Artist: Lee Roy Parnell
Album: Midnight Believer
Label: Vector Recordings
Release Date: 05.15.2018
Lee Roy Parnell made big waves in Nashville country music during the 1990s, but as a baby boomer-born Texan, he’s always loved the blues, Memphis and Alabama soul, and Southern rock. Transitioning between Parnell and the Allman Brothers Band sounds especially natural because of their common touchstones, and the melodic fire in their guitars. “Dickey Betts is a very good friend of mine, and a big influence,” Parnell stresses. “Without question, on the slide, Duane Allman. Jazz, blues, country, and rock ‘n’ roll—all of it at the same time. That was something I could sink my teeth into.”
Midnight Believer bursts with those motivations, and zeroes in on the Stax- and Muscle Shoals-inspired soul. Parnell co-wrote every song with bassist Greg Barnhill, each as comfortable, catchy as hell, and of lasting impact as the next. The funky little swirl that sparks up “Hours In Between” quickly ignites a driving, biting rocker. Picture Albert King leading the old Stax house band, and getting sweaty. “That track was done live,” Parnell offers. “Albert was a big influence on me later in life, but has proven to add almost as much as B.B. and Freddie into the mix of what I do.” Lee Roy Parnell sings with full-bodied, all-embracing feeling, perfect in every setting here. “Sunny Days” features the legendary Fairfield Four crooning in the background. With the song’s otherwise spare instrumentation, Parnell’s voice and his sweet slide land the same emotional punch as the Fairfield’s gorgeous voices do. Two sets of A-list players play these melodies with incredible finesse, but surely know how to loosen up, too, demonstrated in the slate of rockers towards the end. “Want Whatcha Have” stomps, the guitar nearly screaming. “Going Uptown” rides Parnell’s slide into a Little Feat bayou zone. But “Tied Up and Tangled” offers the greasiest, hookiest groove of them all, which Parnell likens to “Leon Russell meets the Rolling Stones.” To close, Parnell chose his personal favorite, “Some Time Ago,” a haunting flow of regret expressed through tear-choked voice and burning guitar. “The long solo is there at the end because there was no way not to include all of that and have the song be a complete musical thought.”
Midnight Believer contains Lee Roy Parnell’s first batch of new musical thoughts in eleven years. They had to be exceptional, and are, from a man with a heart as colorful as his guitar is purely red-hot.
—Tom Clarke
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