Charles Jenkins - Fear No One

December 22nd, 2004 by EJ

Getting your hands on world class songwriting is always a treat. With tinges of Big Star, Wilco, Badly Drawn Boy, Ryan Adams, Jesse Malin and Neil Finn neatly arranged for your listening pleasure, Charles Jenkins’ songs can jump from sentimental to sinister with just one word. The result is firecracker folk-pop driven by the empassioned lyricism of a man with a story to tell you. This past April, fresh off a gig at the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, he strolled into Memphis, guitar in hand, presenting a cheerful unaffected cool and a sleeve-sewn heart. On blustery nights, it seems, Memphis is made for hearing music, and that particularly chilly night in April the audience at the P&H Cafe were treated to a taste of Australian charm and candor that is illuminated in the tracks of his wonderful CD, Bungalow. As lead singer of Icecream Hands, an iconographic Australian indie pop band who have won two ARIA awards (the Australian equivalent of our Grammies), Charles put in ten years of hard touring, hard playing, and hard knocks. The resulting years have created a harmonic convergence evident everywhere on this album. His songwriting is equal parts heartache and humor, like a delightful and horrifying secret whispered to you by a friend that makes you want to laugh through the tears. It is important to note that this CD (until quite recently) has been as difficult to obtain in the United States as it is worth the effort put forth; you were fortunate if you could purchase one even at his shows, as they sold out very quickly. The joy it provides the listener who receives Mr. Jenkins’ CD, however, is quite another matter — for it far exceeds the sum of the difficulty and effort combined.