Charlie Parr | "Last of the Better Days Ahead" | Western AF 

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Hell yes. Charlie is one of the elders lighting the way. Thanks, WesternAF.

"drive back to your hometown to visit with your past, but nothing looks the same anymore"...too true sir, hats off to this great tune.

Charlie's gotta be one of the best songwriters out there. You can't write like he does without having walked the walk. Plus, he busted himself up skateboarding a while back and that gets mad respect. Some of my favourites of his are Cheap Wine and On Stealing a Sailboat 🤙

Charlie is a living legend. Can’t wait to see him live again.

Saw charlie in the UK a few months ago, £17 for 2 tickets and the best money i ever spent. A special man and one of the best pickers ive seen

Charlie Parr was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. He just poured himself out for 3+ hours. He’s a treasure

I saw Charlie live nn Eau Claire WI before Corona hit, he played an impromptu show at a local bar for free. Got to be right up front in an absolutely packed little bar. Thanks WesternAF for featuring him.

This song makes me think about my Dad and how he is getting older.....and I am right behind him. 40 came quick, 60 is a blink away.

64 is way before my time. I did, however, have a 2004 Subaru when I was 22. That car meant the world to me, not to mention all the memories it held. It rusted out and I sold it for parts two years ago. One of the saddest days I’ve had recently. Life lived, lessons learned. It’s amazing how much you can learn from metal and rubber.

These lyrics hit my soul like a sledgehammer

Thanks for sharing! This feels like really good advice from my Dad. My Dad passed 10 years ago & I miss him. This filled a hole that needed filled.

Man…I had a 1965 Ford Falcon XP that I had to sell in my 20’s, and I’m now 48 years old….this song got me in the feels.

Charlie is a gift from above. This is a brilliant song.

I almost passed this up looking for a new song, and thought why not give it a shot.. then he proceeds to speak directly to your soul. Almost like A higher power said you need to hear this

I have the best taste in music....and this is gold

This song ain’t about the car.

That is pretty much as good as it gets for songwriting. Hats off to you fine Sir Mr. Parr.

Loved Charlie ever since I heard his 1922 blues on an ad ten or fifteen years ago. Hung out for every album since.

Charlie is one of my favorites, great to see some love for him here. I'd kill for a Western AF 'Cheap Wine'.

light the way brother. better n better! and yes folks he walks the walk. much love and respect from Scotland. Mx

Charlie hits you right in the soul. Western AF thank you!! Getting to listen to artists I’ve loved for years and finding lots of new artists.

Absolutely love Charlie Parr, one of the nicest most geniune people you could ever met, and his live shows are amazing.

Charlie Parr is a local gem, it's always a treat when he's playing somewhere near enough to make it to.

Wow, this song hit me deep. This man just described my whole life in 3:48. Thank you!

Hell yes, so glad you got Charlie in here!!!!

Thanks WAF for showing Charlie to your fans! He's a heck of a guy for sure!

Really hope I get the chance to see him live one day, one of my favorite songwriters.

Yes yes and yes. He’s such a killer musician and even better dude.

Love this guy. His music fills my souls.

I miss Charlie’s, first Sunday of the month Turf Club Shows. It was a $2 cover charge and some of the most honest lyrics one could find in the TC

Big Charlie fan here, thanks for having him!

Good gravy this song hits! I am 34 and it is already hitting HARD. Keep the jammer's coming!

I had the opportunity to see Charlie, long before I knew who he was. He opened for Mandolin Orange in Atlanta a few years ago at the Variety Playhouse and what an impression he left on me! I watched him just pick the hell out of his guitar and sing his heart out. I quickly found myself clapping and moving along with the music. He is truly a gem in the genre that many haven't even heard of.

Genuine and pure. Real music.

I was lost in the RU-vid Haze but I have been found! Thanks to all who made this possible.

Boy that's a good one.

I could not click fast enough. I love Charlie. What a beautiful song, I cannot wait to hear more, very excited.

I'm so excited for his new album! Already preordered it and have been listening to this on repeat pretty frequently. Thank you Charlie Parr for the moments of reflection and peace I've gained listening to your music and songs.

sounds great Charlie. Still remember having you play at the iron range blast concert 2006 Chisholm Minnesota

Boy did this song remind me of . . . me. I'm going to need to listen to it a few more dozen times.

Amazing

Charlie Parr is such an underrated folk artist, been listening to him for a few years and can’t get enough.

The magic and meaning of life is being able to capture those .moments you k we were fate and frail. Love and life and remains 3years gone

“Drive back to your hometown to visit with your past…but nothing looks the same. …..”. This song is brilliant simplicity of life lessons. Don’t take for granted the moments you’re in cause you can never relive the moments lost. And those are what define us.

Another great song to your awesome catalog of music.

This song is a blessing for me

Back again. This song heals me. Thank you for sharing this important truth. It helps me trust myself.

awesome that he's on here, i haven't seen him live before but i know he used to play all over the town i currently reside in, fucking awesome!

this was phenomenal... "turn the entire sky to rust" WOW... this song was so deep... LOVE IT!!!

So glad I got to see him for free for years on Wednesday nights at my local bar

Beautiful song, thank you

My first car was a 64 Chevy Nova - pretty similar car to a Ford Falcon. For some reason, me and my dad had it in our heads that it would be a good idea to refurbish it as a father-son project. Perhaps to no one's surprise, me and my dad's inability to communicate resulted in a shared project that rapidly descended into one of resentment. I do have some good memories of that car. I was the first of my friends to get a drivers license and had a good time ferrying them around that first summer I had the car. But I also remember that car almost killing me on a number of occasions - Once while stuck in a traffic jam the old one-barrel carburetor went haywire, and I literally had to stand on the brake pedal connected to the non-powered, four wheel drum brakes, to keep me from barreling into the car in front of me. Another time, while driving home from school on a rainy winter evening, I had to slam on the brakes to avoid another accident. The brake lines collapsed, completely seizing up all four brakes. I was stuck blocking traffic on a two-lane road during rush hour. When a cop showed up to investigate, he tried to push me onto the shoulder of the road to get me out of traffic. At first he didn't believe me that the wheels were seized up and just thought I didn't know how to put my car into neutral. Finally, he just used the front bumper of his squad car to skid me off onto the shoulder and then promptly drove off. I was stranded for several hours before my dad came to pick me up. He repeatedly and sincerely apologized for taking so long. I don't think I accepted his apology. On another occasion, the front control arm blew out while me and my junior prom date were driving to a party. The steering suddenly jerked to the right, almost catapulting us into a concrete pillar as we drove under an overpass. I drove home that night with the big old plastic steering wheel turned at 90 degrees just to keep the car driving straight. Another time I got off work from my high school job at the local movie theater, and the damn thing wouldn't start. I remember my dad screaming at me for not keeping enough oil in the car. This old thing leaked all the time. I checked the oil every time I filled up with gas, and kept a quart in the trunk at all times. We dumped way too much money into that thing, way more than it could ever be worth, just to make it not be a death trap. Needless to say, with every repair and improvement the car received, the resentment between me and my dad deepened. One night, I remember him yelling at me that he was tired of working on it, and that I'd better figure out a way to get more hours of work at the movie theater job because he was done with it. Needless to say, this was not feasible working a part-time job at $5.15/hr. When I left home for college, I chose not to take the Nova with me. I didn't want to spend any time maintaining a car that needed constant work. I also didn't want to keep a car that had become a symbol of me and my dad's relationship. Apparently my dad lost interest in maintaining it, too, because every time I would come home from college it would be in an ever-worse state of repair. One of their dogs started using it as a perch, and the beautiful new paint job got all muddy and scratched up from its paws. The nice new tires deflated and dry-rotted. The new wheels sat on the bare ground, and the lug nuts and new front disc brakes rusted over. It couldn't start because of course the battery died, and the nice new carburetor was gummed-up with old gas anyway. The roof somehow sprang a leak, and the nice new headliner became stained, and the new carpet became damp and moldy. Eventually, my dad, who was often in a financial bind, sold it to his dad, probably for more money than it was worth, but less money than we had dumped into it. From what I hear, my PawPaw had a good time occasionally driving it into town, picking up his girlfriends, and taking them to Sonic; reliving his youth that ended far too early - he knocked up my Granny when he was only 18, had a shotgun marriage, and immediately had to start roughnecking to make a living. Once I took my then-girlfriend, now-wife, to visit him. He drove us into town in the Nova, took us to Sonic, and she got to experience that car for the first time. She really enjoyed it as it carried none of the baggage that it did for me. I remember feeling jealous that two people could get such pleasure from a car that the mere sight of would send my stress levels skyrocketing. I remember hoping that maybe someday, my grievances and resentments towards my dad would scar over enough that, when my PawPaw got too old to enjoy the Nova, maybe it would come back to me, and I would be able to receive it, and enjoy it, and maybe I could pass it on so my future kids could enjoy it. I'm now married, and have a child, and am more than twice the age I was when the Nova first came into my life. I can't remember the last time I was at my parents' house. Maybe 6 years? Maybe more? And I haven't seen or spoken to my parents in over a year and a half. That someday eventually arrived. My sister texted me the other day to let me know that PawPaw is too old to maintain and enjoy the Nova anymore, and my dad wants to know if I want it now. I told her to tell him I didn't want it and gave some very rational reasons - I don't have a place to park it, I don't have time or money to maintain it, that we don't one more thing cluttering up our place, that I live in a place that gets snow thru the winter and spring and that old rear wheel drive would be impossible to use in snowy conditions. I told her that my dad could take it back and keep it. She said that if I didn't want it he would probably sell it. I told her that my dad, still being in a financial bind, probably needed the money or a functioning car more than I did. Needless to say, those old grievances and resentments never did scar over on their own. And I felt very sad that the someday finally came, and I was not ready to accept the Nova back into my life, and that it would never be a source of pleasure for me. Of course, the Nova is just a car - a free car for that matter. What about it is unacceptable? My child has never seen or taken a ride in the Nova. He will never inherit it - not that I would want him to inherit that death trap. Perhaps someday far in the future, he might see an old picture of me standing next to the car, or hear my wife mention it as a memory. But more than likely, that someday will never come. The Nova will vanish out of me, and my father's, and my father's father's life entirely. But all of the anger and grievance that the Nova came to symbolize, that I imbued it with, will still be there. I'm now old enough to understand that old resentments do not scar over on their own, though I still pretend that someday they might. I'm old enough to realize that that someday will never come, and by then the Nova will be long gone.

Me in 2007: "RU-vid is the greatest thing ever created." Me in 2021: "Western AF is the greatest thing ever created."

The best of his generation. I could see him live in London, 2016, thank God.

This is most likely one of those songs that hit you and makes you think no matter what age you are...Great one! Lyrics and chords below Standard tuning, no Capo G F Am C all the way through [Intro] [Verse 1] Well money can't buy back that 64' Falcon That you sold in your 20s, then regretted it was gone Cause you thought it contained some meaning with some answers to life But you'd never bother to question Or even take a good close looking [Interlude] [Verse 2] And it broke your heart to see how it had been so very important From the feeling of the steering wheel to the rubber on the road But now it's grown to unrealistic proportions In your mind [Interlude] [Verse 3] Well now you're in your 50s, why can't you forget How the chrome bumpers shined in the sun And if you could just go back, even for a minute You could forget how you don't even know what it was That you lost [Interlude] [Verse 4] Why you always feel so empty in spite of all you have Were those feelings you remember even real Were they honestly about some junky old Falcon Or any other thing That you could own [Interlude] [Verse 5] Cause now it's all so stale and you feel so very old Like you*'ve taken all your chances and tossed em all aside For some stupid piece of metal, like shiny bits of trash That line the stolen nest of a greedy neighborhood crow [Interlude] [Verse 6] So you drive back to your hometown to visit with your past But nothing looks the same anymore And you can see all that you squandered where you were shining all that chrome You were handed all you needed without cost But you were to blind to see it, you took it all for granted Now you want to complain, tell me just what it was that you lost [Interlude] [Verse 7] And now you start to panic and your gas is running low And you need to find some meaning before you're stranded on the road And when the engine finally dies near a soybean field of dusk You just sit and watch the sunset turn the entire sky to rust Turn the entire sky to rust

I listened to this once, and for some reason I can’t stop, this seems to happen a lot with wonderful pieces especially the stuff western af puts out, thank you!

Love Charlie, as always... right in the feels.

This guy is amazing

Thats one mean ol' hipster. Loved it.

In Belfast this Sunday! Looking forward to it.

Always a treat running into him at earth rider brewery.

Charlie Parr ! About time he's an OG!

Wow! What a gem…. Blew me away!

Wow. Just wow.

I'm a generation behind you Charlie but you speak my heart

Sometimes the RU-vid algorithm scares the shit out of me. I needed this and didnt even know it.

Great tune!

That is a great song. Love it.

Great title. Great riffs

Beautiful tune.

That was something special.

The best channel on YT, can't change my mind

Wow so much good music out there

Ah man...that Falcon represents so much of my life. thanks Charlie. Great tune.

One of the best

Charlie is the coolest!

Love it !

So good in Fargo!

Wow! Just Wow!

Love this vibe

Solid song and solid title!

Excited to see him tonight at Gullivers , Manchester

What an incredible musician. I'd love to see him do a couple songs with James McMurtry one day. I think the two of them are spearheading some of the best modern folk music out there these days.

this is my fav channel

love it!

More second acts in American life! THIS IS WHAT WE WANT! Artists with EXPERIENCE.

A gem of Duluth

Frickin' loved that

Charlie is a god damn king.

This song makes me want to put my head down and get back to work

Charlie comes to my hometown for boats and bluegrass and other small river town happenings. Definitely a big deal around these parts!

Tune rocks and gives me 'best of dire straits' vibes

One great country/folk singer/songwriter. I had never listened to him before. Reina del Sid and her usual partner, Toni Lingren said to pay attention to him. They were right.

I had a 65 Falcon when I was 20, sold it when I was 25 for a 65 mustang. Sold it too. I'm 38 now and I miss those old cars, should have never sold them but life deals ups and downs and do what we can to get by.

Nice!

Look this mans tour schedule up and if he is within a drives distance I strongly recommend you go see him. I went to his show on a whim when he came to Vermont, and let me tell you he puts on one helluva show!

Do not know how iv slept on this dude im so lucky I found you love your picking an playing brother

My daughter Leigh loved your performance and you--- she saw you recently in Montana- x

100,000th sub!!!