b. 21 December 1956, Abilene, Texas, USA. Bob Wills was a close family friend and Parnell sang on stage with him when he was only six years old, an incident he mentions in his 1993 song ‘Country Down To My Soul’. Growing up in a household that loved western swing, Parnell found that his own tastes included blues and rock ‘n’ roll. He formed his own band when he was aged 19 and spent 10 years playing Texas honky tonks. In 1987 he moved with his family to Nashville and built up a reputation at the Bluebird Cafe. His first album was produced by R&B producer Barry Beckett and mixed soul with country. It did reasonably well but his career took off when he recorded Love Without Mercy with a small rhythm group. It included his US country hits ‘What Kind Of Fool (Do You Think I Am)’ and ‘The Rock’ (‘I am your rock, but I’m rolling away’) as well as a duet with Delbert McClinton, ‘Road Scholar’, a pun in reference to Kris Kristofferson being a Rhodes scholar. Parnell’s superb guitar-playing is highlighted on ‘Workin’ Man Blues’ which he cut with Steve Wariner and Diamond Rio; he wanted to call their group, Merle Jam, but was persuaded to settle for the less witty Jed Zepplin. Parnell plays electric slide guitar on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘Shut Up And Kiss Me’ and she joined him for the title track of We All Get Lucky Sometimes. Parnell is the only new country artist to be praised by Kinky Friedman; possibly he cut his teeth in the Kinkster’s band. Every Night’s A Saturday Night was a consistent album that looked set to maintain Parnell’s recent popularity, although his move to Vanguard Records and the subsequent Tell The Truth was warmly received. In 2006 he released a blues/soul album Back To The Well.
