It takes an extra-special performance for the Byrd Theatre to turn off its projector on the biggest date night of the year—that and a renewed effort to bring more live entertainment to one of Richmond’s most historic stages.

On Friday, Feb. 14, Durham-based singer-songwriter Tre. Charles will play a full-band set at the nearly 100-year-old Carytown movie house. As surprising as that timing may seem, bringing people together on Valentine’s Day aligns with Charles’ mission to help listeners become more attuned to their emotional wellbeing.

“I want to reach people who are going through something,” he says. “People who want to not feel alone and who can find solace in [this] type of music.”

Over the last few years, Charles has graduated from brewery gigs in Richmond, where he lived during a stint working at the Country Club of Virginia, to playing Friday Cheers, opening for legendary hip-hop acts like Arrested Development, and even bringing his signature brand of alternative R&B to life at the Newport Jazz Festival. He decided to dedicate his life to music after a nearly fatal 2019 car crash. Ever since, he’s been using a guitar, a looping pedal, his uniquely comforting voice, and his gift for storytelling to convey the importance of slowing down and prioritizing what really matters.

“I want people to know a little bit about what I’m going through,” he says, “but to also see similarities [and ask], ‘What am I supposed to do now with my life? Who am I doing it for?’ Really be introspective and try to figure out how they can advance their lives or get through a moment.”

From Richmond with love

Charles sees this moment as a particularly pivotal one. For one thing, he’s playing a venue for which he has a local’s sense of reverence.

“Oh, this is really unique and really different,” he remembers thinking upon discovering the Byrd during his time living in Richmond. “It’s cool that it’s affordable, and it’s for the community and it has all this history. It’s a very regal, yesteryear type of situation.”

To mark the occasion and add some sweetness to Richmonders’ Valentine’s Day, Charles has been collaborating with a trusted circle of small businesses. He worked with Väsen Brewing Company on a custom peach-infused pale ale called “From Richmond with Love,” with Zorch Pizza on a complementary peachy goat cheese pie, and with Shockoe Atelier on a limited-edition block print T-shirt that will be available at the show.

The concert is also pivotal in terms of its timing, which is near the start of the rollout for the EP “Here We Are” that Charles has scheduled for release in April. For the first single, he chose “GRWTH,” an ethereal meditation on perseverance in which he sings, “Sometimes I feel like my mind just might break/Still I try.”

The seven songs that make up “Here We Are” [each title features a period at the end] and combine new material like “GRWTH” with a few of the previously released tracks that have helped him amass hundreds of thousands of plays on streaming services. During the past few years, compositions like “Mantra” and “Lately” have served as statements of purpose—calls for anyone listening to stop and take a look around (hence the periods in his and his songs’ names). Charles is hoping those songs will reach an ever wider audience. “They didn’t get as much attention as I feel like they deserved,” he says. “So I wanted to give them another shot at trying to get seen.”

The late January timing of the release of “GRWTH” was in intentional alignment with the start of Black History Month. Charles has spoken in the past about aiming to help men— especially Black men—connect more meaningfully with the emotions they’re carrying around. This February, he’s been reflecting on the Black artists who influenced him and how their music aimed to make a difference.

“Black history is American history,” he says. “The artists that I liked weren’t necessarily political, but they were opinionated. It was more about the humanity and the appreciation of humanity and the advancement of humanity… I want it to be celebrated that a Black man can talk about being at peace in a world that doesn’t necessarily want to allow that.”

Charles has been exploring new parts of that world of late. The seeds for the new material on “Here We Are” were planted far from Central Virginia, in Manchester, England. Attending shows, spending time in pubs, befriending shop owners, and reflecting on his ability to explore this famously hard-working city in Northern England on his earnings from music, Charles was inspired to put pen to paper.

“I’d walk outside sometimes, just sit there and look at the rain,” he says. “It was very inspiring to me to be this guy who’s never really like studied music or done anything like that to be in this foreign country and be able to experience it—to experience that difference.”

Redefining an iconic space

The venue he’ll be playing on Valentine’s Day is aiming for expansion in its own way. Music is often front and center at the Byrd thanks to the theater’s calling card: its Mighty Wurlitzer organ. Among the last of its kind, the Wurlitzer has delighted audiences since 1928, rising at the front of the stage before films begin in a spectacular display of keys, organ stops, and old-school showmanship. Yet outside of small ensemble acoustic performances in conjunction with film festivals, infrequent instances where an artist has rented out the theater—Vienna Light Orchestra is a recent example—and occasional live soundtracking of silent films, the room rarely doubles as a music venue.

Those live soundtracks have produced no shortage of memorable moments. Legendary Television bandleader Tom Verlaine performed in that capacity at the Byrd in 1980. In 2018, a screening of the cult 1977 horror classic “Suspiria” enjoyed accompaniment from an updated incarnation of Goblin, the group that provided the film’s original score. But according to Ben Cronly, the Byrd’s executive director, several factors make hosting shows challenging.

The stage is just 13 feet deep. There’s no dressing room, no green room, and “no backstage presence whatsoever,” Cronly says. “We’re very limited in what we can do.” That’s true sonically as well, since bands can’t tap into the theater’s main speaker system. That seems like a blessing in disguise when Cronly describes a chapter in the Byrd’s history when things got loud.

“Back the ’80s, they would bring in bands — rock bands, too,” he says. “One of the issues that they ran into is the bass being so pronounced that it would shake crystals off the main, big chandelier … They went out and bought a parachute and wrapped the chandelier in the parachute to catch all the fallen crystals.”

Comedian Antoine Scott performed there in January, but Cronly laments that Scott’s set had to compete with the Washington Commanders’ divisional playoff game. He admits that it’s been difficult changing the public’s perception of the Byrd as a destination for films alone. While a fresh round of restoration efforts are being planned, they’re still in the early stages of gathering architectural feasibility and historic structure reports. “It’s hard for us to get the word out,” Cronly explains. “People aren’t looking for that alternative programming from us right now.”

Yet Tre. Charles is proof of how musicians can connect with a moviegoing audience. He was part of the 2022 Richmond International Film Festival’s live music lineup, and he went on to win the festival’s Virginia’s Favorite award that year. Two years later, the Byrd Theatre Foundation’s events coordinator, Samuel Hatcher, caught Charles’ set opening for Digable Planets at Friday Cheers and a conversation about headlining the Byrd followed.

Despite the various challenges posed by the theater’s setup, Charles, who is a generous storyteller between songs, sees the unconventional environs as an opportunity to connect more intimately with attendees. “That could lend more of an authentic and real experience, not being a typical music hall that has that big sound. It’s more of an organic, pop-up shop type of installment… It’s gonna be a big one for me.”

Tre. Charles will perform at the Byrd Theatre on Friday, Feb. 14. Music starts at 8 p.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at byrdtheatre.org. To hear and purchase Tre. Charles’ music, and for more information on Charles’ upcoming shows, visit trecharles.com.