Australian born , Chicago based blues musician Michael Charles is showing his love for country music, particularly the music of Glen Campbell by giving a bluesy dusting to Campbell’s 1968 hit “ Wichita Lineman.”
Michael Charles and his band including drummer Ryder Olle and bassist Luke Gill return to the Slice, Thursday, April 27.

“ Before the pandemic, I was playing with the same guys for 16 or 17 years.
But the moved on, so I had to form a new band. We were new the last time we were in Lethbridge, but we’re a lot tighter now,” Charles observed.
He played a marathon set of uninterrupted music last May for a dismal turnout, but had a decent crowd for his last Lethbridge show in October.
He is excited about his new single— a cover of one of his musical idols, Glen Campbell’s hit “Wichita Lineman.”
“Jimmy Webb wrote the song, but Glen Campbell popularized it. I was inspired by that song the first time I heard it when I was 13 or 14. He is an awesome guitar player who has inspired a lot of people,” Charles said, adding Campbell played on songs by the Everly Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Frank Sinatra Merle Haggard, the Monkees and even the Beach Boys, plus Elvis Presley and plenty of other chart toppers as a member of renown Los Angeles session players the Wrecking Crew and even toured with the Beach Boys in the mid 1960s.
“ Glen Campbell was a great guitar player. In the 1970s and ’80s he was everywhere,” Charles said.
Coincidentally, around the same time Charles decided to record “Wichita Lineman,” he was asked to perform at the opening of the Glen Campbell Museum in Nashville in 2020, a few years after Campbell passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.
“ It was just such a cool experience. And I just enjoy playing ‘Wichita Lineman.’ it’s been part of my set for a while now,” Charles said.
“ It was a surreal experience to be there and it was an honour to be asked to play,” Charles continued.
He always puts his own stamp on the rare cover he performs.