Charlie Oxford

Overview

It’s not often in post-millennium times that an 11-year-old guitar player has his life changed through hearing an iconic 1960s soul song. Charlie Oxford was woodshedding on Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs when he first heard Sam Cooke’s “That’s Where It’s At.” And that 1960s buttery soulfulness has become a main ingredient in Oxford’s home-cooked, modern soul-pop. His self-titled debut is sweet and simmering. It’s comfort food for the modern listener, tracing a line from Sam Cooke to pop contemporaries like James Morrison and John Mayer.  In the fall of 2011, Oxford completed a Kickstarter campaign and raised an impressive $10,000 to fund his debut. The Nashville-based artist has grown his fan base organically through live performances and word-of-mouth exposure. A highlight for him was performing on the BMI Songwriter Stage at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, as well as performing twice at the annual BMI Key West Songwriters Festival. Oxford’s album was produced by Adam Smith (Jason Reeves, Jordin Sparks, Kara DioGuardi, Danny Gokey, L.E.D., Krystal Meyers, The Veronicas, Lovedrug, Megan & Liz, and Britt Nicole) and recorded at Welcome to 1979 Studios and the Evil 8-bit Robot Factory in Nashville. The album features a stunning array of Nashville’s finest musicians playing with sympathetic grace, imbuing each song with just the right dash of musical vitality.