• His band's spiky sound has echoed through artists from Elvis Costello to REM.

    — The Guardian

  • One of the sharpest songsmiths of the U.K. rock scene in the late Seventies, Graham Parker always owed more to Dylan and Van Morrison than to his punk counterparts.

    — Rolling Stone

  • When he first emerged in 1976, Parker updated and recontextualized the ’50s archetype of the English Angry Young Man at the perfect moment – the dawn of the punk revolution, and- together with the Rumour – formed a bridge between pub rock and punk rock, as Parker kicked open the door for fellow angry young man Elvis Costello.

    — Uncut UK
Hometown: 
Upstate NY

“WHERE MOST PERFORMERS WILL SNAP THEIR FINGERS IN TIME, GP WILL SLAM HIS FIST INTO HIS PALM.” —A fan on the Bloodshot website

Sometimes an artist is anointed a “legend.” Sometimes this artist’s body of work is so consistently lauded, of such ongoing interest and creativity, the audience might be tempted to take the level of craft for granted. Sometimes such an artist, after a time of flying beneath the radar, emerges with a run of stunning material ascending beyond time and genre. Sometimes this artist casts a shadow large enough they are known by just their initials. GP is such an artist.

Since the 1970's when he burst onto the London scene, Graham Parker has been slinging a signature sound across continents and airwaves that has rightly earned him a spot in the pantheon of truly original and influential figures in rock and roll.

His early days with his band the Rumour (with whom he has two albums in Rolling Stone's 1987 "Top 100 Albums of All Time'--Howlin Wind and Squeezing Out Sparks ) Graham has coupled punk's energy with his deeply rooted love of American R&B, country and soul music.  The band built a reputation as an incendiary live act, as well. He's got a snotty barroom brawler's rasp and sneer, a soulman's swagger and an ear for indelible pop songcraft.

In the year 2000, St. Martin’s Press published a collection of short stories by Parker entitled Carp Fishing On Valium.

Bruce Springsteen once said that the only band he’d pay to see live was Graham Parker and The Rumour, and Graham’s renegade spirit and ear for hooks have only sharpened over the years.

Artist Website
Compilation Tracks: 
Recommended if You Like: 
Elvis Costello
Nick Lowe
Bruce Springsteen
Marshall Crenshaw
John Hiatt
Joe Jackson

Similar Bloodshot Artists

  • Charlie Pickett

    Rising out of the fertile and groundbreaking underground music scene of the Southeast in the early 80's, Charlie Pickett and the Eggs were all motorcycle boots and sneers, and rode a squall of throat-grabbing feedback and Stonesy musical middle fingers.

  • Roger Knox

    Roger Knox, aka the Koori King of Country or Black Elvis is an Aboriginal Australian Country & Western singer with a honeyed bear hug of a voice. His music is powerful and moving, heartbreaking and hilarious, downtrodden and uplifting, suffused with longing, alienation, resilience and hope;
  • Robbie Fulks Bloodshot Records

    Robbie Fulks

    Twenty years ago, Robbie’s exuberance for old-school country made a lot of noise. Today, his storytelling through folk and bluegrass music on Upland Stories delivers the quieter, sometimes unsettling truths of humanity.
  • Waco Brothers Bloodshot Records Artist Header

    Waco Brothers

    "It's so direct and honest, it's almost painful ... All the songs are about sex and death and drinking. If you listen to early George Jones, it's simple, three-chord stuff where the subject is everyday life ... It could be the Buzzcocks."
  • Jon Langford's Four Lost Souls Bloodshot Records

    Jon Langford

    The revelatory aspect of Jon's prolific body of work is that he's always treated punk rock as folk music and folk music, when it stays true to its roots, can be awful damn punk. Woody Guthrie pissed off as many, if not more, people than Johnny Rotten.

  • The Silos

    Heralded at their outset by Rolling Stone as "America's Best New Band," the resilient Silos mix punk, roots, rock, and sage art-damaged truth telling. "The astringent twang of The Velvet Underground with the drone of R.E.M"--NY TImes

  • Alejandro Escovedo

    Ground Zero punk rock dude with The Nuns, cowpunk progenitor in Rank and File, gutter brawling guitar rawker in True Believers, and now a songwriter and performer without peer; you know the story.

  • Rico Bell

    Rico, in contrast to the blustering chaos of the Mekons, is decidedly a downtrodden softy. This, coupled with his early love of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Mississippi Fred McDowell, has resulted in the raggedy soulful roots music that characterizes his solo career.
  • Bottle Rockets Bloodshot Records

    The Bottle Rockets

    Punk-rock pedigrees and arena-rock energy, tougher-than-Springsteen storytelling and their romantic hearts sewn to their denim sleeves. The Bottle Rockets are true folk music, albeit it with beards, biker wallets and a lot more muscle.