Thank Blackjack for Charlie Mars’ Music
Blackjack is my favorite casino game for a variety of reasons, but I just found a new reason. The game of blackjack is responsible for the career resurgence of one of my favorite musicians.
Yes, it’s true. His name is Charlie Mars and if you haven’t heard of him, I suggest you buy his new album, Like a Bird, Like a Plane. If you’re one of those people who wants to listen to some samples or download a few songs first, I recommend checking out two songs in particular, “Listen to the Darkside” and “Meet Me by the Backdoor.”
Mississippi native Mars started out as your typical acoustic guitar-wielding singer/songwriter, but over the years he has evolved from a standard crooner into an artist with a fully fleshed sound that is as interested in grooves, rhythmic beats and catchy riffs as in storytelling. This evolution is most apparent on his current album, but that album almost never happened.
After touring relentlessly to support his first four albums, Mars became burned out and addicted. He then went to rehab and once he got out, was living on a houseboat in Sweden. He assumed that his music career was over, as did everyone else. While living on the houseboat, however, he became inspired and began writing some new songs, uncertain of whether he would ever do anything with them.
As you might expect of someone living on a houseboat, Mars didn’t have any cash, so once he was finished writing the songs, he had no way bitcoin dice of recording them. He had lost his recording contract a long time prior and no record label was willing to bankroll the album of a man who had become burned out before ever making it big or even headlining a tour of his …
