The elf musician
It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and Charlie Becker plans to attend a bonfire later that weekend and play a little music. Outdoors, he comes to life. But today, in a climate-controlled studio, the soft-spoken singer-songwriter from Reeds Spring sets down his guitar to tell his story.
Becker’s music, a lot like the musician himself, has changed since he started performing years ago. His musical style is fluid, and over the years he’s played with punk and jazz styles. Now he writes what he calls “elf music,” with both jazz and folk elements. He says his music isn’t bound by a genre, but rather is guided by his life experiences.
“I like to think of it as one big quilt, and every patch is a person I’ve met, or some kind of music I’ve enjoyed and listened to or played, or people I’ve heard play,” Becker says.
Becker’s family is an important musical influence. His parents are both musicians, and he can trace his musical roots even farther back.
“My grandparents actually used to do jingles on the radio in the 40s and 50s," He says with a chuckle. "Both of my great aunts and my grandmother and my grandfather would all just sit around the studio all day and harmonize to whatever they needed to say.”
Even though he came from a long line of musicians, Becker didn’t expect to follow in their footsteps.
“I never thought back then I would be where I’m at now, which is just amazing. And I’m really grateful,” he says.
'You're doing it wrong!'
Becker started learning guitar at a young age, but began playing professionally in 2016. Now 23, he recalls trying to learn guitar from his mother as a teenager.
“My mom’s a classical guitar teacher, so she did try and give me classical lessons and learn all the technical things. It was difficult because I’d watch her give lessons all the time, but it was never the same when she would sit down with me. She’d walk into the kitchen and make dinner and say ‘You’re doing it wrong!’ from the other room,” he recounts with a laugh.
When Becker jumped into the music scene in Springfield. He says he started focusing on writing and recording music, producing two albums. He says he immersed himself in the local community of musicians, but that those first years were a struggle to find a steady gig.
“You know it was really all over the place," Becker remembers. "I played a lot of house parties. I did a lot of open mics just to get exposure and I definitely paid my dues. I knew every single open mic and I was doing that all the time, and I knew so many people in the scene because of that. I would do a short intermission for bands that I knew when they were taking a break in the middle. I would do 15 minutes just for fun, you know. And they’d give me five bucks or whatever. That was my professional life back then.”
At one point he worked at a Vietnamese restaurant to make ends meet. He smiles as he recalls playing at his work’s Christmas party.
Finding meaning in the 'middle of nowhere'
During the Covid-19 shutdowns, many performing artists struggled to find work. Becker says people held small gatherings instead. He played for private groups. During the pandemic, he landed a steady gig at the Forest Garden Yurts, where he played in buildings that look like spaceships deep in the woods of Reeds Spring. Eventually, people at these small gatherings wanted to hear more of his music.
“Some of them wanted me to come play at their wedding or at a house party or whatever. [They'd say,]‘Come to a brewery for my anniversary and play just for my wife and I in the back with all the kegs.’ That was a really fun gig. And just weird, cool things, you know. I just love that kind of stuff. I’d rather be playing with a bunch of people in tents out in the middle of nowhere than at a bar or something.”
He says playing for strangers in the woods made him understand how much he missed human interaction during the pandemic. Now, he draws inspiration for his work from his fellow humans and from the natural world.
For example, he had a burst of inspiration after a night spent in an open field with friends.
“Just the sunrise and this fog that was coming up onto me, I had to wipe off my guitar every 30 seconds because it was so dewy," he says. "And it was just magical. I just thought about what we had talked about, and I wrote this song.”
Listening to Becker’s music, you get the impression that he’s fascinated by the ethereal quality of music and storytelling. And he continues to explore the mystical in his upcoming projects. As he explores ghost stories and nature through his music, Charlie Becker continues on the journey he started almost seven years ago. And on that journey, he keeps finding magic.
