Charlie Morris was born in Miami in 1963, and grew up in Georgia and Tennessee. He's been writing songs, and playing various instruments, since he was 6 years old. As a kid, he played classical piano, inspired by the immortal Schroeder.

Inspired by the Beatles, Charlie picked up the guitar around age 15. His greatest musical influence was his older brother, Bruce Morris, a guitarist and serious Blues fan. As Charlie has pointed out many times over the years (yeah, yeah), all modern popular music is descended from the Blues, so a good grounding in same is essential for any musician who wants to play with soul. Charlie considers himself very fortunate to have learned this from Bruce right at the start. Bruce also inspired Charlie's lifelong love of travel.

Charlie Morris attended Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelor's degree in Music. With fellow students Alan Craig, Devin Rice (future St. Pete Mountain Boys), Sue Finger and Dave Bawel (later Dave Fury), he formed a band called Lotus, which gigged steadily on the Florida circuit and released an album of original music in 1984.

Charlie spent a couple of years with a dance band called Cheers, traveling around Florida and throughout the Caribbean on various cruise ships. Charlie has also played several ships as a solo artist, and as a member of house showbands.

Chuck has paid his lounge-lizard dues in full, having accompanied several Elvi, several sets of Blues Brothers and other typical forms of lounge life. At one point, he even played in a place called the Starlight Lounge.

Leaving the sea, our jolly tar returned to St. Pete and began to play around town as a solo and as a member of various bands. Over the years, he's done not only Florida's best blues clubs such as The Ringside, Skipper's Smokehouse, the Bamboo Room and the Bradfordville Blues Club, but also some of her famous luxury hotels, including the Don CeSar, Tradewinds, and Bellevue Mido, as well as the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. Not to be modest about it, Charlie has played every gig that matters in the St. Pete/Tampa area, and quite a few of the other kind as well.

During the 90s, Charlie spent a good bit of time teaching guitar at Seminole Music in St. Petersburg, and recorded a solo CD of original music.

In 1992, Chuck went to Europe to seek fame and fortune (or at least, slightly more appreciative audiences and slightly better money), and became a lifelong Europhile. He met his wife, Denise Bonjour (aka The Tigress) in Davos (she wasn't his wife at the time, but later became so). Since then, Charlie and his band have played all over Switzerland, as well as in the UK, Holland, Germany and Norway.

Charlie has played at the Hotel Eiger in Grindelwald every year since 1994 (both solo and band gigs). He's appeared at various luxury hotels, including the Ermitage-Golf in Gstaad, the Schweizerhof in St. Moritz, and another Schweizerhof in Zermatt. He's also done most of Switzerland's top Blues clubs, including the Mahogany Hall in Bern, INOX in Baden, and Le Chat Noir in Geneva.

In 1998, Charlie released his first Blues CD, called Bluer Than Thou. The ten self-penned selections (plus one by pianist Gary Doyle) include such future classics as Mr. Miracle,, Can't Stop Cleanin' and No Mo' Money.

In 2003, Charlie released Still got 'em, his second CD on BluesPages. These nine original tunes, recorded at Panda Studio in Clearwater, run the gamut from a solo acoustic number to several full-production cuts with a horn section and all the trimmings. Heavy-hitting guests such as Sandy Atkinson, Sugar and Spice and TC Carr round out the fun. The best compliment to this one came from Tampa Bay Musician, who said, "While many people go to endless lengths to get that 'classic' sound, Charlie shows us how on this CD." Charlie has done a band tour of Switzerland every winter since 2001, following in the footsteps of the great Rock Bottom, and using some of the same local musicians. Is it cold over there? You bet your bippy! But since when have musicians been known for having a sense of timing?

Since 1998, Chuck and the boys have done a yearly Crescent City Crawl to New Orleans, including various gigs in the Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

In September, we made our first tour of the UK (the Cheap Scotch Tour), wending our way through England and Scotland all the way up to the Orkney Islands Blues Festival.

This year's winter tour was called the Pack n Bitch Tour, for reasons which will be familiar to any touring musician, and included 19 dates in Switzerland and Germany.

The year began with a lengthy winter tour of Switzerland and Germany, including the Mettman Blues Festival in northern Germany. With typical infantile humor, the boys dubbed this the That's What She Said Tour.The boys did a long and grueling tour of England and Scotland, which they dubbed the Gator n Chips Tour, because an alligator from Florida, which had imbibed a little too much tequila at one of Charlie's gigs, somehow managed to stow away on the plane, and followed them all through the UK. The boys finally managed to trap the rambunctious reptile (or soused saurian), battered him and fried him, and served their British friends a transatlantic treat! This was a marathon tour of 22 gigs, including the Great British R&B Festival in Colne and our second appearance at the Orkney Blues Festival.

In 2005, Charlie also did a couple of dates in Knoxville, Tennessee, as well as a full schedule of Florida gigs, including road trips to the International House of Blues in Orlando and Lou's Blues on the East Coast.

Charlie started the year off with a 12-date tour of Switzerland, called (for obscure Charlesque reasons) the Big Foot Tour. Keyboardist Markus Baumer joined the Swiss band, and did a fine job.

In April, Charlie popped over to England for an appearance on the main stage of the Burnley Blues Festival.

Charlie released a new CD, Live at the Gator n Chips, which was recorded on last year's tour of the UK. There's a full schedule of gigs planned for Chuck's return to the USA, including two CD-release parties, one at Chuck's local, the Ka-Tiki on Sunset Beach, and one on the other side of the bay at the fine Blues club The Smokin' Dog (a Suncoast Blues Society spotlight show). CM will also do several radio interviews, and whatever else he can think of to stir up some interest in the new platter.

A tour of Tennessee and a passel of Florida road gigs are also on the schedule for summer 2006.

• Blues