Charly Roth
Keyboardist Charly Roth was recommended by yet another talented singer/songwriter, George Gilmore. Charly grew up in Philadelphia, by way of Princeton, NJ. Charly has inherited the “hardest working man in show business” title from James Brown by being the busiest and most versatile musician we have yet to meet. Focusing just on highlights, Charly plays keyboards (Ozzy Osbourne, Rick Derringer & Edgar Winter, Suzanne Vega, Garland Jeffreys [currently], Lenny Kaye, STORYTOWN ), bass (Blessid Union of Souls), and drums (Denis Leary’s Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll TV show, Liza Colby Sound). He’s an experienced NYC session musician who is also Musical Director of Murderers’ Row, a NYC-based collective that regularly performs musical tributes to the world's best artists and albums.
That’s Charly as described in Storytown’s now world famous augmented reality app. In keeping with our tradition, here’s Storytown’s keyboardist, live at a surprise Storytown appearance at the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt, of all places:
Charly was born in Philly, attended Ithaca College for two years and was then accepted into the Manhattan School of Music. His guitarist brother Adam Roth tragically passed from cancer in 2015. Adam was Charly’s musical partner and the one who put The Liza Colby Sound together; he was also the reason Charly became Denis Leary's Musical Director.
Charly’s father is the cartoonist Arnold Roth, who most know from his work from the 50s thru to the 00s. Charly: “He worked closely with Harvey Kurtzman in the 50s, running a string of humor magazines that directly influenced the underground comix and graphic novels that'd follow in the 60s and 70s. And from all the work he did for Playboy, I can say that Hefner paid for my college education!”
As anyone who knows Charly will tell you (including Charly himself), he has the “gift of gab”. I asked him a bunch of questions in preparation for this post, and rather than rewriting his answers, I think you’ll appreciate hearing it straight from Charly:
On his “first instrument”: HAHAHA! Hard to say what came first after Feb 9th 1964. I DID have a set of drums that a guy left with my dad. It was a kit from the 20s! A week later, mom had me in piano lessons and by age 10 I started formal lessons on classic bass and got a bass geetar too!
On how he got into playing drums, bass, keyboards, which was first, which is his favorite, and why so many: The number of axes is probably influenced from my dad being a sax player and constantly playing swing and other good stuff in his studio while he was working. If you look at the performance of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand' from Sullivan, at the exact 1:00 mark, there's a crane shot of Ringo where they come closer and closer and because there was a mic on the camera, the DRUMS got louder! That was my Song Of Bernadette right there! I was 7!
Mom is solely responsible for my piano study, which I HATED, but kept at it. I really had no intention of becoming a pro keys guy. I really just wanted the knowledge and theory so I could arrange and compose. But then analog synths came along and I learned that tech while still in high school. When I got to NYC, I realized synth session guys were a rare new thing, and I hadda get my shit together as a player. I'm still shedding!
Bass was just me observing that a) every band and orchestra in the world needed bass players and b) NOBODY wanted to be the bass player! So I decided I would. I was 10. But the main thing that really sparked me was among the 4 albums I used to teach myself electric bass, the live "Bless Its Pointed Little Head" by Jefferson Airplane hit me like a bolt of lightning with Jack Cassidy's playing, which I can't shake outta my hands now if I tried!
Charly plays drums lefty, but not bass. On “whassup with that?”: I [am] left handed yes, but they don't teach no classic bass lefty! Adam was also a lefty and we both played bass/guitar as righties. Not sure why but there ya go!
On his music school experience: Ithaca College and Manhattan School of Music, both as a Composition Major. And finished up summer of 77 with a summer course at Princeton learning computer music programming. I punched over 1500 computer cards to realize a 25 second 'piece' but the next year they started putting microprocessors into synths and I got my lucky break of working at Manny's so I was ahead of the game a bit there.
Charly is also an arranger. For my song Feeling It Now on Storytown’s debut “Welcome to Storytown”, I had an idea for strings on the last verse. Charly came up with a really nice arrangement but then added grand, swelling strings to the bridge — my favorite part of the song. Check it out, and play it LOUD.
On the first music that excited him: MUSIC! HAHAH! Actually, and I only know this from my parents, when I was really little, there was a show on the radio in Philly every Saturday of marching music sponsored by Kirk & Nice Funeral Homes. They tell me I'd find something that looked like a conductor's baton and would conduct the radio. See? Even then I was like "NO NO YOU SCHMUCKS!!!!"
Tho I will tell you that aside from all the rock n roll trappings of wanting to play all that stuff, my ears were also hearing these amazing arrangements from the 63-66 pop charts that of course sounded NOTHING like the swing stuff my dad was listening to. I think the record that really hooked me into wanting to learn how EVERYTHING worked in pop music was the Ronette's "Walking In The Rain". Even when it comes on now I just gotta stop everything. That really blew my little mind.
On his first live concert: Lovin’ Spoonful, Dillon Gym, Princeton NJ 1966. They played for 90 minutes and it was NOTHING BUT HITS!!!! 27 years later I'd find myself being offered a toke on a fine doob by Mr. Sebastian himself, outside a recording studio in Woodstock. Life's kinda odd.
Notable acts he’s played with or been a part of: Edgar Winter, Garland [Jeffreys], Liza [Colby], Dennis Leary, Blessid Union of Souls, Ozzy [Osbourne], etc.
Ya know sometimes the notables aren't notable yet! When I was in high school, aside from all the hard rock and pre-metal I was playing, I also met this guy who was 4 years older than me and already a legend in town and he had me drum for 3 bands of his: a Grateful Dead cover band, and 2 Country bands. That was Buddy Miller.
Signed my first major label deal w A&M in 1980 with Regina Richards and Red Hot. Then: Stints with Rick Derringer (we'd add Edgar [Winter] later), Ozzy, Suzanne Vega, Garland Jeffreys, Ellen Foley, and studio stuff with New Kids, and the dance production team of Liggett and Barbosa (Let The Music Play) that led to the Blessid Union stuff. I can't even remember all the folks I did sessions for but a LOT of it came out of Unique Recording which had kinda become the TECH JOINT of 80s studios.
Check out Charly on drums in this video of The Liza Colby Sound’s EYE ON YOU. Also you may enjoy Charly on keyboards in this appearance with the Blessid Union of Souls on the Regis And Kathie Lee show. Note Charly’s “look” at 3:43 in the video:
On his most memorable musical experience as a player: There's a few: Playing on stage with Ozzy [Osbourne] at Budokan.
There was one big outdoor gig very early in the Blessid Union's run where we had to show up at a free show in Toledo that FOREIGNER was supposed to have played and cancelled. We had ONE song on the radio then. There were thousands of folks there and we sure did get the hairy eyeball at first but we completely won em over. That was a big effin deal for us.
There was a gig at a club in Paris with Liza Colby in the spring of 2019 that was insane… to get that kinda reaction as a mostly unknown band outta NYC in THAT city? Nuts!!!
And there was a gig the Blessids played in 2000 in Portland….a girl scout jamboree! But get this, we were opening for THE TEMPTATIONS! As luck would have it, both bands shared a monitor guy. So once we were up and running he went over to their bungalow dressing shack to check up, and Otis Williams, the only remaining original guy was watching us from the porch. He watched a while and then came into the dressing room and told the other fellas “Boys, we gotta step it up a notch tonite…they’s entertainers!” That was the single greatest compliment I’ve ever received ever!
On what he’s listening to now that excites him: MY NEW SYNTH ALBUM!!!! HAHAHA! But I'm always looking for NEW stuff that I like. There's a sorta synth-prog band called Hundred Waters I really like. And I'm ALL Team Billie [Eilish]!!!! Having said that my usual go tos are either Todd or Kraftwerk.
Favorite music, drummer, bassist, keyboardist:
More like what I DON"T like is easier, cause what I DON'T like is BRO COUNTRY.
Fave drummers: Ringo, Moony, Phil Collins, Dave Garabaldi
Fave Bassists: Cassidy, Jamerson, Geezer, and lately really appreciating Glover's work with Purple.
Keys: WAKEMAN!!!!!!!!!! FUCKING WAKEMAN!!!!!!!!!! Roger Powell too!!!!!!
And now some photos of Charly in one of the 14 bands he’s currently playing with (i.e. Storytown):
Complaints? Compliments? guy@storytownband.com
Until next week….