Anders Parker

Americana singer/songwriter Anders Parker has issued material under his own name, fronted the alt-country project Varnaline, and performed with the experimental outfit Space Needle, while also teaming with Kendall Meade of Mascott and Jay Farrar of Son Volt. Long based in Brooklyn, he spent his formative years on a historic farm in New York’s Hudson Valley, absorbing the sounds of Bob Dylan, ABBA, R.E.M., the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and the Smiths. Parker launched his recording career in 1996 with the Varnaline debut Man of Sin on Zero Hour; the next year the lineup expanded to include his brother John Parker on bass and drummer Jud Ehrbar, whose invitation brought Anders into Ehrbar’s own band Space Needle. Following the demise of Varnaline’s label, Parker moved to North Carolina, signed with E-Squared/Artemis Records, and delivered the largely solo Songs in a Northern Key under the Varnaline banner in 2001. His first proper solo set, Tell It to the Dust, appeared in 2004. Alongside the Jay Farrar collaboration Gob Iron, he issued a self-titled album on Baryon Records in 2006, enlisting producer Adam Lasus—who had previously worked on the second Varnaline and Space Needle albums as well as releases by Clem Snide and Helium—and featuring Ken Coomer of Wilco on drums, Eric Heywood of Son Volt on pedal steel, bassist Jennifer Condos, and guitarist Kirk Swan of Dumptruck. In 2011 Parker joined Farrar, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, and Will Johnson of Centro-Matic to set previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics to music; the resulting album New Multitudes came out on Rounder Records in early 2012.