Here’s ‘Three is a Magic Number’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “The Longsuffering of K.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

My one-and-only cover song . . . 
I loved Schoolhouse Rock when I was growing up; you’d be hard-pressed to find a Gen-Xer who didn’t. And I know this makes me sound like a nostalgic old fool, but it’s true: modern kids find it impossible to comprehend a time when nothing was ‘on-demand’ – a world where you could watch cartoons on Saturday mornings, and Saturday mornings only. Amazing cartoons like ‘Thundercats’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ broadcast in real time and on just three channels. If you missed them, you missed them; you’d have to wait a week to get your cartoon fix. The commercial interruptions were all breakfast cereal and toys, sure, but sometimes there was something else. Sometimes, between the shows on ABC, there was Schoolhouse Rock! (The exclamation point is part of its title.) They were awesome little animated music videos that taught us the function of ‘Conjunction Junction’ and that ‘Interplanet Janet’ was a galaxy girl. They’re the reason there are millions of fifty-somethings in the US today who can still recite the preamble to the Constitution. 
Anyway, “Three is a Magic Number” was the series’ inaugural video, and the favorite of many fans. I had always wanted to do a cover recording of one of those songs, and when this album started to take shape, I knew it was time. 
My deepest thanks to the late Bob Dorough for creating this and so many other Schoolhouse Rock! masterpieces.
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Written by Bob Dorough - AMERICAN BROADCASTING MUSIC INC

This cover version arranged, performed, recorded, and engineered by Charlie Bookout at Mortuary Studios (with vocal assistance from Jimmy Hamilton and Dennis Plummer)

The Longsuffering of K

Three is a Magic Number

Here’s ‘The Old School’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

I think albums—especially pop/rock albums—benefit from kicking off with something beefy. As this collection started to come together back in 1995, I knew early on that “The Old School” would be its opener. I like the bass line with its weird combination of techno and funk, and the intentional anger of the drums is cool; but what I’m happiest with is the syncopated clav accompaniment during the verses. 
The lyrics echo my disdain for the blatant dumbing down of music that was so prominent during that time. I know my own work is often too busy—too many instruments doing too many things at once—so, I’m not at all opposed to singer/songwriter stuff, or blue-jean & t-shirt guitar bands, as long as the end result is smart. And much of what came out back then was just . . . not. And I’m referring mostly to music here, not lyrics necessarily; my lyrics are often juvenile and dumb as hell, but I try to deliver them with a clever vehicle. (One of the obvious exceptions to this 90s trend was Dave Matthews Band, of course—genius.) Anyway, the words of “The Old School” are really no more than a bitch-fest from a guy who wasn’t into Grunge. But I like how it turned out. 
(I’m over it, by the way. I actually like a lot of that 90s stuff now.)
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Last Fall

The Old School

Here’s ‘Rare Indeed’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

The Ensoniq SQ-80 is my go-to arrangement tool, but its onboard patches are often too low-fi to use. I do, however, have a habit of employing its more peculiar sounds (the ones that aren’t meant to sound like any specific instrument) in unexpected places. The song “Rare Indeed” is a laid-back orchestral pop tune that would be kind of predictable, but I think the weird SQ-80 noise that bookends it makes it really distinctive.
Unhealthy obsession is a common theme in pop music, and I’ve written my fair share those songs. “Rare Indeed” is definitely one of them. 
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Rare Indeed

Here’s ‘So Fine’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

The processes of lyric writing and music composition are quite different, and I imagine that in most cases the tasks are handled by different people. I almost always wear both hats, so the question is: which comes first, music or lyrics? For me, it’s neither. Sort of. I usually have a musical idea on the back burner and some lines of a song written down, and they just somehow merge. One nearly always affects the other. For instance, the first verse and chorus measures of what would become “So Fine” sat around for awhile; and when I noticed that the organ and electric piano notes reminded me of a train whistle, I molded the opening lyrics to fit. 
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

So Fine

Here’s ‘Clever Dame’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

There are a lot of synthesizer elements in this one. The horn-synth at the end is my favorite. I’d been experimenting with the song’s chord progressions in half-time, and the solo I layered over the top of that experiment wasn’t bad, so I tacked it on at the end. It turned out to be kind of a neat device to help fade the song out.
The lyrical point of “Clever Dame” is similar to that of “Rare Indeed”, only a little cruder.
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Clever Dame

Here’s ‘So She Kissed You’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

If you’re an artist—of any type: painter, sculptor, writer, whatevs—you’re expected to have an intimate knowledge of the masters who have come before you. A burgeoning novelist reads the classics like Hemingway and Poe; a novice painter emulates Picasso and Rembrandt before they work out their own style; and a greenhorn musician dang-well better know what genre they wanna be pigeon-holed into. Here’s the thing – I paint pictures, I write short stories, and I’m a recording artist; but, I SUCK at delving into the traditions of any of those crafts. I just can’t find the time. So . . . what genre is “So She Kissed You”? Is it pop? Is it quirky contemporary? I don’t know. I wish somebody would tell me. 
Anyway, it was originally supposed to be a duet—with male and female vocals trading complaints about the fabled kiss. That didn’t work out, so I rewrote it so that me singing it by myself would make sense.
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

So She Kissed You

Here’s ‘Skye’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

I think “Skye” has one of the best synthetic sax solos followed by one of the best bridges I’ve ever done. I don’t often pat myself on the back about my work, but I’m super-happy with how this recording turned out.
The words are an attempt to cheer someone up by encouraging them to get some fresh air; it’s that simple. (Somebody I knew back in the early nineties suggested the odd spelling of the title.)
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Skye

Here’s ‘September’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “Last Fall.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

I came up with the chord progressions for “September” using the little spinet piano at my Granny’s house (in the early 1990s). I think the moody synth, hip-hop bass line, and jazz piano solo dressed it up pretty good. 
I almost always layer up lots of backup vocals. But this one seemed like it should stay simple.
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

September

I arranged the album’s title track to have a sort of acoustic foundation, but it’s fairly saturated with heavy synth elements. This fusion ended up sounding pretty cool to me. 
It’s a break-up song, of course. The platitude ‘it could be worse’ comes from a variety of sources throughout the choruses—the church, the television, the obituary, etc.—leaving the protagonist to wonder if it’s even true—could it be worse?
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

It Could Be Worse

Here’s ‘Antarctica’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “It Could Be Worse.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

“Antarctica” is kinda progressive (I think) in that its structure isn’t very predictable. Solos, bridges, and choruses just show up without warning. I like that. And I like doing piano runs that seem like they’ve come to life and are planning mischief.
Anyway, the lyrics imagine a world suddenly frozen over as a metaphor for tremendous loss.
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Antarctica

Here’s ‘Dry Jon’ from the Charlie Bookout Studio Works album “It Could Be Worse.”  -  You can purchase this song, as well as my other music, on my Bandcamp page here  =  https://charliebookoutstudioworks.bandcamp.com/

I think “Dry Jon” best exemplifies the album’s main theme, both musically and lyrically. Its synth and harmonica combinations and bone-dry drum lines and backing vocals musically paint the picture I was going for. And the lyrics are as weird and hopeless as any other track on the record. 
~  Produced on a vintage Ensoniq SQ-80 with additional sounds from old Roland and Alesis gear

Dry Jon

Multi-instrumentalist writer and composer Charlie Bookout first played in Arkansas-based funk/pop bands like The Regent and The Gender Max. Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Charlie and other band members used their small town’s abandoned funeral chapel as a rehearsal hall and recording studio. They further developed the building into a creative project space, and for many years now Mortuary Studios has been producing its unique brand of independent film, music, and art—including the yearly presentation of a haunted attraction that has become one of the most popular in the state (Carpenter’s Mortuary Spook House).

Charlie Bookout Studio Works is the project name for Charlie’s original Mortuary Studios recordings. While his quirky Pop/Rock/R&B sound often draws inspiration from a range of influences—from 80s mainstream to 70s prog-rock—each song in Charlie’s prolific catalog retains a unique and identifiable sound. Other than his cover recording of “Three is a Magic Number” written by the late Bob Dorough, Charlie writes, composes, arranges, and performs all his music.

Charlie Bookout Studio Works

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