Parker McCollum

Based in Austin, Parker McCollum is a modern Americana artist who draws inspiration from rock & roll, classic singer/songwriters, soul, indie rock, and the Red Dirt country of his native Texas. He released his debut album, The Limestone Kid, in 2015, but he first cracked the Billboard charts in 2017 with a pair of EPs, Probably Wrong: Session One and Session Two, each of which made a strong showing on the Heatseekers chart in advance of his second album. McCollum eventually signed with Universal for 2021's Gold Chain Cowboy, which hit number six on Billboard's Country chart, while generating the number one Billboard Country Airplay hits "Pretty Heart" and "To Be Loved by You." McCollum buttressed his heartland rock roots on his third long-player, Never Enough, which appeared in 2023, followed by another Top Ten Country Airplay hit, 2024's "What Kinda Man."

Parker McCollum was born on June 15, 1992, in Conroe, Texas, a city just north of Houston. He grew up surrounded by music, learning how to play violin for the school orchestra and then picking up a guitar when he became a teenager. Soon afterward, he started penning his own songs, which led to him playing local gigs when he was in his late teens. McCollum moved to Austin after his high school graduation, and he balanced college with performing for a while, but music soon won out. He performed on his own and took a gig supporting Six Market Blvd.

A Red Town View, his debut EP, appeared in November 2013. McCollum's first full-length album, The Limestone Kid, arrived in February 2015 on his own PYM Music imprint. The album was a regional success and gave McCollum momentum toward Probably Wrong, his second album. The first taste of these recordings, Probably Wrong: Session One, was an EP released in July 2017. The EP wound up reaching six on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and appeared on the Billboard folk and indie charts as well. Probably Wrong: Session Two completed the set a couple of months later, with the full version of the album appearing in November.

McCollum toured hard over the next year, and after netting a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell, he announced in 2019 that he'd signed with Universal Music Group. His first major-label single, "Pretty Heart," arrived later that year, followed by the EP Hollywood Gold in 2020. Gold Chain Cowboy, his first full-length album for the label, came out the following year, making a Top Ten showing on the Country Albums chart and hitting number 60 on the Billboard 200. Its success was bolstered by the inclusion of "Pretty Heart" and another breakout single, "To Be Loved by You." McCollum returned in 2022 with "Handle on You," the lead single from his third full-length, Never Enough, a Jon Randall production that arrived in May of 2023. It reached number 12 on the Top Country Albums chart. A standalone single, "What Kinda Man," appeared in September 2024 and cracked the Top Ten of Billboard's Country Airplay Chart. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine