The Black Pepper Band

Charlie and the Black Pepper Band

The Fourth Album


Movin' On

Charlie Powling & The Black pepper Band

The Black Pepper Band's 4th album is now available for download from all on-line music stores and begins with James (Gravy) Brown again showing how unique and talented a guitarist he is on Love Is Life, followed by In the Deep of Night, a haunting song that exposes some of Charlie's deepest fears and torments.

The Immigrant then takes us on a journey into the hopes and ultimate tragedy of a young couple trying to make a new life in a foreign land. The song features Dave Tripp on guitar and Prayer Corby backing up on vocal as guest artists and they turn the song into something very special.

The 4th song of the album sees Charlie revisit Reverend Joe, a character we first meet on the Band's 2nd album Traveller in the Storm. That first instalment introduced us to Reverend Joe's life in prison, the brutality and fear, and suspension of time itself. Reverend Joe (Part 2) gives us a glimpse of his life before and after prison without pretension, just the cold hard reality of a life gone wrong. Charlie was honoured to also have Louis Elliott play violin on the track.

The Wedding Song then takes off in a new direction for Charlie. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's A Wedding Prayer, it again features Gravy and his supreme guitar skills.

The next song is Charlie describing a confused and disjointed dream with stark images from the subconscious, followed by The Cold Wind, a journey into the dread of our mortality, a theme that Charlie freely admits is starting to dominate his thoughts and fears as time passes.

The 2nd last song of the album is I Loved You To The End, a Gospel inspired journey Charlie found himself writing after the emotion of watching the biographical movie of Mahalia Jackson's life, who had been an inspiration to him in his youth. Unlike most of his songs that take weeks, and sometimes months to evolve, Charlie remembers this one as words "flooding the page effortlessly".

The last song is a musical collaboration with Garry (Jacko) Jackson titled My Precious Time, which takes us on a journey of someone struggling with their relationship. The song also features the very talented Erin Conaghty who made a significant contribution as backup vocalist with Melanie on several of the album's songs.

The year saw some changes with the band's membership, due to Garry Jackson being forced to take a break for a serious medical condition, which saw Gravy move onto lead guitar full time, and introduced Moyston Wright into the band on drums, sharing the same surname, but not related, to Wayne (The Rock) Wright who's still there on bass and keeping the band tight.

As with their first 3 albums, Lindsay Masters (Masters Studios) again stepped forward as producer and all round musical genius, contributing in so many capacities on bass, lead and rhythm guitars.