Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 39 - Graham Parker (Howlin' Wind / Quality Footwear / Judd Apatow / This Is 40)

This time, I’m letting Graham Parker talk. Graham is a singer-songwriter who’s been plying his trade since the ‘70s, steadily touring and regularly writing, recording, and releasing new music. He tends to get lumped in with such so-called “angry young men” as Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, but as it happens, he was already out there with his debut album before either of those guys…and thanks to author Jay Nachman, there’s now a book that properly documents it. Appropriately, the book is called “Graham Parker’s Howlin’ Wind,” and Nachman had full access to Graham while he was putting it together…and, indeed, it was Nachman who helped set up this interview. We actually did it a few months ago, as you’ll be able to tell from a few remarks that he makes during the course of the conversation, but I wanted to hold off on releasing it until Graham released his latest live album, Quality Footwear (Live at the Brook), and it finds him teamed with his road-tested backing band, the Goldtops, as well as backing vocals from the Lady Bugs. The end result is 11 solid performances that are available now through the fine folks at Big Stir Records. So of course we talk about his live shows during our conversation, and we start off by doing a deep dive into his early years, including how he went through a prog period and his thoughts on being labeled “pub rock.” God forbid I should’ve actually asked him that question, but I did tell him that someone suggested that I ask him that question if I wanted it to be a short interview, and as a result I got a much more amusing answer than I know would’ve gotten if I’d asked it outright. Plus, I actually got to ask more questions afterwards rather than just receiving a flurry of obscenities I also asked him about some of the other records from throughout his career, including the one that got me started as a Graham Parker fan (the very ‘80s Steady Nerves), and I got him to regale me with the tale of how he got Bruce Springsteen to provide backing vocals for him. It’s a fun conversation that goes all over the place, but if you’ve ever been a Graham Parker fan, it’ll remind you to go back and listen to his music, and if you’ve never been a Graham Parker fan, well, hopefully this’ll be the kick in the ass you need to make you one. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Graham Parker talk.