"I just started doin' roady for 'em just so I could go with 'em when they go out. One time this guy stopped me and said I should be playing with them. I told him I wants to play. And he started me off to playing," speaks Charles, of his start with Mississippi greats like Bobby Barnes and L.V. Banks (Jefferson Blues Magazine).
As a young bass player in the South, Charles had fears of the North, citing murder rates. But eventually Eddie Shaw convinced him to trek to Chicago in the early '60s, and tour the circuit. Though he did make it up, he bolted 'cause of the cold and didn't return for good until his second coming at the West Side club Curley's, where he met a set of musicians that would launch his career.
Howlin' Wolf, Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters--as with most Chicagoans, the collab list goes on and on. But the most important connection was with Billy Branch, through which Charles would become a permanent fixture in the Branch-led Sons of Blues for double-digit years (he now sometimes fronts them).
A freelancer of sorts, Charles has a style that is all bouncy funk, almost honky tonk. His bass overpowers guitars, and drags drum lines. Dig the recent release, Lefty Dizz and Shock Treatment Live in Chicago, a record of a 1982 performance on which Charles reigns supreme.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.myspace.com/nickcharlesbass
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