Culture
Charlie Parr – 2025 Nelsonville Music Festival Sycamore Session
By: Emily Votaw
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NELSONVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – Duluth, Minnesota–based singer-songwriter Charlie Parr has spent more than two decades shaping one of the most compelling catalogs in contemporary American roots music.
For his contribution to the 2025 Sycamore Sessions, Parr performs 817 Oakland Avenue and Last of the Better Days Ahead from his 2021 album Last of the Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian Folkways), alongside Cheap Wine from his 2005 album Rooster (Eclectone Records/Little Judges Records) and Falcon from his 2015 album Stumpjumper (Red House Records).
Parr concludes his set with two covers. He first performs Running, Jumping, Standing Still, the title track from the 1969 album by Spider John Koerner and Willie Murphy, as a tribute to the late Koerner. The session then closes with an a cappella rendition of Ain’t No Grave, a traditional gospel song often attributed to Appalachian musician and preacher Claude Ely.
Setlist
0:12 – 817 Oakland Avenue
5:00 – Last of the Better Days Ahead
8:14 – Cheap Wine
13:03 – Falcon
17:11 – Running, Jumping, Standing Still (Spider John Koerner cover)
20:15 – Ain’t No Grave (traditional, attributed to Claude Ely)
Director – Gigi Twatchman
Technical Director – Chase Strebel
Editors – Zack Reed and Patrick Waite
Camera Operators – Zach Baic, Brandon Boothe, Kat Carlson, Keagan O’brien, Parker Phillips
Audio Production Team – Gavin Buchanan, Matthew Hilliard, Ben Stewart
Artist Relations Team – Luka Martin, Jillian Schatzley, Mia Voice
The Sycamore Sessions are presented by the Nelsonville Music Festival in collaboration with WOUB Public Media and the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication’s School of Media Arts and Studies. The videos are created by Media Arts and Studies students under the guidance of Producer and Host Josh Antonuccio, Audio Supervisor Adam Rich, WOUB Arts and Culture Editor Emily Votaw, and Director of Photography Andie Walla. All performances were filmed during the 2025 Nelsonville Music Festival, a production of Stuart’s Opera House.