The explanatory liner notes that convey Johnson’s new mythology fit well with Johnson’s newer music, a sort of “honest” Americana that does not labor to reconcile itself with its imaginary roots. Johnson’s archetypal characters become more than musicians. They are people, trying to cope with an overwhelming world they don’t understand. By examining these characters Johnson examines both his world and his music.
Johnson isn’t just looking in the mirror; the creatures of his imagination provide sound though symbolic glimpses of a world far larger than the artist’s personal reality. Charlie Shoe’s songs are named and explained in the liner notes to give each a greater verbal specificity than is possible with most solely instrumental efforts. Ranging from the story of a young man faking blindness to find sexual gratification in church to a look at nesting sparrows, these songs place Johnson’s eccentric guitar playing in a set of specific and revelatory contexts that often invoke religion in some form or another.
With the addition of Who Knew Charlie Shoe? Johnson creates a pivotal moment in his imaginary timeline with a chance meeting of the two men in 1964 at a church picnic near Marked Tree, Arkansas. This meeting allows a tradition and philosophy of guitar playing and song-writing to pass from one generation to the next. At the heart of this tradition is Vernon McAlister’s deeply held belief that songs are “discovered” not written. Songs exist. They always have existed and always will. Some songs are discovered. Some are not. A musician is an explorer searching for undiscovered songs. Like undiscovered islands, these uncharted songs are there and part of the world regardless of whether we know about them or not. To discover a song it just needs to be played. The act of performance forever guarantees the song an existence as part of our culture even though the song itself exists and has always existed in complete independence from the culture.
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