Features : Nic Charles brings his dream of music from past to present and sends it into the future

Nic Charles almost started on a life of music in high school. He studied the violin from elementary to high school and was a violinist with the Greater Philadelphia High School Orchestra. He wanted to go into music as a career.

But he was told, he said, “that musicians aren’t that successful, with respect to making a living.” He was advised to choose “a more profitable profession.” So he went to college, got a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and went to work.

In 2012, he said, “while competing in a karaoke contest on a Carnival Cruise ship, I was asked to sing the Frank Sinatra song ‘My Way’ on stage for the cruise finale. After this wonderful experience, I decided to capture that dream that I had, and I started singing.”

On November 25, he will release a song he wrote as a single, “It’s Christmas Time Once Again”.

He is 78. He creates and sings music from a bygone era, and his musical influences are from that time – Nat King Cole, Arthur Prysock, Frank Sinatra, O.C. Smith, Johnny Hartman, Tony Bennett and more.

That is an era for which he has the talent and the voice, a rich, buttery baritone that pulls you into his music.

His career now is singing and writing songs. “It’s Christmas Time Once Again” is not the only song he has created in the last three years, but it is the one he has chosen for this Christmas.

“I call this song my opportunity to continue capturing the dream,” he said.This kind of music provides the opportunity to go back in time and relive your life and your lifestyle in music, a transtion in time and life that he illustrated in “It’s Christmas Time Once Again.”

“This is one of the things that I do in ‘It's Christmas Time Once Again.’ I go from past to present. I speak about, in the younger years, it was toys and dolls and wagons, and today it's just a Christmas card and a kiss,” he said, laughing.

“And in the middle years,” he continued, “it was diamonds, furs and fancy cars. Transitioning from one era of life to the middle to the end.”

He has written many songs, and they are like the covers he sings. He specializes in love ballads. Two of his own songs, “No More Missing You” and “The Life of Love,” he wrote for his wife, in honor of his life with her.

He loves the old ballads, the old songs. Those are the songs he sings, and that is the kind of music he writes.

“It brings back memories,” he said. “I think that's the reason why I do that, because it brings back good memories, when songs were songs. Like ‘Summer Wind.’ When Frank Sinatra sings, you can see yourself on the beach and speak about your relationship with the one that was special to you.”

In his covers, in his performances and CDs, Nic “revisits, in his own style,” such classic ballads as “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Summer Wind,” “Quando Quando Quando,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Teach Me Tonight,” “Speak Low,” “Night & Day,” and others.

He has recorded two album CDs, “Just Call It Love” and “Nic Charles Live at Lakehouse.” Both are upbeat, smooth and jazzy, reminiscing about memorable moments.

He says that he wants to take his music as far as it will go, “and that will be satisfying to me.”

“Creativity has no limits,” he said, defining “as far as it will go.”

“Whoever can enjoy my music, that’s where I want to go,” he said.

His performances, like so much else in the last few years, have been limited by the Covid pandemic, but he plans to return to performing in the near future. He is putting together an ensemble, like the one for “It’s Christmas Time Once Again.”

“It’s not necessarily the same people all the time, so I call it an ensemble, getting together seasoned musicians who have played professionally and are multitalented,” he said.

“I'm 78 years old, and I'm capturing another dream,” he said. “If you have a dream, you can still pursue it. Age has no effect on it.”

Stay connected to Nic Charles, and follow him through his dream on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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