A vocal survivor of trauma, Parrott wrote “I
Thought” single “as a response to an abusive relationship when I swore
I’d cut out violent people.”
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Jenny Parrott | “I Thought”
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“These arms can’t stand an ever lovin’ man / These
eyes can’t see a never changin’ me”
The lyrics are taken from “‘I Thought,’ the first single from Jenny Parrott’s upcoming album The Fire I Saw. Check out the
premiere coverage at Americana
Highways and Americana
UK.
“It was written as a response to an abusive
relationship at a time in my life where I swore I’d cut out people with
violence in their repertoire,” Parrott
says. “It’s about when your first instincts to love, to cherish, and to give
your all, later turn out to be incorrect.”
She continues, “The fearful realization that maybe you
just ‘loved’ that way with such intensity because you’re repeating some old,
broken pattern of childhood violence.
“I grew up with a violent childhood and am a trauma
survivor. While I have healed a lot, and have a big capacity for love, I still
sometimes make the wrong choices and love people who are abusive. I suspect
that as I age, my radar will get sharper and sharper, but I still make
mistakes.”
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Jenny Parrott
The
Fire I Saw
(Parking Lot Panic Attack)
Nov 12th, 2021
Track Listing:
02. My Hero
04. Say It
05. Georgica
06. Hallelujah
07. July
08. The Fire I Saw (Is There Anyone To Meet Me?)
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Jenny Parrott | About
The new album is, naturally, an evolution of Parrott’s seemingly effortless
lyricism, humor mixed with despair, and ultimately, her economic use of
unforgettable melodies and just-right instrumentation that makes you feel like
she’s seeing you even more than she’s seeing herself.
“These arms can’t stand an ever loving man. And these
eyes can’t see a never changing me.”
The opening lines of first single “I Thought” stop you dead in your tracks. A perfect example of what
Parrott does over the course of an
album that doesn’t even clock in past 25 minutes and doesn’t need to. Parrott takes care of all business
during the brief span of the eight songs on The Fire I Saw, in a way
many songwriters work an entire career towards and never reach.
The album was originally going to be a more standard-length
release, but the pandemic changed up Parrott’s
plans.
“I had to give the album a makeover because I was
planning on having all my buds come over and finish it in the home studio. Most
of my friends in Austin are rootsy-type players, so it would have had that
feel. But I was stuck at home in a damp cul-de-sac, and I was scared of the
virus, and didn’t want anyone in my space,” she explains.
Teaching herself Logic, and putting her Roland Juno
into overdrive, Parrott spent time
testing and tweaking her favorite synth patches until she had whittled the
album down to the “eight that I felt were okay.”
Some may say, the eight are more than “okay.”
American icon, Kinky
Friedman has been quoted as saying Parrott’s
tunes are “the best songs I’ve heard since Christ was a cowboy!,” which, it can
be argued, is a more interesting string of words than anything Kinky could have actually been talking
about, but we get the idea!
Parrott has played prisons, a Black Panther reunion party,
children’s shows, on streets all over the world, and in every basement from
here to New York. She has opened for Jonathan
Richman, Pokey LaFarge, and Delbert McClinton. These aren’t mere
credits, they are experiences that you should rightfully expect inform Parrott’s songs.
And not all of the experiences need to be so flashy.
Mundane works just fine, too.
Parrott describes the album track “July” as being “written while taking out the garbage in Macon,
Georgia” and opener “Knockin’ Back Some
Cokes” as “a play on how Sam Cooke
is always singing about Coke and popcorn and cake and ice cream,” although she
goes on to rightly remark that her take contains “sinister lyrics about facing
down climate change and the apocalypse.”
Similarly stark is the previously mentioned, “I Thought,” which, while taking Parrott’s stock of her ability to love
and be loved, was “written as a response to an abusive relationship at a time
in my life where I swore I’d cut out people with violence in their repertoire.”
“A lot of the songs are about life, death, and faith,”
she says. “Like, having enough faith to wonder about your child’s future in ‘Georgica,’” she explains, referring to
another of the album’s upcoming singles, which was written for a hometown
friend that Parrott used to sing
with.
“I am trying to be myself with the songs and
performances, instead of putting out a record with the right number of
happy-sounding songs on it,” she says. “You don’t have to use a dude’s guitar
part to spare his feelings! That will only dim the fire within you that you
saw, and you’ve got to feed it.”
The Fire I Saw, the second solo album by Jenny
Parrott, arrives on Nov. 12th,
2021, preceded by the singles “I
Thought” (Out Now) and “Georgica”
(Oct. 21).
Jenny Parrott is
available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information.
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Jenny
Parrott | Links
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact
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