I get a lot of albums sent to me for review. The vast majority are things that I’ve requested from publicists or record labels. Occasionally, though, a person whose taste I trust will recommend an artist who I’m not familiar with, and I’ll part with some precious listening time to check him out. That’s the way it happened with Charlie Mars, and his new album Like A Bird, Like A Plane (Rockingham/Thirty Tigers).

Mars is singer/songwriter who was raised in Laurel, Mississippi. This is technically his fifth album, but one that he’d like to treat as a new start. In 1999, after releasing his third album, End of Romance, he found himself burned out on pills and alcohol, and entered rehab. When he got out, he headed for Sweden, where he enjoyed his anonymity, performing for local crowds. While there he wrote the songs that would lead to his self-titled major label debut on V2 Records, which was released in 2004.

After V2 folded, and its artist roster was cut, Mars set out for Austin, looking for musicians who could produce the sound he was hearing in his head. “I started to feel less inspired by traditional rock, and pulled toward the snaky, sinewy, sensuality of groove,” Mars said. His success in finding the perfect musicians to “form four corners instead of facing straight ahead,” is evident on every track of this album. (more…)