I’ve been listening to Drew Parker since 2016. I heard his single Slow Down Small Town while shooting my bow in my Blacksburg apartment and have been following him ever since. In 2018, Parker released Drew Parker - EP, and this is when his popularity started really growing in Southwest VA.
Then, in 2020, Drew released his While You’re Gone EP and I’ve been cranking it ever since. Drew Parker is country to the core; from his voice, to the instrumentals, the melodies, and the lyrics, he's got it all. Listening to Drew Parker is like listening to a modern day Keith Whitley or Alan Jackson. To put it simply, Drew Parker is “Pure Country”.
I have broken down each song on his While You’re Gone EP.
All The Beers
This is a fast paced jam, fit for a party. It’s a song Parker can come right out of the gate with at a concert and take the crowd from 0 to 100 in an instant. It’s all about having a wild weekend: Hit all the bars, sing all the songs. Dance with all the pretty ladies all night long til the cows come home. Might not be your cup of sweet tea, but every weekend way out here, we spend all the dollars and drink all the beers. A true party song.
Hell Yeah Say When I’m In
This one is a nice country love song. The song starts out with the singer and a lady on a date; they have a nice night out and on the front porch the lady asks the singer if he’d like to do it again sometime.
Parker gives his response in the chorus to show how obviously okay he would be with that:
I said that'd be like askin’ if I wanna pick Willie’s guitar
Wanna blow the horn on the Duke boys’ car
Wanna drink a cold beer with John Wayne
Want tickets on the 50 to the football game
That’d be like askin’ if I wanna go fishin’
Wanna meet Keith Whitley if he was still livin’
I wanna little more of what I felt from your lips
I’d say, “Hell yeah say when I’m In”
This song is so catchy and makes you feel good. It’s definitely one of my favorites on the album!
While You’re Gone
This song is just incredible. I always listen to albums in order the first time through, so once I got to this song it took me a solid 30 minutes to get to the last 4. I couldn’t stop listening to While You’re Gone on repeat. In this song, he doesn’t know if his girl is coming back or not, but he’s fine either way. The chorus shows how he’s spending his time while she’s gone:
Yeah, while you're out there
Looking for some kind of brand new start,
I'll just be kicking it with this bp pbr.
You're gonna come back with your bags packed
Missing me 'fore too long, yeah,
I'll be right here drinking a beer
Baby, while you're gone
Drew Parker singing I’ll just be kicking it with this BP PBR sent shockwaves through country music; everyone on Twitter was talking about this line. The kicker is, I don’t think it would sound good or cool if anyone other than Drew Parker sang it. If someone else tried to deliver a line with BP and PBR side by side it would sound stupid. If you haven’t seen the video for this song yet, check it out below. It has the best co-star and a fun twist on the song.
Party In the Back
Party In The Back is a funny one, and it also has a perfect music video to go along with it. The song is lyrical genius. Drew Parker wrote this with Ray Fulcher and Thomas Archer. The trio was somehow able to tie in Billy Ray Cyrus’s mullet with a yard in a subdivision. The singer's front yard is meticulously maintained, keeping the HOA happy. Meanwhile, the backyard is a party all weekend long; hence the song lyric “Like Billy Ray in his Achy Breaky Heart days, it’s a fact, I’m all business in the front, Big old party in the back.”
I Was Lying
Adam Craig teamed up with Drew Parker to write this one. It's a good old fashioned break up song. The singer starts off by singing about the breakup he had and how he was just “lying” about being okay with them breaking up. In the chorus the singer confesses he would rather be “lying” back in her arms:
I wish I was lying right there in your arms,
Girl right now it’s all I want
‘Cause this moving on ain’t going nowhere
Truth is I don't care if I see you out with all your friends
And make a fool of myself in front of all of them
Tell you i need you, without you i’m dying
‘Cause when i said i was good with goodbye
I was lying
You can feel the emotions of love lost, regret, and desperation to get her back throughout the entire song. It’s a perfect one to listen to when you’re feeling the hurt of a breakup and need a song to relate to.
The Runway
This one was written by Drew Parker, James McNair, and Matt McGinn. It comes as a nice change up from the break up song before it. It’s a feel good song about a man supporting a woman's dreams. The song starts out with the singer explaining this girl’s dream isn’t to stick around some little po dunk town. He doesn’t want her to stick around just for him, the singer wants to be her “Runway.'' All around it's just a really sweet song.
He is supporting her dreams and wants her to be happy and successful, even if it isn’t with him. He will be the ‘runway’ to her dreams, but if it doesn’t work out, he will always be there for her when she returns. It reminds me a lot of the Kip Moore song Running For You.
House Band
House Band was written by Drew Parker, Dustin Huff, and Wyatt McCubbin and is a true, sad country song. The song is recorded as an acoustic, “live in studio” version, which shows the raw emotion of the song perfectly. In this song, the singer's lady is gone and he’s all alone. He is home alone, listening to the sounds of an empty house: a house band. Parker has a beautiful way of making a ceiling fan and a back porch light sound incredibly sad.
Drew Parker released one of the best EPs of 2020. I can’t wait to see what he comes out with next. He’s only going to get better and better. If you haven’t checked out his music yet, go listen now!
What’s your favorite Drew Parker song? Let us know below!
Jack Wilkinson