Claiming Ornette Coleman and Merle Haggard as his influences, Atlanta, GA-born, Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter Charlie Greene comes from a deeply musical family as his father was a touring singer/songwriter, his grandfather was a big band bandleader during the 40s and 50s and his great-grandfather was known to play the banjo. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 4 years or so, you may be familiar with Greene because I wrote about several tracks off Wildfire Music and his self-titled sophomore effort as both efforts were comprised of material that caught my attention for a sound that seemed to mesh 70s and 80s Nashville country with AM radio rock, complete with carefully crafted songs that possessed a novelist’s attention to psychological detail and an acing yearning at its core.
Several years have passed since we’ve heard from Charlie Greene but as Greene has told me via email, he’s been pretty busy of late as he’s putting the finishing touches on an album that is tentatively slated for release sometime over the winter, along with some tour dates; but in the meantime, the Atlanta-born and Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter has started a video series he’s titled “Dead Man’s Cattle Call,” in which he an this backing band pay tribute to a recently deceased musician of note with a one-take recording in a Topanga, CA-based grape arbor, then they release an accompanying video. And the latest installment is a slow-burning country music rendition of David Bowie‘s “The Prettiest Star,” which pulls out the nostalgic wistfulness and ache at the core of the original.
The recently released music video was shot by the folks at Beard and Glasses VR and to get the full effect of the video, please check it out on Google Chrome or on your smartphone. Just make sure that you’re using the latest version of the YouTube app and click on the title text to view in 360º. It’s a trippy and immersive effect to be able to view everything the musicians did while performing the song.