Charlie Pickett
(Bloodshot)
After spending the better part of the eighties touring behind much loved, but poor selling records, Charlie Pickett followed the same path as Barry Melton from Country Joe & the Fish, Tom Rapp from Pearls Before Swine and countless others: he left the music business, went back to school and became a lawyer.
While those two other attorneys have musical backgrounds drawn from protest/psychedelia and folk/literary poetics, Pickett perfected an alluringly loud and tipsy blend that was part swamp boogie, part Yardbirds/Stones. Some of his songs have the directness and simplicity of his quieter contemporary, Ben Vaughn, meaning, with another set of circumstances, they would be well-placed covers. ("If This is Love, Can I Get My Money Back?" is as good as its title.) This 19 song anthology draws from 45s, EPs, LPs, and live tapes by Charlie Pickett and the Eggs (and later, The MC3), Miami's finest rough-and-tumble musical export.
Stand-out Tracks: "But I Didn't," "Head Up-Heels Down" DAVID GREENBERGER
