SHF Pearlie Mae (SHF Southern Whiz x Citona) While Shirley has built Halsdon Arabian Stud to its success today, Charlie has refined his music career through two, going on three, generations of fans. And evolved in ways that screaming teenyboppers in 1964 would never have imagined. He may favor tee-shirts for his on-stage appearances because they are more comfortable to work in, but off-stage, he is perennially on international best-dressed lists for men. In 2012, a GQ article observed, “The thing about Charlie Watts is that he makes everyone else look like they’re trying too hard,” and quoted his comment that he loved the traditions of fine tailoring. Considering that men’s custom tailoring is understated—the man wears the clothes, not vice versa—that makes sense in the line-up of characteristics that have defined Charlie Watts over the years. As with Shirley, clues to Charlie can be found in their childhood. That he plays jazz now goes back to his earliest attraction to music. In a 2009 television
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interview, he explained that the type of music which first got his attention, Meade Lux Lewis’ jazz, was the basis for all the music that followed—swing, jazz, rock and roll, blues. It still fascinates him (the Hollywood Reporter has called his performances “utterly flawless”), and more than one publication has noted that while his face is immobile or perhaps amused through his Rolling Stones concerts, he frequently grins when backing the bass and two pianos of his other group. That is, perhaps, just another side to Charlie Watts. It connects even to the clothes (in the era he came from, he says in the GQ piece, jazz was very hip and fashionable for young people), and it’s one more piece of the history he and his wife share. Reduced to the basics, the ongoing creativity of Charlie’s music is not unrelated to Shirley’s long term commitment to developing top Arabian horses. The desire to create has been a lifelong characteristic on some level for both of them.
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