans. I’ll keep preaching the gospel of sending Nashville folks over here!”