A2
Hood River News, Saturday, May 9, 2015
JIM DRAKE’S ENTERTAINMENT BLOG
A different side to Pamela Parker
By JIM DRAKE
Hood River News
Pamela Parker started out
playing music at a super-
young age — in fact, based on
our phone conversation last
month, she detailed her en-
tire musical upbringing in a
very clear and organized
way.
She remembers playing
“Heart and Soul” with her
brother when she was in first
grade, and she brought me
right up to date by talking
about her college music in-
ternship stint in California,
which was helped along by
various friends in the music
business, including Micheal
Franti.
Pamela has multiple de-
grees in music — she ma-
jored in vocal performance,
with minors in piano and
classical guitar. After that,
she got aother degree in
music technology — which
she uses at her current job at
Hyde Street Studios in San
Francisco, where she helps
produce music for other
bands.
“It’s a legendary, historic
studio, the Grateful Dead,
Janis Joplin and Jefferson
Airplane, recorded here.
James Brown recorded ‘It’s a
Man’s World,’ it’s just amaz-
ing stuff, and I’ve been work-
ing here for six years,” Park-
er said.
Pamela currently fronts a
rock band called Pamela
Parker and the Kings, and
the band combines her origi-
nal songwriting skills and
rock guitar ability with her
upbringing on the classic
rock sounds she heard as a
teenager.
“It’s kind of my dream to
combine Janis Joplin and
Jimmy Page into one person,
and I’m headed that way. I’m
not quite as good as Jimmy,
yet, but I’ve got the Janis
thing down,” Parker said.
Pamela makes a stop in
Hood River on May 22, at the
TRILLIUM SHOWS
May 20: Lorin Walker Mad-
sen & the Hustlers and special
guest Randall Conrad Olinger.
May 21: Kristen Ford. One-
woman-band performance in-
cludes guitars, percussion and a
variety of looping effects ped-
als, to create a unique musical
experience that’s different
every night.
May 22: Pamela Parker.
Stunning vocals, clever guitar
licks, classical piano chops, and
a colorful twist on songwriting.
Trillium Cafe, for a solo
show, and she’s looking
foward to bringing what
she’s calling a “different
side” to her music out to the
audience.
“I think solo shows are fun
because I like to showcase
the other sides of me, ones
that people don’t normally
get to see with the full band.
Right now we’re kind of di-
versifying our set, and fea-
turing the other styles of
music that I do. One example
is a kind of a New Orleans
ballad style. I’m also writing
a rock opera called ‘Circles of
Time,’ so I have a few songs
that I feature from that. I
wrote a pop-rock song to try
out, and I’m bringing a key-
board, acoustic and electric
guitar with me. I feel we’re
branching out in our genre,”
Parker said.
Pamela said her third solo
CD is a mix of “everything
she’s about.”
“My first solo album was
acoustic, and the second was
rock and roll. Those two
were really planned that way.
My next one is going to be
everything I do, and I feel
like I’m getting more into a
place where who I am is com-
ing out more in all the songs.
It’s different when the whole
Pamela Parker
See PARKER, Page A3
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