CHARLES BROWN

Artist's Website
Contact Artist
Colorado, USA

Available CDs

Warranties and Disclaimers

"CHARLES BROWN takes you on a 63 minute mystical ride. Charles is a real master in weaving atmosphic carpets with slide guitar, progrockin' keyboards, world music influences (from asian to country and ragtime), acoustic guitar, classics, hymnic and foggy atmosphere. 63 instrumental minutes lots of jewels. Let's meet with Charles Brown at the fireplace ! 8 points" - Markus Weis, DURP.com

"Talk about encompassing a wide range of musical styles on one album!  The latest CD from Denver, CO guitarist Charles Brown draws from a large pallete of musical styles; from spacey, new age instrumental excursions, blues, classical, fusion and progressive rock to shredding heavy metal, you'll find all these and more during the course of the 62 minutes which comprises Mystics.  As Brown is quite the accomplished musician it comes as no surprise that he pulls it off with ease.  Equally influenced by J.S. Back (which he shows off to good effect on a soothing solo acoustic rendition of 'Sarabande'), progressive bands such as Genesis, Marillion, and Dream Theater as well as hard rock/metal axemen Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson and Robin Trower, Brown has fashioned a very eclectic collection of mostly instrumental compositions that one minute will soothe your soul, then turn around and rip your head off with blazing guitar solos!  As well as being a supremely talented guitarist both compositional and playing wise, he also adds to the sonic textures by adding some very impressive synth sounds courtesy of Roland's GR-30 guitar synthesizer, which goes a long way towards giving many of the tracks their progressive sound.  Some of the many highlights of the CD include 'New Millennium', (the sole vocal track which sounds reminiscent of a metallized Frank Zappa), 'Granados Meets Blackmore', which starts out acoustically by Brown's rendition of 'Villanesca/Spanish Dance #4' before transforming into a very Deep Purple like groove, on top of which he solos with abandon, the folk styled 'Afterglow' that wouldn't have been out of place on Led Zeppelin III and 'Reprise: Sunrise Serenade/Black Earth Jam' a fine example of instrumental progressive metal featuring impressive keyboard/guitar interplay.  Due to the diversity ofmusical styles presented on Mystics I'm not sureexactly what audience Brown is targeting on this CD, but if you're a fan of great guitar work and are willing to take a musical journey through varied musical genres I'd strongly recommend taking the time tracking this one down.  I'm looking forward to hearing much more music from this very talented guitarist in the not too distant future." - Keith Langerman, Guitar 2001

"If there’s one issue that is definitely not a problem for Denver, CO guitarist Charles Brown, it’s limiting himself to any one particular style or sound.  Celebrating the range and versatility of the stringed instrument on MYSTICS, Mr. Brown explores a variety of music within the progressive arena in a way guitarists such as Steve Howe and Alex Lifeson did before him.

 In no particular historical order, Charles Brown lays down some funky stuff, some classical guitar, some Texas honky tonk, jazz, serenades, easy listening, and heavy metal interspersed among spacey Roland synthesizer aided passages.  Whew! This is the kind of talent we hack guitarists can only marvel at.  It’s as if, track by (and within) track, Brown is saying “What are you in the mood for?  Yeah, I can do that”.

 Did you ever feel like singing a Karaoke to lounge music, and then right after posture with your air guitar to a rip-roaring solo like you were Robin Trower or even Eddie Van Halen?  Me neither.  But you could here!  With track 10, an instrumental of Johnny Mathis’ “Misty” and track 11, “Blackjack”.  On “Granados Meets Blackmore” Brown starts out with a happy acoustic ditty complete with harmonics, and then mockingly turns the guitar into a distortion laden tribute to Mr. Deep Purple himself.  “New Millennium” is the only track with vocals and employs a distinctly Zappa approach to satirical rock.  The first track “Final Ascent/Mystic Traveller” and the last track  “Aspenglow” are pretty songs, which seem placed to start and end us in a trance-like state.

 This CD could not be classified as a traditional progressive rock album, but if you are into a jamming guitar, whether it’s classical, steel, acoustic, light or heavy electric, it’s for you. " - Rick Woodward, Prog4You.com

"Guitarist Charles Brown from Denver has just released his new solo-CD 'Earth voyage'. The album is a high quality instrumental progressive melodic hardrockalbum with interesting keyboard and guitar parts in each and every song. Songs like "Wind of the north star", "Nuclear burn", "Take it on home" and "Take no prisoners" are very good instrumental progressive melodic rockers with great keyboard and guitarsolo's. Not only guitarfreaks will like this album, but also the fans of progressive and melodic rock might enjoy this high quality release a lot.  Points: 8.0 out of 10" - Gabor Kleinbloesem, Strutter 'Zine

"When experiencing instrumental guitar-virtuoso recordings, the primary concern is whether anything new has been brought to the table—or has it all been done, already? Frankly, guitarists who are content to demonstrate how many notes they can squeeze into a bar, with or without the aid of axle grease, are downright boring. If speed is combined with unorthodox phrasing, muting and/or picking/tapping combinations, while emphasizing melody, only then might things begin to get interesting. Not everyone addresses the importance of melody over speed because a worthwhile melody isn’t as easy to come by as it might seem; some players are just looking to impress, with a capital I. Charles Brown, who makes his home in Colorado, instructs guitar and guitar synthesizer applications—let his name be added now to the list of those who have also recorded with guitar synths and/or MIDI guitar, like Lee Ritenour, Al Di Meola, Adrian Belew and Bill Berends. Atop his fondness for new modes of execution, Brown's compositions brandish a certain maturity.

The selections on Earth Voyage run the gamut of classical (Bach’s “Cantata #67”), cinematic rock (“The Phoenix”) and full-burn prog-metal (“Nuclear Burn”). “Into The Storm” opens with a classically-flavored guitar synth flourish before [well-programmed] percussion and a swift Strat lead break in; the Strat lead evokes the lyrical style of Blue Oyster Cult’s Buck Dharma, and a second guitar synth bit tempers this engaging cut. Yes, there is no real drummer on this album—fret not, great care has been taken to make the percussion sound very natural. “Wind Of The North Star” isn’t quite as exciting as the opener: locomotive riffing and synth chords which sound like a keyboardist’s modal warmups are passable, so long as the ears are relaxed and the sounds are taken for what they are. In terms of volume, “North Star” is a huge track.

Flight Of The Eagle” is a delicate acoustic composition with a synthetic backdrop, in a nutshell. “Take No Prisoners” features a real (as in human) bassist in the form of Bill Lawrence; this track sounds like a sequel to “Into The Storm” with some of the same synthtones, and the Dharmaesque lead—to have combined these two into one longer seven-minute track may not have been a bad idea. "Nuclear Burn" finally crosses the yellow tape into prog-metal territory with guest keyboardist Matt Bassano. The auxiliary intro (by Brown) could have been done away with, to highlight the [guitar] crescendo. More of a jam, with trade-offs aplenty, both players wail away in the context of Petrucci/Rudess, Berends/Johansson, Groom/West, and all that jazz. Bassano also appears on “Snowblind Hell,” along with lead fill contributions by second guest, guitarist Bill Boerder. Technically, nice showmanship, but more of the same. The hi-energy pieces are balanced by the lush beauty of midline tracks like “Earth Voyage” and “Celestial Horizon.”

The bottom line on Earth Voyage is a guitar-synthesist who makes things interesting by combining his grass-roots love for six strings with advanced electronics. These sort of albums don’t pop up too often, so this one is easily worth a look." - Elias Granillo, Sea of Tranquility

"The cover of this CD features Mr Brown in dark glasses, leaning over his guitar and overlaid with earthy images of rivers, mountains and skylines - add to this the range of track names, and you could be forgiven for thinking this was an album of new-age relaxation music. However this wholly instrumental album is a platform for CB to show off his guitar skills across electric, acoustic and synth guitars, and not a beagle in sight (okay , no more 'Peanuts' references - I promise).

A dreamy synth brass melody introduces Into the Storm, but any hint of this being a quiet track is quickly blown away by a rush of drums (well, actually a drum machine, but well-enough programmed to avoid sounding too synthetic). This throws us into a riff very similar to (although heavier than) Jethro Tull's Gold-tipped boots, black jacket & tie. This repeats with a couple of synth guitar solos to add variety, and sets the tone for much of the album.

Wind Of The North Star spends around 2 minutes building up synth pads and effects until the rock kicks in with a lead synth guitar melody full of bluster, backed by some basic power cords - not a million miles removed from Rush's La Villa Strangiato. After another 2 minutes we then have a lead guitar solo - fast and furious, if a little short.

Flight of the Eagle is largely performed on acoustic guitar, with some backing synth pads. It's very gentle, and is probably the closest the album comes to the style suggested by the cover. It shows that there is more than power chords and lightning-fast fretwork to CB - he's just as capable of producing something quieter and more introspective. For me this is one of the highlights of the disc.

There's a Deep Purple influence to Take no Prisoners which features some reverse guitar, and a little too much synth guitar soloing. This is overdone here I think more because of the rather uninspiring synth sound used - a little more variety could have been used.

It's always interesting to hear what a modern musician makes of a classic composer like Bach - especially with the range of sounds and musical textures available to today's artists. The most interesting thing about this version of J.S.Bach's Cantata #67 is that it mercifully lasts only 53 seconds. Unfortunately that is 53 seconds too long. This sounds like someone who's learned some piano basics going into a music store, choosing a 'choir' patch on a cheap home keyboard and sight-reading a piece of Bach they've never heard before. What on earth was he thinking of, putting this on here? Simply dreadful.

Returning to sanity, Nuclear Burn begins with a gentle acoustic guitar & synth duet, before a buzzing guitar breaks in to kick off a riff-powered keyboard workout (real keyboards, not guitar synths - the difference is quite obvious) in true ELP style. The keys and guitars continue to trade solos until the end. Keyboard player Matt Bassano is as flash on the keys as Brown is on the strings, so this is a fast, frenzied race to the finish.

A beautiful medieval-sounding acoustic guitar section introduces Earth Voyage - just to prove he doesn't have to massacre classical music? Jangling guitars are then overlaid with rousing lead guitars and then synth brass sounds, recalling the cheerful Heartsong by Gordon Giltrap (the theme music from 'The Holiday Programme' for UK readers). All very 'nice'.

Snowblind Hell follows the pattern we see emerging of gentle acoustic introduction being followed by a rock section liberally spiced with guitar (synth & electric) solos. However, for this track I found the solos were pretty uninspiring, whilst the drum machine (used effectively earlier) is very intrusive with a super-human bass drum beat which sounds impossibly fast. The rhythm guitar on this track bears a close resemblance to a bee stuck in a jam jar, which also detracts from the overall sound. It then segues into the all-too-brief Celestial Horizon, which is a laid-back guitar solo which starts off like Shine on you Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd before going off in its own direction with cascades of ultra-fast echoing guitar runs.

The Phoenix is a fairly straightforward guitar workout from start to end, with little to distinguish it from umpteen other prog metal tracks.

A wonderful acoustic slide guitar introduction suggests Take it on Home could take a trip to Led Zeppelin country, but no it's more like ZZ Top once the rock instrumentation gets added. And there's that Tull riff again (see above). Loop a couple of times with fade out over further guitar doodlings.

And then the track that should have followed the intro from the previous track - Tears of the Lost Angel - is the other high point of this disc. Lots of acoustic guitar, with a killer riff which is a mixture of Catfish Rising-era Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin - it does just tend to repeat the same line over and over, with minor variations and a short break passage, but with a riff this good it's forgivable.

After listening to this disc, I'm left feeling that I want more. Not because I loved every track, but because there was so much potential here that with the right production this could really develop into something good. Despite the enthusiasm for blistering lead guitar solos and guitar synths, it is in the acoustic tracks where Charles Brown really shines, and I think he could make much more of the dynamic range by moving between acoustic and electric within the space of a track, instead of just starting acoustic and finishing electric. With a bit of judicious editing, I think this album could be cut down to a good 15 minute progressive instrumental piece, but as it stands there is just too much unnecessary synth guitar and uninspiring (though technically excellent) lead guitar.

On the other hand, there are some tracks here which could act as great backing for a suitable vocalist - especially the final track - and this would also help to round out this package and make it more complete. This is certainly not a bad album, but it could have been so much more. Lovers of guitar instrumentals should check this out - especially for the range of styles covered, but most of the rest of us will probably want to wait to see how Charles Brown develops and hope his next release is not a collection of Bach cover versions." - Jonathan Bisset, DPRP

"In a private communication, Charles Brown described his music as reminiscent of Deep Purple, Rush and Judas Priest, along with some acoustic / classic / textural pieces in the vein of Pat Metheney or classical players like Christopher Parkening.  Charles Brown is a Colorado-based musician who plays hard-hitting guitar-based rock, with a distinctly progressive edge. His music comprises instrumental pieces using electric and acoustic guitars and Brown’s signature instrument, the guitar synthesizer. That’s a lot of words – so what does it mean?

First. This music is a key example of the difference between rock and metal. This is hard rock. It has some metal overtones, some good guitar solos and some deep crunchy power-chord riffs. But notwithstanding Brown’s references to Deep Purple, Dio and Judas Priest, this is not metal, folks. This is Rock! And Charles Brown’s rock sounds are deeply rooted in the ‘70s. It isn’t the sounds of the ‘70s, but the references are unmistakeable.  Second. The word “texture” should appear many times in any review of Charles Brown’s music. He builds big sounds, which are richly layered and tastefully complex. He is a guitar virtuoso but thankfully not in the mould of a Satriani or a Johnson or even a Malmstein. So despite the references to hard rock, this is a mature, symphonic, melodic sound.  Third. Imagine a guitar played through a Roland guitar synthesizer. And attached to that GR-33 you have a marionette Wynton Marsalis lookalike puppet. Charles Brown’s guitar pick is the remote control for the puppet strings, and on command, Marsalis is pumping away at his trumpet producing rich, brass sounds a la Roland. Can you see it? You’ll certainly hear it. The signature sound of this album is synth brass, often presented with big-band pomp and bluster.  Finally. Fake drums! Competently programmed, but they sometimes really get in the way. The only drum machine worth using is the old carbon-based model, and last time we looked there was a glut of them out there, under-utilized and waiting to be put to good use.

Is this making sense yet? With all those synthesized sounds Earth Voyage is an unusual album, and tough to describe.  Besides the rock, there are some acoustic tracks, where Brown really shines (He is also a classical guitarist). The album is punctuated with ambient sound effects. Rain falling, wind machine on 2 tracks, all the clichés – but they are not too prominent and contribute nicely.  Three other musicians make light contributions to Earth Voyage. One-man bands often leave you feeling that something is missing. The interplay between separate musicians, with their different personalities and emotions and idiosyncrasies, is one of the keys to making really rich music in the traditional way. But you might find yourself tapping your foot to the pleasant riffs, the effective hooks, the complex textures and the polished execution.  In an age of 80-minute albums Earth Voyage is a refreshingly short 40-minute listen, but you won’t mind hitting replay twice as often." - Duncan Glenday, Progressive Ears

Reviews coming soon...

"You think you know all the sounds a guitar can make? Unless you’re familiar with guitar synthesizers, you don’t know half of it. This guitar-only instrumental album will show you a whole new set of capabilities for the instrument you thought you knew. Yet this is no casual experiment – despite the computerized modification of Charles Brown’s Les Pauls and Strats, the music itself stands on its own merits.

Charles Brown brings the worlds of guitar and electronics together and blends in a rich imagination, a virtuoso playing capability, and a strong sense of music and melody. The result is a multi-layered, multi-styled, multi-textured body of work that stands up to the test of multiple replays.

The guitar synth was originally developed by Roland in the late 1970s, and was quickly picked up by luminaries of the day such as Steve Hackett (then recently ex-Genesis), and Roye Albrighton (then recently ex-Nektar.) It is a small gadget that is fitted onto the guitar and picks up the string vibrations, and passes them through a synthesizer. There, the music notes can be translated into whatever sound the artist chooses – and Brown has selected a variety of brass and woodwinds instruments, among others. But in order to make those instruments sound convincing, a whole new playing style must be employed. You couldn’t play power chords as a synthesized trumpet, or a lead solo through a tuba patch. So it requires impressive musicianship to pass those guitar notes off as the synthesized instruments. The guitarist has to put himself in the mind of a trumpet player, and pick tunes in such a way that they sound right.

But the signature sound remains the guitar itself, masterfully played, with various voices overdubbed to sound like an orchestra of acoustic, distorted and clean guitar voices. Brown’s classical training is very apparent.

The styles of the songs range from classical to acoustic new age, to country, to hard rock and metal. Charles admits to influences of progressive bands such as Genesis, Marillion, Yes, and Dream Theater. On the harder rock pieces, he acknowledges players such as Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmstein, Eric Johnson, and Robin Trower. He is also a Classical guitar player, and that element is also an important part of his style.

See our review of Earth Voyage, a previous Charles Brown release. There seemed to be more adventure on that album – some wilder rides there, and the envelope was more severely pushed. But this album is altogether more mature, and hangs together as a full composition.

For all the electronic wizardry and the masterful guitar work, this album’s biggest strength lies in the song structures. This is a mature sound – this is prog for grown-ups." - Duncan Glenday, Progressive Ears

Reviews coming soon...

Reviews coming soon...

Reviews coming soon...