By MICHAEL ARDAIOLO

The pair is continuing to explore the setting set by Johnson on The Legend of Vernon McAlister, and with the inclusion of Bendian on a junkyard full of percussive toys, the sound is leaving solely Fahey territory for realms all its own. This time around, the album is the supposed recorded session of Charlie Shoe, an Arkansas native who suffers from a form of mild autism and was inspired by a chance encounter with Vernon McAlister, and Jaden Barrel aka Junk Fish, a retired prog-rocker from the late 70s who thanks to his rock & roll lifestyle ended up penniless in a junkyard in the very same city as Shoe. Thanks to a musicologist from the University of Memphis, the pair’s combined talents, dubbed as “hick-prog,” was captured to tape and subsequently released as this album. All fictional back-story aside, Who Knew Charlie Shoe? features Johnson on mostly a set of five vintage guitars he purchased on eBay for around a hundred dollars each and Bendian banging on everything from a lard can to racks, brooms and brushes to washboards and chunks o’ metal.
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