Lee Roy Parnell
Lee Roy Parnell has signed with Universal South Records and is set to release his first new album in four years, tellingly titled Back To The Well. It is, in all respects, the sound of an artist reclaiming his natural turf by embracing who he is and using the strengths of his past to inform his present direction.
Launched with a funky, shuffling backbeat that sets the stage for the entrance, seconds later, of signature, searing jabs of electric slide guitar, the album opening “Back to the Well” signals the end of the “long dry spell” Parnell laments in the lyrics.
Carl Perkins once said that if a man lives long enough, he’ll run into himself again. It appears the 49-year-old Parnell has reached that exalted plateau, because on Back To the Well he’s trading on all the best elements that have defined his artistry since his 1990 debut for the Nashville division of Arista Records. For starters, his signing with Universal South reunites him with the savvy executive who courted and signed him to Arista, Tim DuBois, now a Senior Partner at the label, which he formed in 2001 with one of Music City’s most influential contemporary producers/executives, Tony Brown.
Talk about your roots showing. Not only is Parnell back in the fold with DuBois, he’s also finding his way by embracing the country blues/roadhouse rock/southern rock ‘n’ soul that had been his stock in trade when he was learning the ropes playing the club circuit in Austin in the early ‘70s with fellow Lone Star giants-in-training, Joe Ely, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Delbert McClinton, among others. His self-titled Arista debut featured a healthy dollop of this tangy stylistic mix, including horns, and his guitar-centered contemporary country sound led to eleven Top-10 singles over the course of five studio albums.
After departing Arista during a 1998 label shakeup, Lee Roy took his time before surfacing with some new music. When he did, it was on the respected Vanguard label, home to some of America’s great blues, folk and jazz artists of the 20th Century. Lee Roy added to that legacy with his searing, energized but thoughtful romp through southern rock ‘n’ blues on Tell The Truth.
“That was my chance to tell the world what I really think and who I really am,” Lee Roy notes of his Vanguard project, “and whatever happens, happens. That is what I needed to do.”
After that one-off was completed, it was back to the woodshed (or more accurately, to his home studio), to write and record some songs—even calling them “rough demos” is a generous description, according to Lee Roy—and eventually he started sending some out to producers he thought might need material for their artists. At the top of his contact list were Tim DuBois and Tony Brown. A day after Universal South’s General Manager, Van Fletcher, saw him sitting in with Gov’t Mule at a show in Nashville (and had already seen him twice sitting in with the Allman Brothers and also with Dicky Betts), Lee Roy received a call from DuBois, asking him to come over right away and take a meeting. Figuring Tim had found a song or two he wanted for a Universal South artist, Lee Roy sauntered into the office, where he was met by both Van and Tim. In the ensuing conversation, the executives found out that Lee Roy wasn’t interested in kowtowing to country radio anymore—”I can’t go there now. I’ve done it, it’s a different game.”—and Lee Roy found out they wanted him to cut the record he wanted to make, and moreover, the songs he had been sending them would work just fine. In fact, in DuBois’ estimation Lee Roy’s toughest decision would be deciding which songs would make the album and which ones wouldn’t, because there was so much strong material already in the can. Caught by surprise because he hadn’t even thought he was making an album of his own, a grateful, slightly numbed Lee Roy summoned long-time collaborator and co-producer John Kunz to the studio and got rhythm.
“We dug our heels in over here and started recording,” Lee Roy says. “Thought about going to a studio to re-cut all this stuff, but then we’d go, ‘We’re gonna lose that vocal if we do that.’ So we just sort of went on with it, handed it in and they were very happy, and I was incredibly happy that they were happy. It was Van who jockeyed it through with Tim’s blessing all the way.”
Lee Roy’s assessment of Back To the Well? “Best record I ever made in my life,” he asserts without hesitation. “Absolutely. I don’t mean to be uppity about that, I just honestly believe it is. I’m proud of it, lyrically, sonically, melodically, and it all came out of not even trying to make a record. Believe me, this record’s as much of a revelation to me as it is to a listener who cares enough to dig in and really listen to it.But it’s me, suitin’ up and showin’ up like I always do.”
