Toni asked about a song called Love Without Mercy.  It's from an artist I hadn't thought of in a while, and I'm glad my memory was activated.

In the early 1990's country was continuing grow rapidly and evolve not solely in its musical sound, but in its presentation and the style of the stars singing it.  This artist, even though his chart run was short, was among the first of what was to come in this new and exciting era. He was a sizzling guitarist, a soulful singer, a songwriter and just a new kind of performer.  Then, virtually all the major stars were wearing hats, long sleeved button down wild shirts, tight jeans and boots with an acoustic guitar they sort of played in concerts, but were more of a prop.  All putting on great shows, but the look was all kinda the same, as that was the formula.  This guy didn't wear a hat, he wore sunglasses, he had a beard, and he was going to be heard, if not in voice -  through his guitar.

His First Big Song -1992

In 1999, we all met Brad Paisley, and Keith Urban.  Great singers, and really fantastic guitar players with a long line of hits.  In 2017 we met Lindsay Ell, another incredible guitar player and singer, and today the "guitarie"  Brothers Osborne.  These artists are really co-stars with their guitars.  But before there was Brad, Keith, Lindsay and The Brothers, there was the trailblazing Lee Roy Parnell.  What a fresh act he was, with his bluesy voice, a slick image, very cool songs, and beyond incredible guitar work.  He is one of the most underrated stars ever in our format.

On The Road -GREAT Song  - Big Favorite

He was unlike the great guitarists before him, say like Glen Campbell, Roy Clark and Ricky Skaggs, all incredible and from a very different time.  Parnell was different.  He was more along the lines of Jerry Reed, or Junior Brown, in the fact the work was louder and electric -  not acoustic.  (BTW Junior Brown is an incredible player)  And even tough the song styles are very different, I believe Parnell helped pave the way for Paisley and Urban, and others.

Very Underrated Love Song

Parnell really broke through in 1992 with his second album, Love Without Mercy.   It's in my top five albums of 90's country, and my top 10 all time country.  The first single, The Rock was less than a mild hit, but it got him noticed.  The next three singles were all big songs.  What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am, went to #2, as did Tender Moment, and the title track #5. He had created a sound that was his, with his vocals and his guitar telling the story. In 1993, the On The Road album was another big success with the title song going to #6 and I'm Holding My Own going to #3. In all he charted 20 some singles during his run.

The Rock - This Song Got Him Noticed

Parnell was a lot of new things.  He was a non-hat act in the hat act era.  He wore waist coats, nice boots and tee's, and he was almost always photographed and filmed with his guitar.  He was just "cool."  It's hard to explain it any other way. I always felt that way about rocker Lenny Kravitz, he was just  - "cool. " LRP's guitar work was aggressive, it was loud, it had the "Parnell Sound."  It was swampy, it was in your face but not too much.  The subject matter in his songs was straight forward and to the point. And if you listen to a couple of his albums, they were very different from start to finish than what was mainstream then.

Big Song - Straight Forward - Honest - Good 

For the remainder of the 90's Parnell changed record labels a couple times, had more albums and some decent success.  But I wish his real successful chart run would have been longer.  He is a great example of a guy with a ridiculous amount of talent, coming through in country's biggest decade.  Did he get lost in the stampede?  Who knows, but this much we do know.  He is a great songwriter, as he wrote hits for other artists like That's My Story for Colin Raye.  He also played guitar on many other artist songs and tons of other projects and still performs.  I have no doubt that he gave confidence to new artists (and managers and record labels) that there was indeed room for great guitar work from the star standing at the mic on stage.

Tender Moment - #2 Hit

Parnell has his own line of fine guitars now with Gibson Guitars and is considered the premiere electric slide guitar player anywhere. He's played everywhere, with everyone for many years.  I would gladly pay to see him play again, because the few times I saw him, it was an experience, and I played all his songs on the radio.

He's 64 now - I have no doubt -  he's still cool.