REVIEW: Lee Roy Parnell and Friends at The Basement January 2010

These days, Lee Roy Parnell is not slowing down or cooling his heels, he performed for a standing room only crowd at The Basement on a recent Monday evening that left everyone begging for more. His charm was as smooth and slick as the licks on his guitar; and if you have ever been in the presence of Parnell playing guitar, you know there was an electric energy bouncing off the rafters and the basement walls. This man can play a guitar!

Parnell has recently begun a series of shows entitled “Lee Roy Parnell and Friends” where he plays the 1st portion of the show with his band, The Hotlinks and his friends are artists, songwriters and instrumentalist who join him on stage to play and jam with him on a few songs for the second half of the show.

At a this particular show Parnell let loose with his portion of the night playing with The Hotlinks and singing such songs as “On The Road”, “Holdin’ My Own”, “T-Bone Shuffle” and his hits “Love Without Mercy” and “What Kind of Fool Do You Think I am”. He also did “Heart's Desire” and sang a song that he performed when he was six years old on Bob Wills radio show called “Milk Cow”.

Opening his second half of the show, Parnell brought up his back up singers for “Back To The Well” and then Lance Miller joined him on stage for “Sing Me Back Home” and “Old Back In The New School”.

His next guest, Kenneth Wright had the audience laughing as he sang “Betty Was Black” and an astounding “Rainy Night in Georgia”. You never know who will be in the crowd at one of Parnell’s shows, and on this particular evening he spotted Dave Pahanish, who came up on stage and sang a song he wrote called “American Ride” (recorded by Toby Keith).

Steve Wariner joined Parnell for an electric rendition of “Carmelita” (written by Steve and Lee Roy) and then performed “Guitar Talk”. Together they executed a version of “Workin' Man Blues” that had everyone in the crowd geared up and wanting more.

Late into the evening surprise guest Steve Cropper was spotted in the crowd and with encouragement from Parnell, Wariner and the crowd, he joined them on stage to show off his incredible guitar talents along with his hit songs “Midnight Hour”, “Dock of the Bay” and “Soul Man.”

The next Lee Roy Parnell and Friends show is scheduled for February 22nd at The Basement with guests to be announced soon so mark your calendars and plan on attending, because it promises to be a show you do not want to miss.

For more information on Lee Roy Parnell visit www.leeroyparnell.com/ or www.myspace.com/leeroyparnell

For photos of the last show http://www.digitalrodeo.com/DRPhotos/photos/album/LeeRoyParnellandFriendsatTHEBASEMENTJan18th