JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Texas native and Nashville-based Grammy nominee Lee Roy Parnell considers his style somewhere between roadhouse rock and roll, country and R&B. And despite being dissuaded from playing slide guitar when he first got to Nashville in 1987, his successes in the country music industry as a triple threat vocalist, hit songwriter and guitarist have carried him far as a eclectic performer. The Country Music Association nominee and Texas Heritage Songwriter’s Hall of Famer will perform with his five-piece band this Thursday at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.
Listening to Parnell’s top songs on Spotify, one gets a slightly different impression than perusing his performances on YouTube or hearing about his experiences with some of the blues and country giants. He was mentored by Merle Haggard, jammed many times with The Allman Brothers Band and Dickie Betts, and Guy Clark was one of his very best friends. His migration to Nashville was concurrent with fellow Texan songwriter peers Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle, the latter of which called the era “the great integrity scare of the early 90s.”
Prior to this, Parnell’s time in Austin helped define and shape his artistry, and he looks back on the era through a lens of gratitude.
“When I first got to Austin in ’74 it was nirvana,” Parnell said. “It was bright and liberal and harmless, and there was a growth of culture that we so badly needed in that part of the country that wasn’t fond of that kind of thing. We were outcasts and we liked it that way.”
Parnell had become a road dog, and during a regular Monday night residency with Stevie Ray Vaughn, another Austin legend walks in the door.
“One crazy night, me and Stevie had a Monday night gig—we did that for a long time after being in the van on the weekend with our bands. There were like ten people there and Willie Nelson walks in the door,” Parnell explained. “He says, ‘hey you guys want to go burn one’ (laughs). And you’ve got to remember this is the 70s and people go to prison for this stuff. That was the atmosphere.”
“I went through a lot of different style and changes while in Austin, but it all came back to the blues. The blues is the mother of country music, it is the mother of rock and roll, it is the mother of American music, so I don’t see any problem walking that line.”
When Parnell was a freshman in high school and living in a dry county, the weekend beer runs were “seventeen miles in a ’56 Chevy, and thirty-seven miles on the way back because we never hit pavement and never got busted.” Blasting from the eight-track player on one of those beer missions was the first time Parnell heard Duane Allman’s slide guitar.
“Ok, stop the presses. What is that guy doing?!” Parnell had said to his friends, referring to Allman’s prowess. “It was that simple—‘whatever that is, I’m going to do that.’ It was an attraction to way the instrument sounds when played right, which very few can do—very damn few. There are nights that I don’t hit it…or I’ll go for something. I think you always have to be going for something. Don’t be timid.”
Fast forward through years of trial and error (without YouTube or VHS or DVD instructional videos), which included the discovery of open tunings, and Parnell became a highly skilled and respected (slide) guitarist. Gibson has even made a Lee Roy Parnell Signature ’57 Les Paul Goldtop. He’s also been on a few “Guitar Army” tour with monster players like Robben Ford, John Jorgenson and Joe Robinson.
As a songwriter, he has charted more than twenty songs with his highest-charting hits being “What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am” (1992), “Tender Moment” (1993), and “A Little Bit of You” (1995), all of which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Country Chart. After an eleven year break in albums, his latest release is 2017’s Midnight Believer.
Accompanying Parnell for this show will be his longtime drummer of thirty-five years Lynn Williams (The Wallflowers/Delbert Clinton), guitarist Adam Fluhrer, bassist Charlie Harrison (Poco/Rod Stewart), and longtime vocalist Lisa Stewart.
Lee Roy Parnell, 8 p.m. Thursday at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Tickets are $25 for General Admission, $75 for Cowboy Club VIP and $100 for Cowboy Club VIP Premier, available at The Cowboy Bar as well as online.
