Ian Parker
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Ian Parker

Band Blues Singer/Songwriter

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"Where I Belong - New studio album from Ian Parker"

Hardline Blues hardlineblues.com/reviews.html [Alberta, Canada]

Tone is everything in good blues. You can have a repeated, one-line lyric. You can have a frontman who hollers more than he sings. You can get away with a lot in blues -- and blues rock, be extension -- but the one thing you can't scrimp on is the right guitar tone.

Good guitar tone is hard for most people to dial-in. Even guys like the aforementioned Carney and Brit Ian Parker will admit to you they can spend several minutes dickering around from gig-to-gig getting their guitar to sound just right.

Parker dials it in in spades in the first four bars of the first song here, a neat little melody about exlcusion called Where I Belong. He holds firm to that Telecaster-driven sweetness for the rest of the 11 tracks here, and his style is so solidly grounded in tradition that even when he's playing a rock structure, the bluesy goodness oozes from every pore.

It doesn't hurt that Parker has a smooth delivery that is only a hair's breath from a gutteral growl, and has a songwriting sensibility that is intelligent and respects soul traditions as much as blues. He's like a Brit Robert Cray, with more edge and less easy listening/adult contemporary. Over in Europe, Parker has built a steady fanbase.

In the style of other up-and-coming guitarslingers here like Albert Cummings and Steve Edmonson, it won't take long for his name to get around jere too if he keeps cranking out work like this.

It's not perfect; it would've been nice to have a little more deference in song structure to some tradition material, if only to please blues nazis like yours truly. But it's truly top-tier stuff, and proof positive that Ian Parker has arrived on this side of the pond.

JEREMY LOOME - Hardline Blues [Alberta, Canada] www.hardlineblues.com/reviews.html


Discography

2003 - Inside (studio album - Ruf1094)
2005 - Whilst The Wind (live album - Ruf1102)
2005 - Whilst The Wind (live DVD - Ruf3007)
2006 - Pilgrimage (Ruf 'project album' - Ruf1112)
2006 - Blues Caravan 'The New Generation'
(live DVD - Ruf3014)
2007 - Where I Belong (studio album - Ruf1120)
2007 - Your Love Is My Home
(debut single release - Ruf 4006)

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Bio

MANAGEMENT:
Miki Nord UTR
651-755-7944 mvt@utrmgmt.com
BOOKINGS:
Jo-Ann Freda Agency
203-298-9331 joannfreda@optonline.net

IAN PARKER

Expressed through a distinctive bitter-sweet vocal delivery and harrowing guitar work, Ian's songs hold nothing back. His naked honesty and genuine emotion bring a personal and immediate connection with his audience.

Drawing on an eclectic range of influences, this young man is fast becoming Britain's best loved blues/roots performer. As a songwriter Ian is genuinely literate, sometimes almost literary.

Ian is uniquely rooted in the blues but not trapped by the desire to replicate the past. He is without doubt one of today’s most relevant, contemporary blues men.

Ian has spent the last few years headlining clubs and festivals alike throughout Europe. With an established reputation as one of Britain’s hottest players it became obvious it is time to take on the US.

Miki Nord of UTR management, (Luther Allison, Syl Johnson, Jonny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, Double Trouble) was hooked from song one and joined the team as manager. Soon after, booking agent extraordinaire Jo-Ann Freda, Jo-Ann Freda Agency, came on board. Finally the US has a team ready to build on the successful foundation Ian and Ruf Records have laid down in Europe, setting the tone for touring in 2008.
We are thrilled to invite you to join us in introducing Ian to audiences who we are sure will fall in love with Ian's sound.

HISTORY:
Ian signed to Ruf Records following multi Grammy winning producer, David Z's (Prince, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang,) recommendation. Teaming together Ian’s debut album 'INSIDE' (Ruf1094) was released in October 2003.

“I was truly honored to be involved in this project and with working with Ian” David Z

In March 2004, Ian appeared on Germany's top live music TV show, 'Rockpalast' as part of the 'Crossroads Festival'. Ian and his band were voted the number one act of the festival and a live DVD of this incendiary performance was released in June 2005, entitled '…WHILST THE WIND'. In response to high demand, Ruf followed with a live album of the same title, recorded in Hannover during his December 2004 European Tour. Both releases met with high critical acclaim.

In September 2005, Ian wrote and recorded five songs for a Ruf Records project album, 'PILGRIMAGE' (Ruf1112) which was recorded in Clarksdale, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee, and released in January 2006. The recording of Pilgrimage, not only extended Ian's touring activities throughout Europe and importantly into the US, it also had a profound effect on the artist's musical direction and focus.
On return from America in September 2005, Ian began a lengthy artistic process based around his rediscovery of the blues and soul artists who had inspired him to begin playing as a teenager. This period of consolidation culminated in the recording of the album 'WHERE I BELONG' (Ruf1120), released in January 2007.

'WHERE I BELONG' was recorded in Cheltenham, England and produced by Matt Butler, whose extensive CV includes none other than Sir Paul McCartney. Recorded analogue to tape, the album has the rich and warm sonic characteristics associated with the pre-digital age, but there is nothing retro about this release. 'WHERE I BELONG' has something for all blues fans, purists and progressives alike. It catalogues the pronounced growth and self-discovery of a modern blues artist who is here to stay.

“truly top-tier stuff and proof positive that Ian Parker has arrived on this side of the pond”
Hardline Blues

“a defining moment in modern British blues”
Blues Matters

Following the release of ‘Where I Belong’, Ian spent the entirety of 2007 on the road. His European tour covered all of the major destinations, London, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna and many more. He was featured on prime TV shows in Spain and the Netherlands, and was invited back to BBC London to record songs from ‘Where I Belong’ for a session on Radio 2’s legendary Paul Jones Show.

In the summer Ian was back on US soil for a series of club dates and two significant festival appearances. In New Jersey, Ian and his US band took Knowlton Riverfest by storm and received high accolades from the viewing public and press alike. In Duluth, at the internationally renowned Bayfront Blues Festival, Ian performed in the acoustic tent in his duo format with fellow Englishman ‘Morg’ Morgan. Anyone expecting a laid-back, ‘sitting out on the front porch’ kind of a show, soon got quite a shock, as the duo rocked the full to capacity tent with renditions of songs from ‘Where I Belong’ as well as some carefully selected classic blues material.

The response to Ian’s debut solo outing in the US was overwhelming and 2008 promises to be a big year.