Manny Charlton - Sharp (2004) + Sharp Re-loaded (2005) 2CD Set Expanded Reissue 2014

Original Nazareth guitarist (and oft songwriter and producer) Manny was instrumental in Nazareth’s sound and success throughout the 70s and 80s. His bluesy guitar augmented McCafferty’s gravelly vocals perfectly.

Since he left the band in 1990, Charlton has recorded a number of albums, both solo and as The Manny Charlton Band. These two (largely) covers sets were recorded and released in the mid 00s, and see Manny handling the lion’s share of the vocals and bass as well as all the guitar duties.

Sharp, recorded with drummer / percussionist Steve Froese (and bassist Billy Pixel on two tracks), has an almost stripped down feel and opens with a wonderful take on the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Muddy Water’, and Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ is another great song.

Manny has obviously tried to do these tracks how he wants to, deliberately veering away from the well known arrangements, so don’t go expecting the tracks as you already know them.

The guitar work is excellent, and at times intricate. It’s also a far cry from the 70s Nazareth; this is a modern and new feel.

Burnt Sienna and In Her Eyes are two of the new tracks that fit in well with the whole album’s direction and feel. The bluesier Rollin’n’ Tumblin’ sees a burst or two of slide guitar, and reminds you with a kick up the arse just what a good blues player Charlton is. And Nazareth’s Please Don’t Judas Me (covered because Nazareth never played it live and Manny wanted another crack) is a great and underrated song.

Sharp Re-Loaded, again featuring Froese, along with guest drummers on two tracks, and Emil Gammeltoft on a cover of Nazareth’s ‘Fallen Angel’. This CD kicks off with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’, and a take on Nazareth’s ‘Cinema’ features a ballsy crash bang wallop. Another stand out is The Byrds’ ‘So You Want To Be A Rock’n'Roll Star’ (part of which was originally used in Nazareth’s ‘Telegram’). Again the arrangements here are vastly different.

Both albums feature a couple of extra tracks and in the booklet there’s an intro by Manny and notes to some of the tracks. Bar a lack of notes to all of the tracks, this is a good touch and adds to a decent package.

A little off the beaten track but a wonderful listen.

Review by Joe Geesin, GetReadyToRock.me.uk

Former NAZARETH guitarist runs for cover of his personal favorites.

Back in days of the band he rose to fame with, it usually was Manny Charlton who injected other people’s songs into their repertoire. So, after quitting NAZ and releasing a string of albums, solo and with a group of his own, the guitarist relocated to the USA and set about having a field day with pieces he holds dear. Thus, these two records emerged, one laid down with a drummer and the other, one year later, with a fuller line-up. There’s an upright bass player, though, on the former which houses two Elvis’ classics, “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” and “My Baby Left Me” – both done very authentically – and Emil Gammeltoft, a potential Dan McCafferty replacement in NAZ, on the “Re-Loaded” take on their "Fallen Angel", while Charlton does most of the playing and singing himself.

Even though bonus “Mexico” is not a refreshed "2XS" track of the same title, Manny weaves new versions of the band’s compositions in the context of it all, picking up not so obvious ones, like "Cinema" that’s stripped of its former sheen in favor of swampy splash or the immensely eerie in its acid-spiked form "Please Don't Judas Me". Its erstwhile drone now shifted to Emmylou Harris’ “Deeper Well”, probably the most recent cover on offer, the veteran shines on acoustically driven country numbers such as this one, Muddy Waters’ “Rollin ‘n’ Tumblin'” or Stonewall Jackson’s “Muddy Water”, but struggles with more vocally challenging “Norwegian Wood” which comes out too flat, despite the slide roll, whereas “All Along The Watchtower” gets an alluring angle thanks to its reggae skank. More so, the Scotsman’s renditions of Gene Clark’s “Strength Of Strings” – in an almost Neil Young’s whine, also applied to another Dylan cut, “Wicked Messenger” – and “Hang On To A Dream” might be the best ever, his guitar weeping to complement Manny’s earthy, if delicate, voice and trump the NAZ attempt to do it.

Yet if the full-blown – as opposed to a "Telegram" section – “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” sounds rather regular, the fantastic dry reading of non-bluesy FLEETWOOD MAC’s “The Chain” only goes to show the expanse of Manny’s musical reach. Scattered amidst borrowed tunes are Charlton originals including the gentle instrumental ballad “Burnt Sienna” and the raw riff-fest “Nearly Fine”, the psychedelic blues that is “In Her Eyes” and the smooth “Swallow”, all of them complementing the selection. Not even by any means, it provides an insight into the ex-NAZ man’s creative mind and method; slimmed down to a single album, it could have been a killer collection.

Review by Let It Rock (dmme.net)

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 27. October 2014, 19:54

Manny Charlton / Sharp

Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-810SA Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
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Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
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Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


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Filename Z:\audio\Manny Charlton - Sharp.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 7.4 X
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Test CRC CD630E0D
Copy CRC CD630E0D
Copy OK

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2014-12-05 16:06:19

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Manny Charlton / Sharp
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR5 0.00 dB -5.84 dB 4:01 01-Muddy Waters
DR7 0.00 dB -8.74 dB 2:26 02-My Baby Left Me
DR8 0.00 dB -9.56 dB 4:01 03-All Along The Watchtower
DR7 0.00 dB -7.91 dB 4:39 04-A Deeper Well
DR10 0.00 dB -12.13 dB 3:34 05-Anna
DR6 0.00 dB -9.04 dB 3:22 06-In Her Eyes
DR9 0.00 dB -10.66 dB 4:37 07-Hang On To A Dream
DR6 0.00 dB -7.05 dB 4:43 08-Rollin' 'n' Tumblin'
DR8 0.00 dB -9.41 dB 1:51 09-Blue Moon Of Kentucky
DR5 0.00 dB -7.02 dB 4:32 10-Please Don't Judas Me
DR8 0.00 dB -9.91 dB 5:58 11-Shelter From The Storm
DR10 0.00 dB -11.68 dB 4:41 12-Burnt Sienna
DR7 0.00 dB -7.94 dB 4:27 13-I Can't Stop The Rain
DR5 0.00 dB -6.70 dB 3:36 14-Cold Front
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 14
Official DR value: DR7

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 879 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 27. October 2014, 20:18

Manny Charlton / Sharp Re Loaded

Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-810SA Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

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Range status and errors

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Filename Z:\audio\Manny Charlton - Sharp Re Loaded.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A5F98EBC
Copy CRC A5F98EBC
Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum F13DBBDDB52069FCAC72E011FB2FC69A54538782C80A16A2733C0240A45C41A2 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2014-12-05 16:06:40

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Manny Charlton / Sharp Re Loaded
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR8 0.00 dB -11.26 dB 6:23 01-The Chain
DR7 0.00 dB -8.45 dB 4:33 02-Cinema
DR7 0.00 dB -7.94 dB 2:44 03-Sumkinda
DR8 0.00 dB -9.44 dB 7:13 04-Strength Of Strings
DR5 0.00 dB -6.45 dB 3:15 05-Rock 'n' Roll Star
DR8 0.00 dB -9.30 dB 4:16 06-Norwegian Wood
DR7 0.00 dB -7.91 dB 5:20 07-Nearly Fine
DR5 0.00 dB -5.73 dB 4:46 08-Who Do You Love
DR8 0.00 dB -8.84 dB 5:59 09-Wicked Messenger
DR8 0.00 dB -9.49 dB 5:32 10-Fallen Angel
DR10 0.00 dB -12.40 dB 2:19 11-Swallow
DR8 0.00 dB -8.99 dB 4:51 12-Mexico
DR5 0.00 dB -5.83 dB 5:12 13-Pushin' Daisies
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 13
Official DR value: DR7

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 962 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================