The Cheraw Arts Commission presents musician and songwriter Parker Millsap on Friday, September 19 at the Theatre on the Green in Cheraw, SC. As a 2014 Nominee for Emerging Artist of the Year by Americana Music Association, tunesmith Parker Millsap is making a name for himself with live performances and original music. He has been called "A Star in the Making" by NPR with "Truck Stop Gospel" named one of NPR's Favorite Songs of 2014.
“Parker Millsap is a 20 year old from Oklahoma gaining a following in the Americana community. I really like his new album, but I wasn’t prepared for the wild, vast power of his voice and his remarkable charisma. This guy can yodel, he can sing a soul song for real, he can preach and he wiggles his leg like Elvis. Also, he looks like Leo DiCaprio in Titanic.” – Ann Powers (NPR Music)
His self-titled debut album released in February 2014 received recognition from USA Today, NPR’s Morning Edition, WNYC’s Soundcheck, Blurt, Southern Living, American Songwriter, and Country Weekly. Parker has opened for Old Crow Medicine Show, Shovels & Rope, Jason Isbell and Patty Griffin.
An Oklahoma native, Parker first picked up a guitar at nine, then plugged in and went electric after getting into Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, eventually starting a cover band, Fever in Blue, with classmate Michael Rose, which would play Jimi Hendrix songs at the local Loose Caboose Festival in his hometown Purcell, Oklahoma on Labor Day weekend. After graduating high school, he went to Northern California, where he interned at Prairie Sun Recording, the studio where Tom Waits cut Bone Machine and Mule Variations. Returning to Oklahoma, he “put down the electric guitar and got into song craft,” releasing an indie album, Palisade, which he sold “from the back of my van.” A trip to Nashville found him playing at the Tin Pan South songwriter's festival, where an “in the round” performance impressed Old Crow Medicine Show's manager so much that he invited Millsap to open a string of dates for the band, later leading to a slot on their prestigious New Year's Eve gig at the Ryman Auditorium.
Parker Millsap is ready to share his Oklahoma roots with the rest of the country, and, hopefully, the world. “I like to set goals for myself that are impossible to reach,” he explains. “That way, I always have something to aim for, a better song, different characters, new stories.. I just want to pay the bills and feed my dog, and maybe buy a new guitar every now and then. That’s all I need. I don’t want to be Elvis Presley, but I wouldn’t complain if a million girls screamed for me, either. Just don’t tell my girlfriend that.”
Doors open at the Theatre on the Green at 6:00pm with the performance beginning at 7:30pm. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the Cheraw Community Center - 200 Powe Street or at the door the night of the performance. Seating is on a first come-first served basis. Contact the Cheraw Arts Commission for additional information - 843.537.8420 x 12. The Cheraw Arts Commission is supported by the SC Arts Commission which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Sponsor for the event is M Capital Group LLC of Cheraw.
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