Meet Parker Hawkins | Singer/Songwriter, Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Parker Hawkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Parker, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Though I have been able to sing and play a number of different instruments for many years, I had been almost exclusively a professional bass player–playing in sessions and with various bands based out of Nashville– until March 2020. When Covid stopped the world in its tracks, I realized I didn’t have anyone to play music with anymore. I started playing guitar and singing songs to pass the time at home. Soon, I began to write my own. I also started taking online classes to learn how to record and engineer my own work, and began recording my own demos at home. It opened up a whole new world for me. I realized I didn’t need to rely on anyone else to make my own music. Though I still love being able to share in musical experiences with others, learning to write and record my own music was a silver lining on an otherwise very difficult time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have spent many years playing with various artists in Nashville and I learned a lot about both creativity and professionalism from them. The bar for music is set very high here, and there is a standard that we all expect each other to uphold, no matter the genre, venue, or audience. I take that standard very seriously with everything that I do, but I also want to make sure that my music doesn’t sound TOO perfect. With all of the tools at our disposal there days–autotune, AI, etc.– it’s getting easier and easier to make these glossy perfect-sounding recordings, but that’s not what I connect with in the music that moves me. They didn’t have any of that in the 60s and 70s, which is probably my favorite era of music, and yet those songs are so timeless because they are REAL! You can feel the humanity, the artistic expression, the perfect imperfection. That’s what I strive for in my craft: to make something that feels REAL! I also like to paint my own album covers so that it feels like you can reach out and touch the brush strokes. I want people to connect with the humanity in the music, even if every note isn’t shiny and perfect.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
When I’m on vacation, I wanna know all the great places to eat and see live music, so I’d start there! I would probably take them to see something at either the Ryman or Ascend Amphitheater since those are our world-class venues, but we might wander over to Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar, The 5 Spot, or Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge to get a little more local flavor. I would probably have to take them to get hot chicken (Prince’s, Slow Burn, and 400 Degrees are my favorites), but we would also have to go taco truck hopping down Nolensville Rd (shoutout to Taqueria San Luis) and then hit the awesome Vietnamese places along Charlotte (VN Pho is my absolute favorite). We would probably need some exercise after all of that food, so I would take them to one of our awesome urban greens paces or greenways, like Public Square, Riverfront Park, or Richland Creek Greenway (shoutout to Hawkins Partners Landscape Architects) and then end at the Musician’s Hall of Fame to get a peak behind the scenes at all of the wonderful musicians that you’ve probably never heard of that made this town what it is!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout two people: First, Lynn Taylor (of the band Lynn Taylor & the Barflies), an excellent songwriter and even better friend that I’ve been working with for many years for showing me what a great song can do if you really get in there and listen, and for collaborating with me specifically on this album (he co-wrote four of the songs on the album with me). Second, I literally could not have made this album without my friend Dave Coleman, a great songwriter and friend as well as a masterful recording engineer. I recorded some of the album at my home studio, and then we had a few days doing full band recordings at his studio. He seamlessly wove the recordings together and helped me realize my vision for the project, making it all sound cohesive and beautiful. He also co-produced the album with me, providing direction, encouragement, and sage advice at every turn.

Website: https://www.nighthawk615band.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighthawk615_official/?hl=en

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nighthawk615band

Image Credits
John Partipilo (B+W), Madison Thorn (Color)