Charlie Sexton Explains, Beams, And Does Other Stuff Too!
There’s a new face out there you might’ve seen. It belongs to Charlie Sexton, a 17-year-old guitar player from Austin, Texas. Charlie is much more than a guitar player, however—as one listen to his debut album, Pictures For Pleasure, might tell you.
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Charlie Sexton Explains, Beams, And Does Other Stuff Too!
There’s a new face out there you might’ve seen.
It belongs to Charlie Sexton, a 17-year-old guitar player from Austin, Texas. Charlie is much more than a guitar player, however—as one listen to his debut album, Pictures For Pleasure, might tell you. Very simply, he is a major new talent who’ll be in the news for years to come.
Who is he? Well, if you’ve lived in Austin for the past few years, you already know. But if you haven’t, why don’t we let Charlie himself tell you a little bit of his history, beginning with his first band, the Eager Beaver Boys? And keep this in mind: he started that band when he was 13!
“That was sort of rockabilly-esque rock n’ roll,’’ Charlie comments about that same first band. “Old rock ’n’ roll type stuff. Then we started getting a bit more straight rock ’n’ roll. Then it started being more...crazy rock ’n’ roll—like, Jimi Hendrix rockabilly.” Charlie pretends he’s holding a guitar in his hand and makes a loud whooping sound.
“The best way to explain what the music was like is to tell you what the crowd was like.
“First, we had what I called the ‘Haircut Club,’ all these college kids, and then we’d have all the older fans, the ‘Adult’ fans, we called ’em.” He laughs. “We had the Adults and the Haircut Club. Then we had more and more Haircut Club—and we had so many Haircut Clubs that the Adult Club couldn’t get in. Then we had the ‘Punk Club,’ we had the punkers with the mohawks coming in and messing up the Haircut Club’s hair, dancing and slam-dancing.
“So it went from rockabilly, rootsy rock ’n’ roll to crazy, to rock ’n’ roll rockabilly to Jimi Hendrix crazy rockabilly rock ’n’ roll, to punk. Not like punk, but thrash stuff, a little less mindless, you know?”
Sure, Charlie—thanks for straightening us out! During this time and soon after, Charlie would appear in concert and on record with such stars as fellow Texan Joe Ely, Don Henley, Australia’s Jimmy Barnes and, perhaps most famous of all, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, members of history’s famous Rolling Stones! Along with the latter duo, Charlie recorded the Stones’ classic “It’s Not Easy” for The Wild Life soundtrack. And what did Charlie think of those veritable legends?
“They’re really cool guys,” he beams. “Normal guys. And people go, ‘Wow, what was it like, was it the most totally awesome experience of your really rad dude gnarly life?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it was a great experience, but they’re just normal guys.’ And that was the best thing that I learned from it. They were just, you know, regular guys.”
And of course you’ve already seen “Beat’s So Lonely” on MTV. It’s just one of many hits you’ll soon be hearing from the Pictures For Pleasure album. ROCK-SHOTS’ favorite is “Impressed,” the lead-off track and the great new video. The song was written by Steve Krikorian—who’s actually made a few records of his own, under the name of Tonio K. Combine that great song with “Beat’s So Lonely” and “Hold Me,” a song written in 1930 and made famous in the ’60s by rocker P.J. Proby, and you’ve got three killer tracks and a career that’s heading upwards fast!
