I talked to Josh Charles today. And instantly I got this feeling of what I call soulfulness. Yes, I did just make up that word, but it fits him perfectly. I guess I better back up a bit and explain how I got to talking to him. I am on Twitter a lot and a long time ago I followed Josh. I know though that I never got a chance to ever catch up with him and talk about music. So finally today I did. His enthusiasm for his music is very apparent.  He is no stranger to music, he was trained in classical piano training at age 8.  After high school he moved to New York to pursue music. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and graduated from NYU. By this time he had figured out Jazz was what he liked, especially the New Orleans jazz, he started listening and learning tricks from the masters. And now he’s taking his album, Love, Work & Money, out on the road to SXSW.

First, though I wanted to share with you some of the questions I asked him about his music in general.

On how he describes his music: “It’s soul music. But on this record i call it NOTOWN which is combo of New Orleans R&B and Motown. It’s modern but has reflections of those sounds.”

On his influences: “I have so many .. honestly that’s hard.. for my piano playing the New Orleans guys ( Dr. John, James Booker, Professor Longhair) and also jazz pianists like Errol Garner, Monk but I love so many different kinds of music.. My fav bands are U2 and The Police.. but i’m really into soul music.. Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, Ray Charles, Stevie, Marvin, Stax. It’s endless…Everything from the Smiths to the Clash to Hall and Oates.”

On how he gets his songs to come together (this question has really intrigued me and since I asked Jason Wade from Lifehouse I had to ask Josh too): “The melody and harmony will come at the same time with hopefully some kinda lyric if i’m lucky. Otherwise, I’ll just keep singing free-form until something seems to gel. I also have a lyricist that I worked with on this album who really helped bring the songs to life.”

Josh has been invited back to SXSW this year and says that he’s really excited because it gives him a chance to showcase his music to people that have heard about him but haven’t got a chance to see him. Josh says, “It’s a chance to play my new album in front of industry folks who have heard about me but haven’t had a chance to see me live. SXSW is all about trying to gain maximum exposure to the music industry crowd whether it be publishers, booking agents, [or] labels. I can’t wait to go down there with my full band and tear up the stage.”

You can catch Josh Charles at SXSW on these dates and times.

March 17 at 10pm at the Driskill (Official e1 Showcase)
March 20 at 12 pm at Papa Mali’s 2nd Annual Hoodoo Blues BBQ
March 21 at 8pm at Antones for Project BLACK hip hop benefit

And there is one more date that is unconfirmed at the moment. For more details on his performances you can go to the SXSW site here. You can also find out more at his official site and Myspace page and of course you can follow him on Twitter too!

Back in high school one of my favorite movies was Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. I loved it. I think I’ve seen it at least a hundred times. And these days it’s not played much. (It came out in 1991 and also starred Christina Applegate, she ends up getting a summer job after the babysitter dies.) One of the actors, Josh Charles, was one of the cuter actors. I admit that I watched it mostly for him. And mostly how Christina’s character had that awesome fashion job. But I had always wondered what happened to Josh.

I found him the other day when I was looking at the new TV shows. I couldn’t believe that he was back on TV and I had no clue!

He is in the new show, The Good Wife.,  I guess I could have googled him sooner but finding out while reading my Entertainment Weekly is so much better. I miss that baby face he had though, but I guess everyone has to grow up sometime.

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