The Makin Waves Song of the Week is "Ghosts" by Chas and the Skylands Gang. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KABBASH
Releasing a new band's debut album at the ripe old age of 59, Charles "Chas" Sickles seeks to prove F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong. Central Jersey-based Chas and the Skylands Gang's "Youth and Wisdom" is strong evidence that life does have second act.
One of the 10-song LP’s tastiest tracks, “Ghosts,” the Makin Waves Song of the Week.
As the Makin Waves Song of the Week, “Ghosts” also can be heard between 6 and 8 p.m. on Aug. 15 on “Radio Jersey at ThePenguinRocks.com. If you miss it, you can tune in any time in the archives at The Penguin and Mixcloud.
Chas’ first act came with ‘90s bands Playboys of the Revolution and Global Disrobal.
“I hadn't written a song in over 20 years until I unexpectedly lost a close friend from high school and was moved to compose a tribute to him,” he said. “That reminded me that I kinda sorta knew how to write songs. But the floodgates didn't open until a couple years later, when another high school buddy posted a song he had written for his fiance. My competitive juices got flowing, as in, ‘Hey, I need to write a song for my girl!’
“There was one key songwriting hack that I discovered that made it all happen: over the years, I used to wake up at 4 a.m. for a bathroom break with a melody playing in my head, and say to myself, ‘I'll remember that when I wake up later,’ and, of course, I never would,” Chas continued. “So now, bleary-eyed and only half-awake, I would force myself to grab a guitar, quietly figure out the chords, and record a very rough-sounding demo on my phone. Suddenly, I had a whole album worth of ideas, and I didn't think they totally sucked!”
Chas got together with the rhythm section from his cover band, drummer Kemal Betin and bassist Brian Kane, added his 21-year-old son, Grant, on lead guitar, and headed up to his old stomping grounds of Sussex County to work with Tom Askin at PonderRosa Studios in Lafayette. They recorded "Youth and Wisdom" in four days also with fiddler Carol Sharar and harmony vocalist Lauren Gibbs.
He dubbed the band Chas and the Skylands Gang in honor of where he grew up and where the record was recorded.
“It’s Americana with some big-ass pop hooks,” Chas said. “Imagine Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen went on a double date with Lucinda Williams and Sierra Farrell. That’s the mix we were after.”
The LP’s first single, “Ghosts,” may be uptempo, the melody an ear-worm, but the lyrical themes are infused with a tone of searching melancholy.
Inspired by the passing of his Mom in 2022 at the age of 95, the song is a rumination on the big questions of what comes next and the meaning of it all.
“My Mom was a real pistol right up to the end, and I miss her dearly,” Chas said. “We were blessed to have in her our lives as long as we did, but by the end, she had outlived almost all her friends, which made her sad. That’s referenced in the lyrics when it mentions ‘ghosts in your address book.’”
Despite the eternal mystery of the unknowable, the song imparts the hopeful thought that “memory takes and memory gives, something dies but something always lives.”
Look for the band to announce live dates in the fall.
Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and contact Bob at [email protected].
