Inspired by place and history, Charlie's music is both personal and social-lighting up forgotten stories, jugglings of sound and soul. Having apprenticed himself to Irish traditional music more than two decades ago, he comes from that deep well of strength with something of his own devising. In that vein, the album "Where Splendour Falls" (2016, on vinyl and digital formats) took his native Killarney as a basis, using both Irish Gaelic and English speaking stores of thought. The sounds he makes straddle the land between innovation and tradition.
Charlie's work in film began in 2010 with the Irish language T.V. documentary "Saol John Riely." This half hour film followed the trail of the leader of the "San Patricio Battalion," John Riley, from famine torn Galway to the carnage of the Mexican-American War of 1847. In 2016 he directed and produced "A Captain Unafraid," a documentary feature film based on the life of sea captain "Dynamite" Johnny O' Brien. A Captain Unafraid premiered at an E.U. run European Festival in Havana in June 2017 and had a lengthy festival run afterwards, from Santiago to New York and Calcutta to Kerry. This was the birth of "Trouble or Fortune Films" which morphs into "Trouble or Fortune Records" for Charlie's adventures in sound. The soundtrack to A Captain Unafraid (released in the first months of 2017) was composed by Charlie and William Kemp. The films A Captain Unafraid and Saol John Riley both found their beginnings in song-"Pa' los Del San Patricio" appears on his debut album "Songs from an Outpost" (2007), "Marine Mambí, Johnny Dynamite" on "Hy Brasil, Songs Of The Irish In Latin America" (2019). In 2018 he directed "The Green Fields of Cuba," an exploration of Irish traditional music in Cuba, produced by John McAuliff of "The Fund for Reconciliation and Development" and commissioned by "The Atlantic Philanthropies." His first fiction film, "Macalla Chill Áirne," is a recreation of a Victorian era, music infused tour of Killarney, focusing on the phenomenon of "The Killarney Echo." "Macalla" premiered at the Kerry Film Festival in October, 2021, and was nominated for the Consul of Ireland Award at the Chicago Irish Film Festival in 2022. His newest album "Fire and Foam" (2022) is the first one not informed in an obvious way by Irish trad. roots.