Charlie Terrell

Birmingham, Alabama-bred, Austin, Texas-based visual artist, playwright, and roots musician Charlie Terrell was raised on a steady diet of sacred harp singing, the Allman Brothers, snake handling, Lynyrd Skynyrd, voodoo, Springsteen, Prine, Zevon, and Dylan. After relocating to Los Angeles from Nashville in the late '80s, he inked a major-label deal with Giant/Warner Bros., releasing the well-received On the Wings of Dirty Angels under the moniker Terrell. Personal differences and a good deal of bad luck (the group's equipment truck was hijacked) resulted in Terrell taking a break from pursuing music full-time, but he returned to the studio in 1995 for the Point Blank/Virgin Records-issued Angry Southern Gentleman. Beautiful Side of Madness arrived in 1996, followed by the self-released 3 Links in a Broken Chain in 2000 and the rowdy multimedia theatrical play Taking the Jesus Pill in 2009. Alabama Steampunk Blues was released in 2010 under his most recent incarnation, the rough-and-tumble bluesy roots rockers Charlie Terrell and the Murdered Johns. ~ James Christopher Monger