Miss my dear friend, Charlie.
Thanks for the memories.

Remembering Charlie this week and thinking about how much joy he gave us. It is so beautiful here in NE this time of year. His visits to us in Maine often came in these days ... just before his birthday. Miss him so much.

Hello all,
This is the first year that I have not had coffee with or a phone call from our forever missed friend, Charlie.
I am still so profoundly sad as I'm sure you are..
Yet, his spirit is still strong.
Forever missed, Charlie. You are filled with Glory.

This is my 2nd post on this forum. It's been weeks now since our friend Charlie was taken from this life too soon by the carelessness of one person, and like many of you I am still struggling with the sudden loss. Chas was a mentor, a best friend, a musical brother, and an ever present possibility of light source to me, one I wish I had shared much more time and many more stages with, and to have that future possibility ended can often feel personally devastating. Moving forward all I can do is to envision how Chas would have approached life and the many situations it engenders, how I can bring even a little of his positivity into my surroundings and the choices that come up every day. It's the only way I can honor what his friendship meant to me. I will be forever grateful for the unique circumstance that brought us together, and will never forget the friend, confidant, and musical soul brother I simply called ; Chas.

Sharing my statement for inclusion in pending court proceedings.

I can still picture Charlie well enough, but it’s through the sound of his voice that I truly remember him. When he wasn’t singing he was talking. Both modes of expression were infused with his irrepressible goodness. He brought a rainbow of color to conversations. Any guitar in his hands aspired to play the same way Charlie sang; joyously.

Charlie’s gift to me, across the four decades of our friendship, was his unstinting caring. The knowledge of his presence in the world, no matter the miles between us, was a warm embrace I could conjure up at any time. I’m shattered by the knowledge that someone’s total carelessness killed him.

My sorrow is unmeasurable because an irreplaceable treasure has been stolen from me. Charlie Braun was my unerring guide toward the bright side of living.

This was my contribution to the life celebration for Charlie on Oct 11, 2021.

Charlie was always eager to tell us about what he’d been up to, where he’d been and who he’d seen. His life was an open book full of exciting chapters. I’m lucky enough to be able to tell you a little about where he was headed next- toward something he called “The Sidedoor Concerts”.

Like many of us here today, I share a birth-year with Charlie, 1951. In August he stopped by to serenade me on my seventieth. He got out his guitar, pulled up a chair on the porch and began playing. But soon he had to stop, unable to contain himself, and started asking me what I thought of his new sound. Did I like it? Could I tell what was different? Was the effect working?

The new magic he’d conjured up involved a small wireless speaker that he set on the seat behind him. With it, he could play his guitar acoustically while sending a digitized version of the sound through an app to the speaker— essentially, accompanying himself with himself, doubling the depth and volume of his performance by no visible means. It seemed like the music was coming out of the guitar, and straight out of Charlie, at the same time. The effect worked like a charm.

The Sidedoor Concerts- it was Charlie’s intention to take this form of performance on the road by parking along a city sidewalk, in a campground or anywhere that people were apt to congregate. He’d then open the side door on his van, sit just inside the opening like it was a small stage, and play. That was the future Charlie saw for himself; traveling and sharing his music along the way.

In our own futures, I hope, if we happen to hear, in Joanie Mitchell’s words, “the one-man band by the quick-lunch stand”, that we’ll pause for a listen. “”He was playin’ real good, for free”.

On this Thanksgiving day I am forever thankful for Charlie's friendship and his music that brings him right back.
I am holding his wonderful family in my heart and sending love and prayers to you today.

I am so sad to hear of Charlie's passing. He was always so kind to me and welcoming. And what a smile! I used to love visiting him, Wende and the girls in VT. The house he built was a magical place filled with music, humor & delicious food from their organic garden. We'd go swimming in the summer and sledding in the winter.....often take moonlit walks after dinner. In the evenings he would light a fire in the living room and grab his guitar and we would all sit together singing or chatting or playing games with the kids. I will always remember his good nature, his kindness and optimism. I'm grateful for these memories. I am sending lots of love to his family and especially his girls. Arms around you. Nikki xoxo

Charlie was such a special light in this world. He spread magic, love, joy, and music wherever he went. He touched so many lives with his soulful, warm, generous, and kind spirit.

You could spend 5 minutes with Charlie and in that short amount of time he would have already won his way into your heart and changed something in you. He always made you feel important because he gave you his full attention and you had the sense that he truly wanted to know you, not superficially, but on the deepest level. His gentle and welcoming spirit made you feel safe and he was able to coax the most tender part of your soul to emerge. That is what he did with my partner, Marcia Gomes. He loved her music, believed in her unreservedly, and supported her to get her songs out into the world. He was an important music mentor to her and was instrumental in helping to give her music wings.

His music was his soul and a gift to all of us. It gave us wings to soar, brought us home deeply to ourselves, and closer to God. In his song Filled with Glory, he says, "Lift you head, lift your eyes, lift your voice... You can have this moment... and what makes you amazed, will make you holy... and everyone that you touch will be filled with glory." Charlie, you are amazing and holy.... and have filled us all with glory.

We love you, Charlie! You were an angel on earth and we will miss you terribly....
Thank you for all the many gifts you gave us... We will hold you in our hearts forever.

Marcia wrote this song 2 days after Charlie died. It is a song as much for those of us who loved him as it is an acknowledgement of his beautiful spirit. Click below to hear Marcia's song.

https://youtu.be/ka-6RwSLqI8

Dear Charlie,
As I write this, I am looking at a photo of us playing together at the very first concert at the TreeCat Café in East Hampton. Your head is bowed as if lost in prayer, and your hands are stumming heavenly chords on your guitar. The news of your death has left me stunned, trying to imagine a world without you. How can someone filled with so much joy leave so suddenly? Can someone who emanates so much love be truly gone? No, you are still with us in spirit and love. Thank God! But I am going to miss your beautiful smile, your kind face, your MUSIC, and your warm hugs.

I am grateful for the memory of our last conversations. I am grateful for the brotherly love you beamed around me while helping me record the music of my heart and soul. I am grateful for all the gigs we played together! I am grateful I witnessed the brotherly love between you and your best friend, Jeff Olmsted. Thanks to your many Off the Tracks Studio recordings, I can still listen to you two finishing each other’s sentences on piano and guitar, taking turns singing solo and backing each other up on the amazing music projects you two always dream up together. Somehow, you know just what the world needs to hear at the right time and how to say it.

Thank you, Charlie, for being a loving, compassionate, patient, joyful friend and music mentor to me. I hope you know how loved you are in this and every community fortunate enough to know you! Sending prayers of comfort to your loving partner, Joan, your precious family, and to everyone young and old who is grieving for you right now.

I promise to “Keep the Vibration UP” and to keep your love, your music, and your memory alive in the world!

Love from your sister in spirit,
Marcia Gomes

Open this link to Charlie's website to download a free MP3 of Charlie's song, "Keep the Vibration Up!"
https://charliebraun.com/music-and-cds

My Uncle Charlie was always a positive influence on me growing up. I loved driving out to Vermont as a kid with my dad and visiting my cousins at their house. I have great memories there. He used to take us out and let us drink the raw maple nectar straight from the tree, I used to think that was so cool.
As an adult, he called me every year on my birthday. Even when I was having a hard year, I could always count on my Uncle Charlie's soothing voice to help me feel better. You were a great man Charlie and I'll miss you. Love you.
-ben

The news of Charlie Braun’s death hit me like a blow to the chest. Charlie was a close friend in high school and was “Forever Young” in his approach to life. 

One of the best musicians that I knew, who was able to stay true to his calling. I will always remember partying in his pool at his house after school and driving to Florida during Spring Break our Senior Year at Jonathan Dayton RHS. 

Charlie had checked in with me from time to time and pre-COVID had visited our mutual best friend, Mike Burns, at his nursing home. Charlie was a real "Mentsh". 

I know he’s up there now, jamming with the greats!

May His Memory be a Blessing,

Mark Hurwitz

The news of Charlie Braun’s death hit me like a blow to the chest. Charlie was a close friend in high school and was “Forever Young” in his approach to life. 

One of the best musicians that I knew, who was able to stay true to his calling. I will always remember partying in his pool at his house after school and driving to Florida during Spring Break our Senior Year at Jonathan Dayton RHS. 

Charlie had checked in with me from time to time and pre-COVID had visited our mutual best friend, Mike Burns, at his nursing home. Charlie was a real "Mentsh". 

I know he’s up there now, jamming with the greats!

May His Memory be a Blessing,

Mark Hurwitz

To Charlie's family and friends, my heart is broken for you as it is for myself. May God surround you with His loving Peace.
I met Charlie in college at BU. He came to my apartment in Cambridge to play music with my roommate. Charlie has been in my life ever since. When my life took me to Vermont, I ran into him at the Brattleboro Food co-op. Later we built a home in his home town of Guilford. We worked together in Northfield and Bernarston. I was lucky enough to enjoy many cups of coffee, long walks, adventures and his music! Years later I moved to MV and then so did Charlie! Charlie suggested, we along with our partners study String Theory together.. He was forever into the vibrations! Later, He lived in our apartment attached to our house. Oh, the food and the music and the laughs! Before Covid, Charlie visited us in FL annually during the High Holy Days.
Charlie and I 'grew up' together. I thought he would always be there. Together we learned about life and love. A piece of my heart is gone with him yet I am so very thankful that God put my friend along side me for these many years. I know I will see him again. He is in heaven singing with the angels and he is with me as I walk through the day. I love you my dear friend and will miss seeing your earthly presance at my door.❤

Dear holy friends and family,

The video is now available from the beautiful Memorial Service for Charlie that was held on October 11th in the Beit Ahavah backyard at the Florence Congregational Church here in Florence, MA - the link is at: https://youtu.be/r0Zyx9lllwQ - for you to watch, experience, and find love and perhaps comfort, and certainly be "filled with glory" that is Charlie's. It is hard to comprehend that that was over a week ago, or sometimes, that this is all real. Just a few months ago Charlie played in this same beautiful spot with Rabbi Andrew Hahn in the Kirtan Havdalah full moon "Back to the Heart" concert. 

At the Memorial Service, there were over 250 people in person and 100 on Zoom, at least, and somehow we got the word out within only a few days, with so many outpourings of love, offerings of music, prayers and songs, words and rituals. If you still have musical or other offerings that we missed - I'm sorry - and hope you will continue to share them here or other places.

Thank you to Brian Bender for working on the video so we can share it. I'm sending love and blessings to all of you. Charlie's birthday is this Sunday, October 24. <3

The link to Charlie's Memorial Service:
https://youtu.be/r0Zyx9lllwQ

With love and gratitude,
Rabbi Riqi Kosovske

When I visited Easthampton for the first time, and coincidentally attended his Kirtan (and met all the beautiful people there too), I knew that I was coming home. I did not spend a lot of time with Charlie, but whenever I did, I always felt I could connect from the truth of my being in his open and heartfelt presence. Listening to all the stories, I feel that he was like a honey bee bringing joy wherever he went. I will forever carry the essence of your ways in my heart as an inspiring beacon for togetherness, meeting life with enthusiasm while encountering difficulties with depth, and always looking for the meaning and bright side of everything. You are so missed! And living on in my heart.   

Susan M. Sullivan: Make safety changes in front of Northampton High

Published: 10/11/2021 5:01:08 PM

The tragedy of Charlie Braun’s death (“Crash claimed city musician known for spiritual bent,” Oct. 9) a talented musician and amazing community member who was hit by a car in front of Northampton High school last Wednesday, was preventable.

Sadly, Charlie was not the only person hit in front of NHS. The sad truth is that several people have been hit at this dangerous intersection over the years. We have had two employees hit on the crosswalks there and two students hit in years past. Everyday, I witness students, staff, and community members almost being hit despite pressing the flashing light, including our own crossing guard as he holds up his large red stop sign.

In the past, I have attended a Traffic and Parking Commission meeting to share my concerns as well as contacting city and school officials. More recently, I have been in touch with various city council members, School Committee members and other city and state government officials — all members share the concerns.

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Now that Charlie Braun has died, I encourage all community members to join together to push for swift safety changes, like speed tables to slow oncoming traffic down, (the city actually has temporary ones that could be placed there now) and chokes to slow traffic. Please contact your local representatives to push for immediate change for the safety of all.

Susan M. Sullivan

Northampton

Here is an article in Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton's newspaper:

Crash claimed Charlie Braun, gifted city musician known for spiritual sessions

CHARLIE BRAUN

By BRIAN STEELE
Staff Writer
Published: 10/9/2021 7:01:11 AM

NORTHAMPTON — Charlie Braun, a city singer-songwriter and music teacher known as a gifted guitarist, was killed Wednesday when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle near Northampton High School.

The Northwestern district attorney’s office said Braun, 69, was hit while riding near the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Elm Street at around 4:15 p.m. He was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The driver, a 23-year-old Haydenville woman, stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. No charges or citations have been issued. The crash remains under investigation by local and state police.

Braun was the owner of the Other Side of the Tracks Studio in Northampton, where he recorded and produced for musicians including Nate Livingston, Ed Ritz and Dennis Caraher. He also recorded audiobooks for authors such as Jon Kabat-Zinn and Gayle Pemberton.

He released several albums of original music, the most recent of which was “Keep the Vibration Up: Songs & Chants in the Key of Light” in 2016. Braun played in a variety of styles including American folk, country blues, Latin, rock, gospel and meditative yoga music.

Braun was known for leading spiritual music and chanting sessions called Kirtans at the Eastworks building in Easthampton and other locations around New England. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, artist Beth McElhiney, a friend of Braun’s, said the Kirtans were held monthly.

“He gifted us with beautiful sacred music and his Kirtans were a gift to myself and my partner,” McElhiney said. “Charlie and I both shared a connection to Martha’s Vineyard and then western Mass. It was always fun to spontaneously bump into each other out on the bike path or at River Valley (Co-op) and just chat away.”

McElhiney described the Kirtans as “magical” and healing for all involved.

“When playing music with Charlie Braun, there was always a sense of deep connection at an almost metaphysical level, in that place where the music is divinely inspired,” Braun’s bandmate Charlie Shew said. “As a friend, I could always count on Charlie to keep things on an upward energy. He always had a smile and a laugh ready for you when you needed a friend to be there for you.”

Shew’s wife, Bonnie Shew, also a close friend of Braun’s, said he was a “beautiful” singer and a devoted teacher.

“I would best describe Charlie as passionate,” Bonnie Shew said. “Passionate about social justice and political causes, about food, fitness, his children and grandchildren, and life itself. Charlie was almost always relentlessly optimistic and a truly beautiful soul.”

According to his website, Braun won the 2009 Gold Award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation for his album of children’s music, “I Miss the Mud.”

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available Friday.

Link to this article can be copied to your browser here:
https://www.gazettenet.com/Northampton-musician-Charlie-Braun-dead-at-69-42907513

Chas and I became friends and working musicians together through our connections at the Brattleboro music store in around 1980, I instantly knew I had met a kindred spirit who was unique and filled with a strong love for life. Together along with Jeff Firestone, Chuck Osgood, Lou Trombley, Louise Taylor, and Dave Fuller we began recording and performing original music as well as being a house-band for Soundesign Studios recording for songwriters and composers of commercials. We eventually formed a trio w/ Lou Trombley that played Charlie's songs, easily the best and most creative band I was ever a part of, and later we became a quartet with Dave Amity playing covers. During the next 2 decades we found ourselves playing for various people as well as a few occasions performing as a duo, and working together as tradesman building houses, but as things often do our circumstances changed and our orbit widened, making collaboration difficult until recently. There were occasions when he would reach out to me and we would play more music, share more laughs, and have more coffee and pie...I always left Charlie's side feeling much better than I had before, and hoping to see him again asap. Chas and I shared a rather unique sense of humor, a one of a kind rhythmic connection, and a searching creativity. Being 4 years older than myself, and lacking an older brother, I often saw him as that older brother I never had, and any time spent together was very precious to me. He really was a kindred spirit, a true friend, and someone who brought a lot of light into my personal need for reflective solitude with his gregarious and engaging personality, and we shared an ability to laugh at ourselves like no-one else in my cadre of friends and family. Like all of you I wish we had more time to fulfill our journey, and I feel some very real regrets about missed opportunities, but we cannot turn back the clock...I will miss him deeply and I hope he knew how much I treasured his friendship and the time we shared.

Here is something of my memory of Charlie I want to share with the community:

Charlie Braun was the first person I met when I came to live and teach Spanish and ESL on the island of Martha's Vineyard almost exactly 20 years ago. My wife Charo and my sons were all pretty much constantly impacted by his kindness and generosity of spirit. The clannishness of the island teachers toward those of us who had come from "away" was most happily offset by his organization of an ongoing weekly or bi-weekly potluck dinner party he held during our first year there. His gifts of laughter and positivity kept us all going in what could have been a lonely and discouraging time. Charlie became a permanent friend, one of the very few we kept when we left that community for another one in Maine. Through the next two decades, we stayed in loving contact. Charlie tried every summer to get up to Midcoast Maine, where we lived, and, whenever we were in the Northampton area, we always stopped - and often stayed with - Charlie at one of his homes. Our younger son attended and graduated from Williams College. Once, when Luke had a crisis there, Charlie went over to Williamstown to help Luke, having known him closely since he was a child out on the Vineyard. We knew we could always trust Charlie's spirit to deliver kindness and helpful guidance. In Charlie's words, "Totally, man."
  I spoke to Charlie by phone just a few hours before his accident. We were making plans for him to come visit us again this month. We were looking forward to getting together again and laughing, contemplating the bumpy nature of our contemporary political scene, fantasizing about what the future might hold for us and how we would confront it. But it was not to be. It seems impossible that this cheerful, talented, engaging, open, big-hearted man is not around anymore to pull me back from my occasional wandering into those darker spots I sometimes find along my path. But, I am grateful now that he joined me for these last twenty years on this path. I hope I can always summon the joyful memory of this lasting friendship as I continue forward. We should all try to be for others what he was for us.
   I hope all of you who loved Charlie - especially Charlie's family and Joan - will accept Charo's and my heartfelt sympathy with you on this awful tragic loss. His memory is a consolation and may it always be so.

It is with a terribly heavy heart that I reflect on the recent passing of my friend and former colleague Charlie Braun. I first met Charlie in the early 90’s when he and I worked together at the Northfield Elementary School in western Mass., he as guidance counselor, I as the school’s principal. Charlie’s personality fit perfectly in his role as one of the school’s counselors; gregarious, affable and engaging, the young students at the school with whom he worked adored him and their admiration for his work with them spoke volumes about their success in school.

When I moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 1996 to become the head of the Oak Bluffs School, Charlie made the decision to follow, and a year or two later he was hired, as a counselor at the Tisbury School.
My wife Marcy & I rented out our guest house to Charlie for two years, and as neighbors and colleagues we spent many hours with each other, mostly listening to new songs that he had written. In fact, a day didn’t go by that I wouldn’t hear the music radiating from his cottage. 

Charlie possessed such a compelling and magnetic personality. He would light up a room in humorous conversation, and over time developed firm and enduring friendships with a wide cast of colleagues and confidants. But despite the comforts of life that the Vineyard provided, Charlie had other, more essential plans, and after three years he moved to western Massachusetts to pursue his music career. Though we pledged to stay in touch, that contact waned over the years, though I paid attention to his burgeoning success in music and writing. 

Despite that absence in contact, I knew and trusted that someday we would meet up again and simply pick up from where we left off. Sadly, that day will never come. And though it has been years since we last spoke, today I feel as though I have lost a good friend; someone who could light up a room like few others could, who could make you laugh with a good story, and someone who could bring tears to your eyes with a beautiful song. I shall miss him.

Laury Binney and Marcy Klapper
West Tisbury MA