Charlie McAlister - I Am The World's Richest Man LP
AHT 070 – Limited Edition of 138 copies with individually designed and hand drawn sleeves.
I often think at Charlie’s failed trip to Bari. Charlie once sent me an email. He wanted to come to Bari and stay here for months, we would have been hanging together around Italy. The idea was to record a new album and I was so excited at the thought of finally meeting one of my heroes. We almost meet each other. He would have stayed at a house in the countryside. I had found a used tascam machine that he could use for recording, my grandpa homemade banjo that he made while he was prisoner in South Afrika during the second world war, some of my friends would have been is backing band, a really talented guitarist, a violinist and some horn players too. Charlie had not enough money and the trip was delayed, postponed and it never happened in the end… to our great disappointment. To spend months together with one of my favourite artists. Charlie told me he had had some troubles with the law before, I never investigated, it wasn’t a trouble for me. Had he killed someone, I would have given him a roof and food the same. I sent him videos from Bari, to get acquainted with my city and its habits. We’re strange, we eat raw octopus, we bite the octopus on the head when it is still alive to kill it and we throw it on the rocks to make it tender and we eat it without cooking it, a practive that makes sushi look pale. And sea urchins, we’ve got them also, as they come out from the sea, without cooking. Charlie wasn’t too much impressed. It’s hard to realize that Charlie is no longer with us, that this trip will never happen, that we will never meet. ”I Am The World’s Richest Man” is the follow up to ”Umpo Scuzzi”, we were talking about this a few weeks before he left us. I knew he was working at a bunch of new songs, I did not know he had almost completed them. This collection of songs has been assembled by Charlie’s close friends and I’m forever in debt with them for this. These songs came from 4 tapes which were mixdowns of songs, and none were the final. Celie has chosen the best versions based on Charlie’s notes. Thank you Celie and thank you Will for all your effeorts and for making this happen. I miss Charlie, but luckily he left me with his tapes and his music to listen to. And now this…
I often think at Charlie’s failed trip to Bari. Charlie once sent me an email. He wanted to come to Bari and stay here for months, we would have been hanging together around Italy. The idea was to record a new album and I was so excited at the thought of finally meeting one of my heroes. We almost meet each other. He would have stayed at a house in the countryside. I had found a used tascam machine that he could use for recording, my grandpa homemade banjo that he made while he was prisoner in South Afrika during the second world war, some of my friends would have been is backing band, a really talented guitarist, a violinist and some horn players too. Charlie had not enough money and the trip was delayed, postponed and it never happened in the end… to our great disappointment. To spend months together with one of my favourite artists. Charlie told me he had had some troubles with the law before, I never investigated, it wasn’t a trouble for me. Had he killed someone, I would have given him a roof and food the same. I sent him videos from Bari, to get acquainted with my city and its habits. We’re strange, we eat raw octopus, we bite the octopus on the head when it is still alive to kill it and we throw it on the rocks to make it tender and we eat it without cooking it, a practive that makes sushi look pale. And sea urchins, we’ve got them also, as they come out from the sea, without cooking. Charlie wasn’t too much impressed. It’s hard to realize that Charlie is no longer with us, that this trip will never happen, that we will never meet. ”I Am The World’s Richest Man” is the follow up to ”Umpo Scuzzi”, we were talking about this a few weeks before he left us. I knew he was working at a bunch of new songs, I did not know he had almost completed them. This collection of songs has been assembled by Charlie’s close friends and I’m forever in debt with them for this. These songs came from 4 tapes which were mixdowns of songs, and none were the final. Celie has chosen the best versions based on Charlie’s notes. Thank you Celie and thank you Will for all your effeorts and for making this happen. I miss Charlie, but luckily he left me with his tapes and his music to listen to. And now this…