About Charles
Charles Freeman is a professional bassist, guitarist, and singer, living and working primarily in the Grand Strand area of the South Carolina coast.
Charles was born in Charlotte, NC and lived there until the end of his grade 10 year. After completing high school at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, Charles was awarded an academic scholarship to the Clemson University School of Business. Charles spent two years in Clemson, where he excelled at slacking off, skipping class, and sleeping on the fraternity house couch. Since then he has been a resident of coastal South Carolina. He began playing clarinet at age 11 and soon switched to bass guitar and upright bass. Charles began his professional music career on electric bass at the age of 21 as a founding and perennial member of the award-winning regional/national original rock band Ten Toes Up. The group's primary four members were together for 8 years, played over 1,000 shows, recorded and produced 4 studio albums, and in 2011 were voted "Best Band Overall" as well as "Best Original Band" by the Myrtle Beach Sun News' Weekly Surge Annual Readers' Poll. In that same Poll, Charles was voted "Best Bassist in Myrtle Beach."
Charles currently performs 225+ shows per year, both as an acoustic soloist (acoustic guitar and vocals) as well as bassist/vocalist for 2 Grand Strand area bands.
In his free time, Charles enjoys sports of all kinds, the outdoors, fishing and boating, shooting and hunting, gardening, food and cooking, and spending time with his wife Anna, son Ben, and their American Pit Bull Shyne.
Charles uses a Boss RC-50 loop station at his solo acoustic shows, which enables him to add layers to a solo performance, such as bass lines, self-produced organic percussion, and the ability to play lead melodies over looped rhythm tracks. Charles does not use the loop station to create audio tracks at home to be stored for later use at a show; the loop station is empty at the start of every show, and all of Charles's looped parts are created before the viewer's eyes in real time.
Charles has an extensive setlist of cover songs for his solo acoustic shows, as well as a handful or two of original songs that will make appearances from time to time.
Just some of the artists that Charles enjoys covering:
Tyler Childers, Luke Combs, James Taylor, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Vance Joy, Willie Nelson, Jason Isbell, Blind Melon, The Beatles, Van Morrison, Tom Petty, The Eagles, The Allman Brothers Band, Jimmy Buffet, The Kingston Trio, Oasis, Neil Young, The Raconteurs, Sublime, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Zac Brown Band, Elton John, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, The Band, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Amos Lee, Jack White, Garth Brooks, The Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran, Jason Mraz, John Denver, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many many more!
For bass performance, Charles plays a 2001 Fender American Standard Jazz bass; his primary instrument for live performance and recording. Charles keeps an arsenal of secondary basses by Hamer, Haywire Customs, and RB Customs.
Charles is currently the principal bassist for 3 Grand Strand Area Bands:
1. The Grocery Store Gentlemen (Variety rock, funk, country, pop)
2. The Lost Remotes (Rock, funk, Americana)
3. Clark the Gray Wolf (Original Rock)