Joyann Parker

People say the blues are “Hard to Love,” but Joyann Parker proves them wrong with her eloquent new album with the same title. “I’ve been performing for some younger crowds,” Parker said. “They say they don’t like blues. People in general say that. I tell them, ‘I think you do.’ And after I perform something for them, they say, ‘Oh. I love that song.’ I say, ‘That’s blues.’ Every kind of music they like comes from blues. The music in a restaurant, in a movie or TV soundtrack, there’s always a blues tune.”

The classically trained pianist Joyann Parker has a degree in music from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Parker had previously sang in church and with a wedding band but only discovered the blues four years ago. After singing Aretha Franklin’s soul classic “Chain of Fools” Parker received an invitation to join a Minneapolis based blues band. In 2015 Joyann Parker and Sweet Tea released their debut recording “On the Rocks”. As a result the band was a quarter-finalist in the International Blues Challenge and their album became The Minnesota Blues Societies choice as “Best Self-Produced CD”. Parker also headlines a show called “The Music of Patsy Cline” and states “old school country and blues are very close…when I listen to Patsy Cline I hear a blues singer…singing from her soul”. Parker has already been compared to both Etta James and Shemekia Copeland.