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Day 19 has arrived at our 50 Bands in 50 Days local music showcase presented by GigTown, where we are highlighting and pumping up some of the best bands and musicians this region has to offer. Today we are heading over to the Kitsap area to take a listen to a chap named Jack Parker. Virtually speaking that is.
Over the span of his 20-year career, Jack Parker has taken his life-long journey through the peaks and valleys, and shaped a musical sound reminiscent of a timeless America. For years, Parker has been the ingenious six-string slinger interpreting other people’s songs from “stage-right” in bands like Tumbledown, and Rocky Point All-Stars, (Parker has also been a touring guitarist for MxPx since 2011) but more recently he has taken center-stage to write, sing, and play his own songs that have an air of rambling down the open road, but ultimately a longing for coming home. Parker released his first solo EP entitled Homegrown in 2014 and Parker has also been a contributor on this website with a very popular series called “Spotlight on Kitsap”.
Homegrown opens with the exciting southern-rocker “It’s So Good (To Be Back Home)” that mixes the attitude of his Tumbledown twang with his meticulous ear for melody. He sings about loving life on the road, but that coming home is what makes it all worthwhile. On other songs like “I Might Love You,” “Gone,” and “Put Me Down,” he pulls beautifully from his bluegrass and southern rock influences like Tony Rice or The Outlaws, to create a whole new sound all his own.
His songs invoke a romantic sense of longing, for overcoming pain caused by life’s hardships and failed relationships, coupled with a desire to find true joy. Even though Parker is a true veteran in the music world, his journey as a solo artist is still a young, but truly promising one. We can only look ahead and watch him grow and mature into perhaps one of the great artists of the 21st century.
Check out Jack Parker on Facebook and his WEBSITE
