Parker Millsap
Oklahoma native Parker Millsap at just 20 is, frankly, the real deal. Raised in the Pentecostal church by parents with a love of blues and country music this release is a sparse, desolate piece of work that owes much to his personal history and Oklahoma itself.
The first thing you notice about the album is the voice. Millsap is young but his voice seems fully formed, a little gravelly but with range and versatility. The voice suits the songs perfectly, if he gets ragged it’s because ragged is required. The other striking aspect is the instrumentation, it’s sparse, very sparse, an acoustic guitar, upright bass a little percussion with the occasional steel guitar and fiddle as and when required. Is that a muted trumpet on album opener ‘Old Time Religion’? This gives the album the feeling of age. It sounds old but ageless, traditional yet of its time.
At the end of the day it’s about the songs. Luckily Millsap has songs to spare. The aforementioned ‘Old Time Religion’ sets the scene as the protagonist ‘makes his decisions down on his knees’. While on ‘Forgive Me’ a young man questions his faith and the dark, strident, ‘Quite Contrary’ has fairy tale characters heavily involved in the drug trade. The arrangements and sparse instrumentation do give an overall feeling of melancholy, ‘The Villian’is a thing of aching beauty. Not to say it’s all doom and gloom as the clever lyrics are able to paint some light relief on the gentle shuffle ‘Disappear’ when a couple plan to, or more likely, yearn to relocate ‘Leave your mothers china and all our original plans’ the husband advises.
I’ve picked out, what I consider, a few highlights but it’s all good here. I believe the album is getting a UK release on September 1st and then later in the year Parker Millsap is guesting on tour with Old Crow Medicine Show. Now that is a marriage made in heaven.
Update: Parker Millsap / Old Crow Medicine Show Live Review
To quote John Surge, “These five songs represent a real cross-section of the music we make”. John is referencing a new EP aptly titled, ‘Maybe You Don’t Know Me’. The ‘Almost Time’ album from last year was well received, but Surge still had a host of material that wasn’t quite right for that record but worked well in his live set. A live set that had gotten John noticed on the LA country scene in the first place. Surge re-connected with highly regarded Texas producer Tommy Detamore {Doug Sahm, Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Jesse Daniel} and reenlisted many of the ‘Almost Time’ crew including his right-hand Haymaker guitarist Randy Volin, plus Brennen Leigh on harmony vocals, Brad Fordham (Dave Alvin/Hayes Carll) on bass, Tom Lewis (Junior Brown/Raul Malo) on drums and Floyd Domino (Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard) on keyboards.