Clay Parker: The Wind and the Warble – CD Review

People probably like to buy Clay Parker a free round. If his tales of cheatin’ women and rough roads traveled are to be believed, the Thibodaux native has lived a lifetime of songwriter’s stories already. Softer and more introspective than his live concerts, which can threaten to turn from a hushed banjo or acoustic guitar performance into an all-out call-and-response hootenanny, The Wind and the Warble is Parker’s debut for Texas-based label Old House Records.

With simple acoustic arrangements and 10 tender songs bathed in shimmering dollops of slide guitar, this boldly stripped-down record hails the arrival of a powerful new voice for Louisiana’s country and folk scene.

As on the toe-tapping revenge thriller “First Shot Missed Him,” Parker stitches together what amounts to modern blues songs with his quirky backcountry humor. “Willie got away, man, made a good run, but the deputy sheriff had a long barrel gun with ball shot lead, aiming for the head,” he sings with a wink in his throat.

“Holy Lowly” has a tender, finger-plucked melody like those found in the sweetest Donovan or Paul McCartney ditties, but strung up high and mighty on Parker’s warmly pinched twang. This is music for a sunny Sunday afternoon or an autumn drive, breaking through the brittle fallen leaves on the pavement to the yelps of Parker’s persuasive poems of woe and sundry self-reflection.

Essential tracks: “Ways of a Woman Blues,” “First Shot Missed Him,” “Holy Lowly”

Recommended if you like: Hank Williams, Bob Dylan’s country records, movies by the Coen Brothers