When singer-songwriter Parker Millsap was a child, his parents joined a Pentecostal church and shunned many things from the outside world. But they never let music go. From the age of five, Millsap remembers music as a part of his life.
“We went to church but we also listened to a lot of secular music,” Millsap recalls. “My parents had albums by John Haitt, Ry Cooder, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters and a lot of gospel music. It was great.”
PARKER MILLSAP With: We/Or/Me When: 8 p.m. May 20 Where: Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Tickets: $15 (18+over) Info: lh-st.com
Music eventually crept into Millsap’s life in an even bigger way. He made a splash on the Americana circuit with his 2014 self-titled debut album. Now he returns with an even more accomplished group of songs that add to the next chapter of his promising career.
“The Very Last Day” is a mix of folk, blues and gospel with an occasional nod to rockabilly. It is a throwback to the roots of American music but with Millsap’s own modern sound, which has a tinge of Tom Waits inspiration to it. These are songs featuring strong songwriting and insightful lyrics threaded with an intensity that bolsters his reputation as a fresh voice in Americana.
Though it’s a studio album, “The Very Last Day” captures the energy of Millsap’s live shows, which are not to be missed. The Lincoln Hall show features Millsap on guitar and vocals backed by Daniel Foulks on fiddle, Michael Rose on bass and Paddy Ryan on drums.
Millsap grew up in Woody Guthrie territory — Oklahoma, a state with a smallish music scene that has recently supplied an interesting roster of Americana performers among them John Fullbright, J.D. McPherson and John Moreland. It’s a music scene that is nurturing and welcoming, Millsap says.
Despite his religious upbringing, Millsap doesn’t consider himself very religious these days. Yet he admits those experiences do inform his songwriting.
“I think to a certain extent it sticks with you no matter what you do,” Millsap says, adding, “But the farther I get away from it, the less it affects me, the less it affects my writing. For a long time, I was just trying to figure out how I fit into it.”
It’s been noted that Millsap’s raspy vocal style falls “somewhere between Rod Stewart and Jason Isbell.” But there’s also a hint of that Delta blues howl that instantly makes you think he’s much older than his 23 years.
“I listened to a lot of Delta blues as a kid and I loved everything about it,” Millsap recalls, admitting it’s always been a big inspiration. “It’s raw and real and passionate and true. It strikes a different chord than anything else out there.
As teens, Millsap and Rose, who have known each other since eighth grade, started a cover band, Fever in Blue, which further ignited his desire to follow a career in music. Out of high school but with no desire to attend college, Millsap landed, with his dad’s encouragement, an internship at Prairie Sun Recordings in Northern California, the studio where Tom Waits recorded “Bone Machine” and “Mule Variations.”
Millsap recalls his time there as a cultural experience as well as a job training experience.
“A studio in Northern California is culturally the polar opposite of central Oklahoma,” Millsap says with a laugh. “Being fresh out of high school and not really knowing much about the music industry and not knowing much about anything at all it was culture shock.
“But I really got comfortable being in a studio and got to love recording.
But I realized I’d rather be making the music than setting up the mics and flipping switches. I found I wanted to be making the music. I feel lucky to get to create music at the level that I do today.”
Mary Houlihan is a local freelance writer.
