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DETROIT LAKES

— Minnesota folk and blues musician Charlie Parr is bringing his gritty, honest sound to Detroit Lakes’ Historic Holmes Theatre on Friday, June 5, for a 7:30 p.m. benefit concert.

It will mark his first time playing a concert in the community, though he says, “I have definitely been through there before.”

“I’m excited to play,” he added in a Thursday, May 21 interview. “I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

Parr, a Duluth, Minnesota resident known for his soulful style and mastery of instruments like the 12-string Gretsch guitar and Mule resonator, says that he is primarily a solo artist, though he has tried his hand at a few musical collaborations over the span of his 25-year career (Parr’s debut album was released in 2001).

A self-taught musician who grew up in Austin and Hollandale, Minnesota, Parr has built his reputation as part bluesman poet, part folk troubadour — blending Delta blues, Depression-era roots music, and contemporary folk tradition. His upbringing, infused with his father’s stories of the working class, heavily influences his songwriting, which he says began not out of a desire for performance, but from profound personal loss.

“I didn’t write songs until my dad passed away, and then I had, you know, the amount of grief that I had for my dad, it just came out in me trying to write down all the stories that he told me and all the things that I learned from him,” Parr said in a recent phone interview. “They came out looking like songs, so I started assembling them into songs.”

That deep, personal connection to his material is often why Parr maintains a preference for the solo format, performing as a solo acoustic act about 90% of the time. This mirrors the style of his mentors and key musical influences, including historical figures like Lead Belly and Charley Patton, as well as Minnesota guitar players such as John “Spider” Koerner and Dave Ray.

“I heard it first as solo music, solo guitar voice music, and that’s what I wanted to emulate,” he explained. “I’ve tried to play with people before, but then the atmosphere of the solo guitar player kind of disappears as you add more and more pieces to it, so I just keep going back to being by myself.”

For Parr, live performance is an essential part of the creative process, offering a nightly opportunity to connect with his audience and continually evolve his material.

“Songs are never really finished,” Parr said. “You get to recreate them every night in front of an audience. It feels like a fresh new palette, or canvas, every single night.”

He added that he enjoys the feeling of being inspired to “dive into something all over again” each time he performs, noting that it never stops being special or inspiring.

Parr, who has released 19 full-length albums over his career, beginning with his 2002 debut, “Criminals and Sinners,” and has toured across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe, considers himself privileged to make a living playing music. While he has never performed in Detroit Lakes before, he is looking forward to the engagement.

Contributed / Shelly Mosman

“It looks like a beautiful theater,” he said, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to play there.

“I’ve been extremely lucky,” he said. “I haven’t had a job now in 25 years. I’ve just been traveling and playing music.”

Looking ahead, Parr revealed he has a new record that is finished and set for release in mid-October. He has been playing much of the new material during his recent shows.

“Part of the writing process for me is being able to perform stuff and see how it sits in a live setting,” he said. “I’m happy with it. I’m pretty excited about getting to play it now.”

Charlie Parr’s June 5 concert is the second in the “Live Limitless” series:

The first, held on June 6, 2025, featured The Jayhawks.

Both concerts were organized to benefit Diane Lundmark, a Minnetonka woman who was paralyzed from the chest down in a September 2024 accident and has strong family ties to the Detroit Lakes community.

Tickets for Parr’s concert are $50 per person, and may be purchased online at the event’s web page,

dlccc.org/event/charlie-parr,

by phone at 218-844-7469, or in person at the Holmes Box Office, 806 Summit Ave., Detroit Lakes, which is open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as for two hours prior to every show.