My name is Kent Parker.

I live in Nashville, Tennessee.

I'm a songwriter, and I'm working on my first full length album.

Come join me on my journey.

I got off college, I got to my career, and I've done a number of things that worked in manufacturing, automotive industry.

I worked in the coffee industry at a company called Caribou Coffee, and I spent time in the tech sector.

Working in software is a good portion of my career in my life.

I got involved in the software industry in 1999 and I was fortunate.

2012 we sold the company and I was able to retire early.

So I've been involved in the software industry as an investor and board member for the past ten, 12 years.

When the pandemic hit, I found myself with just a massive amount of time.

Like everybody else in the world, right where we're locked up, we can't go out, we can't work, we can't travel.

And so I started like, you know, like I go back to music and maybe I could write a song or two.

And I started writing and that really started to open up a level of passion and interest in music that hadn't existed when I was simply just trying to, I don't know, cover songs that other artists had performed or not fiddle around with the guitar some.

And, you know, I think there's there's a lot of bad things about the pandemic, but I think for all of us, there's probably something that comes out of that, that historic period of time that is life changing.

And for me, it was my relationship back to music, which I had been missing for decades, recognizing that someone at my age, not a performer or someone with no pedigree whatsoever, if I want my songs to be heard, I was going to have to do it myself.

I was going to have to, you know, create my own entity, produce my own, and record my own music and just do it.

I recognized that first and foremost, I would have to find a producer partner that would, I could relate to and would be willing to even give me the their time and energy at the level that I was wanting and expecting.

And as being an artist that had never produced an album that seemed like a daunting task, Gabriel gave me the confidence.

He believed in what I was doing.

He had.

I could tell he really liked the music that I was creating and that was important.

I didn't want someone that just was maybe technically capable of doing it.

I want someone that could share in the same desire and motivation that I had for my own music, and I found that in Gabriel, when we first started down the journey of possibility of doing this album, the first step for me was, well, let's do a pilot song, let's do one song.

I told Gabriel, help me understand how this would work, what it could sound like, and help me get my arms around the practicality of and capability that of me being able to do this.

He had a relationship with Thomas Drew over many years working together.

Thomas is based in Sweden and they had worked together on projects over the years, and I listened to some of the mixing work that Thomas had had done on several projects.

That was very impressed.

There was a specific sound that I was looking for, on this, on this project.

You know, I could hear that in in the work that Thomas was doing.

And Thomas heard that first song, was very excited about it.

So he actually, mixed that pilot song and it was clear that we needed him on the balance of the project as well.

I see the pictures and I turn the page and it brings back memory I did for life many years ago, but it's still a part of me.

I close my eyes, I hear her voice.

Everything I need is free.

The summer sun is shining bright, shining right on me.

That summer sun, summer sun.

And summer sun.

And it was all remote.

Mio.

It was a pilot project.

It was trying to kind of figure out what would this work and how would this work and what could it sound like?

And, once we got through that and I became convinced that, this project should go forward, I really didn't want to do this remotely.

I didn't want to, you know, I really didn't want synthesizers.

I wanted it to be real music.

Musicians together, all together in a full session, knocking these songs out, having that interaction, talking, working and playing together.

And, you know, it's it's obviously harder and more expensive to do it that way.

But wow, you know, the, the energy and the creativity and the way that they play off each other, it's indescribable.

And I don't know, you know, I don't know how much music is done that way.

I'm sure there must be.

But I feel like there's probably a lot of music that's being done in the newer way.

You know, remote computers, whatever.

That's not this project.

This project is all about true, organic, real music being made by real people together in a room.

Gabriel and I went and we spent a couple of days touring several studios around Nashville.

We we talked about maybe, you know, where we would go to do this, and we talked about different places and I'm like, you know, I live in Nashville.

I grew up listening to music from Nashville.

I want to do this project in Nashville.

When I walked into a studio a an ocean way into what is essentially a cathedral space, I knew instantly that's where we had to do this project.

So we we decided to do the full session, Ocean Way, studio A, and then we would, want to go over to Blackbird and do our overdub work.

It's just a phenomenal facility.

And that was a pretty easy decision once, you know, you kind of sort through, what the options are.

I certainly never considered myself a vocalist.

Frankly, I never even really tried to be a vocalist.

I didn't know if I could or not.

And maybe after you hear the album, you'll conclude that I can't afford.

But, the album's not about being, you know, listening to the world's greatest vocals.

The album's about the songs or the songs or what the album's about.

My job will be to give them, as the songwriter, the voice that I have, and that's all that I can give them.

I came back in contact with a fantastic, vocalist, a woman named Erin Bode.

I'd heard Aaron, I heard I went to one of her concerts maybe 15 years ago.

I was familiar with her body of work, and I knew she was a fantastic vocals.

And I met with Aaron out there listening to some of the songs.

And Aaron was just, you know, she's like, this is, I love what you're doing.

And I would really love to work with you to help you think about how to approach this from a vocal perspective.

At one point, there were many times during the course of this project where I thought, you know, maybe I should bring some vocalist in for at least this song.

I don't know, this song.

And both Gabriel and Aaron would say to me, you need to voice your own music.

You need to do that.

And so, you know, they would help me through those moments of doubt.

It's been extremely rewarding, at least for me personally.

And and I'm hoping that, you know, my voice can represent my, my own body of work appropriately and give it the emotion and feeling that I felt when I wrote the song.

I need help.

Oh holy moly.

So we started talking about the project, and we're talking about who would be, you know, the musicians that would want on this.

First and foremost, the person that came to mind for me was the person that started it all for me, music, you know, was about ten years old when Christmas for Christmas, I got a little Hohner Marine Band harmonica and a vinyl record by a guy named Charlie McCoy.

And, you know, for a ten year old growing up in rural Indiana on a farm, you know, having a nice harmonica and an album play with, you know, those days, you know, you you'd have to pick the needle up and play it, play it back and play were no tabs on there was no internet there, and there was no way to figure out how to play anything less.

Listen to the record over and over and over.

You know, I think I broke my mom's record needle a couple times doing that, but I started learning how to play the harmonica when I was ten years old, and it was all, you know, listening to Charlie and, you know, as I am throughout my youth and into my teenage years, I would buy all of his albums.

And I kept getting better and better at playing the harmonica.

And, you know, as I got older and in high school and college and listening to rock music and, and I wanted to guitar and I got a guitar, learn how to play guitar.

And the harmonica was being played less, but it was always present in my life and even.

Yeah, even as I was working throughout my career and traveling alive, it's hard to carry a guitar with you when you went, you know, on business trips.

I always had the harmonica with me.

So I thought about this project, you know, I wonder if it would be even remotely possible to get Charlie McCoy involved in this project.

And so I reached out to Charlie.

Got his contact information, reached out.

I sent him a couple of songs.

He wanted to hear them, and I let him hear.

And these were my animals that I had created, you know, in my own studio back, up in Indiana.

And, he listened to these, songs and said, you know, I this is I'm interested.

And I was like, dumbfounded.

I'm like, this is perfect.

You know, it would be great.

And so I started doing research on Charlie, and all the work is just extensive.

It's he's a legend here in Nashville Studios.

And one person that kept coming up a lot was Brent Mason.

I had heard that name, and I knew that Brent Mason was one of the greatest session guitarists, you know, in the world.

And, so that led to the idea of Brent Mason, you know, gosh, you know, getting Brent Mason and Charlie McCoy both on this project would be a dream come true.

And sure enough, it worked out crazy great.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Even before, you know, we had Charlie McCoy or, or Brent lined up for the full album project.

When I did the demo, the first thing we knew that we needed, was fantastic.

Drum bass combination.

You know, I was somewhat familiar with Aaron Sterling and Sean Hurley.

You know, and listen to some John Mayer's, albums and had looked at the credits and knew who they were.

I knew that Aaron had been on a lot of songs and a lot of artists works that I was familiar with.

I knew he was on a lot of Taylor Swift stuff, and I was really, delighted whenever we reached out to him saying, yeah, would you be interested in this song?

And in both cases, they had to ask for the demo.

They wanted to hear the raw demo, and I was elated when they heard it and said, yeah, we're in it, we'll do it.

So they they were actually on the pilot song that we recorded before we decided to do the full project, and when we decided to do the full project, it was kind of a no brainer to pull them back in a great, great combination.

Fantastic.

So now you've got, you know, you've got Aaron Sean on board, you got Brent, got Charlie.

Now you've got a formidable foundation.

Really should.

Gabriel and I are listening to the portfolio songs.

We had about 20 songs that we were considering.

We were trying to narrow that down to about ten, and we're listening to the songs and trying to think about, you know, a compilation for this album of songs that would would have a common thread somehow, sonically, musically, the stories that they told.

And as we were listening to those songs and start to pull that list together, it was clear, boy, there's a lot of sound and sonic elements that we're going to need banjo, mandolin, dobro, fiddle.

The program manager that helped coordinate, the project with, Gabriel and I is Ken Johnson.

Fantastic.

Very experienced here in the Nashville scene.

And he he had a recommendation, of Gideon Klein and, I wasn't familiar with Gideon's work, so I did some research, you know, kind of understanding his capability and was really impressed.

I mean, Gideon couldn't just his on pedal steel.

It's just amazing capability.

There's a lot of pedal steel throughout all of these songs.

And so that was a really important foundation that we needed in this album.

And the fact that Gideon can bring all these other instruments, you know, easily into the mix and kind of be spanning a lot of instruments all at once.

It was really it was great, fantastic, because it gave us a lot of room.

I knew that Charlie was so good on the vibes, and, there were a couple songs that were going to put vibes on as well.

So having, you know, Gideon on pedal and Charlie doing some vibes on a couple songs was also a great attraction.

So that was a great, you know, a great addition to get Gideon.

It's just been amazing to have him on this project.

I always admired the way that Bob Dylan could tell stories.

That was something that really set with me.

I like the notion of telling stories, but being a little bleak with how you tell the story and, not necessarily being so direct with what you're trying to say, yet write the song in such a way that it can mean something to the listener, depending on their their station in life or what's going on for them.

And you know, the song We Might Just Get There was a song that was really birthed out of a scenario that isn't explicitly explained in the song I was watching.

You know what these Sunday morning talk shows, and they were doing this story about this couple.

They'd been married now 75 years, and they were in their 90s.

And as he told the story, this couple had never been apart for even the night.

They were just so in love.

And, you know, they knew they were in love when they were like 20 years old or whatever.

I mean, they were 90 something now.

So 75 years is and at that age and when they, they reached the, you know, those end of life years, the I think it was the wife that was very ill and they had to call in hospice.

They moved her into a nursing home.

They called in hospice, I believe, and the husband stayed in the bed with her and held her hand and just right beside her.

And, he was with her when she passed holding her hand.

And then a few hours later, he died, too.

And I thought, you know, that is a story of commitment and love.

We might just get there and getting there to the to that stage.

What a beautiful thing.

And they shared the pain.

They had a simple room.

You don't keep score.

Just give it all you've got.

Then give some more.

There's a place far from here.

You go.

It's just hard to find in the way.

It's not clear to those who take a chance.

Maybe lose it all.

We all know there's just no, So, you know, we also knew we were going to have some keyboards on this note, Gabriel Milan is very competent.

In fact, he handled the keyboard work on the pilot song, Summer sun, though I love about Gabriel.

You know, he's very, you know, he's like, we gotta find, a real pro to handle some of the keys on this project.

Ken Johnson had a great recommendation, and someone here in Nashville that he'd worked with Jason Webb and I went listen again, did my research and went to listen to some of the work that Jason and, has done in his career and was like, wow, if you can get him, that would be phenomenal.

The very first song we just might get there.

They had the full session and Jason's playing that piano part, and I cracked.

I never heard my song with that level of musicality from the keyboard on it.

And, you know, I burst into tears.

I mean, it was it was amazing to me.

Every song that Jason touched with his keys just came alive.

It was a fantastic addition to the team.

All right, you did it.

That's beautiful.

You got.

I had to go in the hallway to weep.

Oh, my goodness, that's freaking unbelievable.

Thank you.

Man, what a great, great song.

Just beautiful.

I think that easy to play guitar.

Well, let me tell you, that's that's, that just did it.

That I'm.

So, Daniel was someone that Gabriel had worked with, over a number of years knew him quite well, I, I could try to do some of that acoustic work myself.

Just didn't feel that I was, really at the right level for what I want in this project.

And he said, you know, I've got a guy that you're just going to love.

So I pulled up some of Daniel's work and I was just blown away.

That song started with chordal pattern.

I was talking with Daniel about that from an acoustic guitar perspective, and it started with this very specific tonal pattern of chord picking that sort of informed the music for me, and then formed a notion of, contemplative love that I could describe it.

And that song became pretty easy to write once the emotion was sorted out.

So I wrote that song for my wife, Silence of the Night.

It's a song about when you're at your darkest period, the person or people that will keep you and lift you up, are so important.

The silence of the night.

Fills the air.

The empty sounds completely.

Cover me.

Through the din of darkness I can hear whispers of your love.

They set me free.

In darkness of the night.

When I am lost.

Soft light cast a path into the sky.

In empty darkness I can see the way your love shines.

Guiding me to find.

The silence of the night.

It never ends.

But I'm all right.

Because I know you always be near calling out to me.

And if I lose my way I have no fear I hear you in the silence of the night.

It's lonely in the silence of the night.

Absence is my only company.

I serenade of stillness and despair.

Alone with this lonely symphony.

In the quiet I listen for a sound.

A single note of hope is all I need.

A beacon to guide me back to you I hear your voice calling out to me.

The silence of the night.

It never ends.

But I'm all right.

Because I know you always be near calling out to me.

And if I lose my way I have no fear I hear you in the silence of the night.

The silence of the night.

It never ends.

But I'm all right.

Because I know you always be near.

I hear your voice calling out to me.

And if I lose my way I have no fear I hear you in the silence of the night.

It's lonely in the silence of the night.

But I hear you in the silence of the night.

But absence is my only company.

I hear your voice calling out to me.

Whispers of your love set me free.

Oh yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Like that, that.

That's very cool.

Let’s go eat lunch, dang it.

Yes.

Thank you.

Wow.

That was just magical.

Yeah.

You know, the decision to to do the string session here at Wildwood.

You know, it would have been really easy to use, synthesized strings or, you know, all kind of plug ins that you can get for strings.

And it would have been certainly a cost savings.

But the, you know, listening to the Nashville Recording Orchestra, you know, take the music and, and impart that humanity into the music, you know, is really incredible.

I think it adds a richness to the songs that would have been missing if we hadn't taken the time to do this.

It's pretty spectacular to hear songs that you've written.

To hear people interpret that, like the orchestra did today.

It was, it's humbling in some ways for a songwriter to hear that.

And certainly it's thrilling, you know, to hear that within the context of what's going on with this recording project.

Yeah.

You know, we were working on the song The Light Inside Her Heart, and we used some synthesized sounds to represent this kind of big explosiveness within the song.

Gabriel Millan, the producer, you know, he had this vision.

He wanted to bring in this very specific kind of soundscape that he was really it was a it was really a tip of the hat for him to a type of drum treatment that, as a boy growing up in Venezuela, he was familiar with and watching the performers today bring that to life.

And certainly we were going to jettison, of course, the synthesized version and bring this real version in.

Pretty fantastic.

And it's going to add a dimension to the song that's, you know, that really is unique.

And I'm looking forward to hearing.

And we had a fantastic, cast of folks that helped us with background and harmonies.

Suzanne Cox of the Cox family, Erin Bode, Brandon Ratcliff, it was fantastic.

We did background vocal sessions at Top Track and then Ocean Way Studios all last week, and it's just thrilling to watch a vocal artist like these three come together and help, you know, figure out exactly what is the right way to represent the songs and, and and create that kind of, musical backdrop that really makes a song stand out.

I've been in awe watching, these performers work on the album.

I mean, their, their backgrounds and their experience speaks for itself.

And it's going to be really good.

It can be fantastic.

Start of the end.

oh yeah.

I don't know how to begin.

A song - a song that I just wrote recently, actually, I wrote maybe, a couple months ago.

We were fortunate here in, in the United States to have a total eclipse event here just a few months ago.

And at a home that we own up in southern Indiana, was right in the path of totality.

And some of the business associates there in that small community had asked some of the song.

There was a lot of musicians that live that small town.

They asked a couple folks that write music if they wouldn't mind writing a song about the total eclipse.

A good friend of mine, Randy Pease, was writing a song that ended up being a great song, the song that we used in the community for that event.

And I started working on a song and I thought, you know, gosh, how I'm gonna write a song about the eclipse.

And so I came up with this phrase, you know, even the sun hides behind the moon.

I'll be with you and then I realize, you know, I could be kind of a cool love song.

So I thought more about it, and I said, you know, I think I'll.

I'll think I'll retune this song to be about my relationship with my, my, my true love, my wife Lori.

And so I kind of shifted directions on the song and made it a song about someone in your life that's really special to you and your intention to be there for them, no matter what.

Maybe I had read an article about the plight of the older worker in America, white collar workers in their 50s and 60s, being laid off.

You know, up ended, you know, from their corporate jobs and, you know, maybe, you know, just short of that period of time in which they might be able to retire and then being unable to go back out to the workforce and find meaningful work, or at least at the level that they were capable of doing at that point in time and towards the end of their career.

And in the course of, of reading this article, there was the story of this, this man.

And I can't remember if he was an accountant or exactly what profession, but he was very, you know, very successful career.

He got laid off from this, this company and, and, you know, his struggle, he just couldn't find another job.

And I think he ended up taking some job that was, you know, he was really overqualified for and wasn't really allowing him to do all that he could do.

You know, that's a story.

I felt like that was a story that needed to be told.

And it it's really talking about it from the eyes of that man.

The exhaustion, the frustration and, perhaps some of the fear that he felt going through that at that stage in life.

I probably did something was pretty foolish.

Right in the middle of this multi-week process of making this album.

We were up at, at the studio in Indiana, my writing studio.

And, we have a tree in the backyard there, and my wife and I were looking at decided that there were a few limbs, just a few limbs that we needed to trim back.

And I thought I could just knock that, wouldn't take me that long.

And I was taking some shortcuts, working with this electric chainsaw.

And, gosh, I managed to, On my left hand, which is the hand.

You know, when you're playing the guitar, it's the hand that you, that you fret with and manage to catch that ring finger, ten stitches, broken finger.

I was very lucky not to lose the tip of that finger.

I'm still a little, It's still pretty.

Pretty strange trying to do anything with, guitar, because I can't feel that it’s probably going to be a year or so for me.

I feel the tip of that finger again.

I mean, right in the middle of making this album, I had some overdubs on the guitar to do and, you know, pretty shaken by it, and kind of mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake.

We went into the studio the very next day, and I was laying down the lead vocals for a song called Don't Look Now.

I'm taking pain pills.

I got my arm in a cast.

My frame of mind is like, you know, not in the best headspace.

Came back to that song last week at, at Top Track Studios.

You know, they actually redid those vocals because listening to the vocals, I could hear the anguish in my voice, but I could also, it probably wasn't the best performance.

And I feel fortunate that the accident wasn't worse than it was.

But, I'm also kind of, bummed out that it happened in the middle of making this album, but in some ways, maybe that, you know, I think everything has a has a reason.

So maybe that was something that, imparted a certain kind of, angst in my in my performances here in the last few weeks as I've been worried about my hand.

But it's healing up nicely, so I'm feeling pretty good.

The beauty of being able to produce and create music on your own without any strings attached.

Without any corporation or party or label or anybody involved, is that it can really be true artistic endeavor, you know, not a commercial endeavor an artistic endeavor.

This is about creating music first and foremost, creating music at its highest level and and having fun doing it, and working with people that not only do they have the talent, but it means something to them to create music like this.

The objective is first and foremost to create a wonderful body of work, of music that means something to me that I hope I can share and find a way to share that.

And I feel pretty fortunate because on this project, you know, this is all music that I've written, composed the lyrics, the music, and have been able to control every aspect of this project.

I am my own label, my own publishing house, my own music company, my own songwriter.

I'm the performer, the singer, and I've been able to make the decisions and a lot of those decisions, I'm sure they don't make financial sense, but artistically, they really impart something to the music that's important.

And we've taken a lot of effort to make sure that, you know, the artistic intent of the music is is represented properly.

I've been told that we're doing things like perhaps making this album the way it might have happened 30 or 40 years ago, full sessions strings, background vocalist, multiple studios with amazing engineers, amazing performers that all contribute.

And taking our time, you know, maybe taking a full day to to work up the aspects of an individual song.

I can't imagine going into a studio for like ten days and knocking out ten songs that that seems like that would be what was it would seem to me there'd be a lot of shortcuts that would have to be taken in order to do that.

We certainly didn't do that on this album.

I mean, we're taking, you know, weeks and weeks and days and days and lots of time to make sure that every aspect of every song is represented properly.

Yeah, The Way, which is the name of the album.

Very important song for me.

The I can't remember exactly when I wrote that song, but the song is a song that I wrote.

One of the few songs that I wrote about myself.

The song is really about me coming to music in my mind, coming back to music.

I was never a professional musician, of course, but, you know, after I, had stopped working full time and, had more time to think and process what I wanted to do with my music, I decided to write a song about, you know, kind of doubling down here and going for it, with my music.

And The Way is my statement of me finding my way back to what I consider a very important, a very important part of my life and a root for me.

Music.

You know, this project has probably exceeded all my expectations.

I don't have any unrealistic expectations of what's going to happen with this album and this music.

When I'm done.

It's something that has been important for me to do, and it's been something that's been fulfilling to do, and it's been really about the artistic experience itself.

I mean, being able to work with the fantastically talented and professional people in making this album has been an enriching experience beyond words.

I mean, it's it's amazing to meet people who've spent their life, honing their craft, whether it's the engineers, the musicians, the vocalists, videographers, the photographers, the folks that make it all happen, that's that's a very rich and rewarding experience.

And, you know, it's it's great just to be part of the arts and to be involved in the arts.

And this is really, you know, as I've said earlier, this is really this is an artistic endeavor, it’s not a commercial endeavor.

I mean, I have no expectations financially on this at all.

And, and I'll be happy if my family and friends listen to this and enjoy it.

That'll be enough.

It has been probably the words I would use to describe it is joyful and completely fulfilling to do this album, and if nothing else comes from it, the experience itself will be something that stays with me, for the rest of my life.

Who knows?

I mean, you know, I, I think I have more in me, so maybe I'll do another someday.

I hope so.

I look forward to it.

One, two, three... That's pretty good.

(laughter) yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh!

Oh, man.