Charlie Brown, born Charles Neal Brown (May 1, 1970) is an American singer/songwriter, whose song “What I Wouldn’t Give”
earned him a gold record when Blake Shelton recorded it on his “Pure B.S.” album. Charlie, who grew up in Wood River, Illinois,
was the youngest of five children born to Robert, a technical writer at McDonnell Douglas (currently Boeing) and Carolyn, a homemaker.
Charlie and his siblings, Bob, Jim, Jack, and Kathleen were heavy into athletics and shared a vast love of a wide variety of music.
Charlie’s urge to delve into his music career came in 1989 when Garth Brooks’ first single hit the charts.
“I remember sitting at the stoplight on Airline Drive in my red Chevy Luv truck when I heard ‘Much Too Young’ for the very first time.
When that fiddle started in on that signature lick I knew I was hooked, and I had to do something about this music thing.”
Inspired by singer/songwriter Garth Brooks, Charlie took a job as a waiter at Pasta House to save $225 to buy his first guitar—a
black acoustic Epiphone. Still not knowing how to play guitar, sing, or write songs, he read instructional books, took guitar
lessons from friends, joined songwriting workshops and began vocal lessons. He continued listening to everything from Elvis Presley,
George Strait, Paul Overstreet, Dan Fogelburg, to Kiss, Buck Owens, and many more music innovators.
After the release of Blake Shelton’s “Pure B.S.” album, Charlie flew to Colorado to see Shelton in concert at the Grizzly Rose
and got the chance to meet him. “I wanted to thank him for recording my song.” After convincing a skeptical merchandise salesperson
that he had written a song for Shelton, the singer’s manager arranged for Charlie to meet Shelton at his tour bus after the concert.
After thanking Shelton for cutting his song and putting Charlie on the songwriting map, Shelton responded with “Shoot, dude! I love
that song. Bring me another one.”
However, Blake Shelton was not the first artist to record “What I Wouldn’t Give.” A few years earlier Lila McCann recorded it,
but her project was never released. “Lila has such an amazingly cool and unique voice. It’s baffling that she’s not all over
radio today.”
Charlie Brown has released 5 albums to date: “Country Dream” is a two-song single released in 1994, followed by a full album
“Shenandoah Summer” which released in 1995. In 1996 he released “Shy Ann” and in 2002 came “Bridges and Milestones.” Five
years later in 2007, Charlie released “Alley Off 10th Street.” The majority of his songs have been co-written with his long-time
friend, Tommy Karlas. In fact, Charlie and Karlas teamed up with hit songwriter Charley Stefl to write “What I Wouldn’t Give.”
“I guess the stars lined up on that particular day.”
Summers afford him the chance to pick up the pace with music as Charlie hits the ground running in Nashville. He continues to write,
meet with publishers, and play acoustic shows. “A lot of really cool things have happened simply because of my stubbornness and
refusal to give up. I do my part, with teaching and music, to be better than yesterday, and let God unfold it the way it’s supposed to be.“