Charlie Parr brings ‘Rooming House’ home to the State Theatre

Two weeks after its Smithsonian Folkways release, Parr plays his new seven-song folk opera in full with drummer Dave King on Friday, then turns to his back catalog.

Charlie Parr spent years living in Minneapolis rooming houses, and he has turned that stretch of his life into an album. On Friday, October 30, Parr brings it to the State Theatre on Hennepin Avenue for a hometown release night.

The record is Rooming House, out since October 16 on Smithsonian Folkways on CD, LP and digital. JamBase reports that it is Parr's 20th studio album, a seven-song set the announcement calls a folk opera, built from his years living in Minneapolis rooming houses. He does not make it alone: drummer Dave King, known for The Bad Plus and Happy Apple, plays on the record.

Friday's show is built around that partnership. Hennepin Arts, which runs the theater, has set the night as two sets. In the first, Parr and King play *Rooming House* front to back, in order, the way the record was meant to be heard. In the second, Parr turns to the rest of his catalog for a retrospective. Music starts at 8 p.m. at 805 Hennepin Ave.

That sequence is the reason to go. An album played in full is a different thing from a few new songs slotted into a set. You get the story as one piece, characters and rooms in sequence, before the familiar material arrives as a reward. And seven songs is a short enough cycle that the first half of the night should feel like a single extended thought rather than a marathon.

The pairing is unusual too. Hennepin Arts bills the evening as timeless folk and blues. King comes to it from The Bad Plus and Happy Apple, bands not usually filed under folk. Hearing what he does inside songs about rooming-house life is the part of Friday nobody can predict from a press release, and it is the part most worth being in the room for.

Seven songs about Minneapolis rooming houses, played in full in the city that inspired them.

The venue matters as well. The State is a big downtown theater, and these are songs about small rooms. Hennepin Arts calls him a nationally acclaimed Minnesota musician, and a record-release show at the State is the kind of booking that says so. It is also a long way from a rented room, which may be the point: the people in these songs get the big stage for a night.

Tickets have been on sale since July 31 through the State Theatre box office and HennepinArts.org. The box office keeps weekday hours, noon to 5 p.m. Central. Hennepin Arts has not posted a sell-out notice that we could find, but this is a hometown release show for a well-loved local songwriter on a Friday, so don't leave it to the door.

If you have spent any time in the cheaper corners of this city, where people rent rooms rather than apartments, you may hear something familiar on Friday. Parr put in the years, and now he has written them down. Go and hear him play them at home.

Sources: Hennepin Arts press release: Charlie Parr headlines an evening of timeless folk and blues on Oct 30 at the State Theatre (hennepinarts.org); Hennepin Arts event page: Charlie Parr featuring Dave King, Rooming House release show (hennepinarts.org); Smithsonian Folkways news and press (folkways.si.edu); JamBase: Charlie Parr announces new folk opera album Rooming House & 2026 fall tour dates (jambase.com); BroadwayWorld: Charlie Parr to celebrate new album Rooming House at Minneapolis concert (broadwayworld.com)