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.

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. 2021's "To Be Loved by You" marked the first offering from McCollum's debut major-label full-length, Gold Chain Cowboy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine