Musical Roots

Charles Lueker is a songwriter and performer currently based in Franklin, TN. He has been living in the Nashville area since 2015 having moved there from Austin, TX.  Charlie’s music is a blend of clever wit mixed with honest sentimentality and a sprinkling of true life storytelling.

He has been a touring musician since he was 16 years of age performing in churches and later local bars around his childhood home in Southern Illinois.  Early on, he developed a love for old Christian hymns and often sang them while fishing or riding his bike.  Picking up his parents’ and grandparents’ records from around the house this developed later into a love for country, rock and jazz.  In school, Charles learned to play the trumpet and bass guitar while teaching himself to play guitar on his father’s 1955 Martin. He loved to learn Hank Williams, The Statler Brothers and Led Zeppelin among others.

In college, Charles earned a BM in Music Education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and upon graduation earned a spot with the 1st Corps Army Band at Ft. Lewis, Washington.  He went to basic training at Ft Jackson, SC and graduated from the Armed Forces School of Music at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base near Virginia Beach, VA.  Charles toured the west coast from southern California to Vancouver, B.C. with various military groups on trumpet and vocals.  Some of the notable highlights were the holiday performances with the British Grenadiers Band, meeting Doc Severinsen from the Tonight Show and becoming worship team leader at a chapel on North Ft Lewis.

While in business school at the University of Illinois, Charles began performing with the alternative country group South of 70 in southern Illinois and continues to perform with them when he has the opportunity.  While in the Air Force, Charles performed around the St Louis area and Texas while he was stationed at Scott AFB and Sheppard AFB.  He moved to Nashville from Austin in 2014 and has performed with IMEA Bluegrass Group of the Year, The Roscoe Dandies, classic rock and country group Soddy Daisy and The Charles Lueker Band.