MICHAEL PARRISH

Worked as a songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist in New York, Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco and Austin during the 80s and 90s, to name only the most notable localities, during which time he had the good fortune to rub elbows and swap riffs with Willie Dixon, Blues Traveler, Marcia Ball, Pinetop Perkins, Sun Ra, Etta James, Jerry Jeff Walker, Charles Brown, Spider John, John Mooney at Jazzfest, Ani DiFranco, The Funky Meters, Johnny Johnson, James Cotton, Frank Frost, Omar and The Howlers, Sugar Blue, The Allman Brothers and Eric Burdon. He has worked with such talents as Hubert Sumlin, Cash McCall, Bob Margolin, Warren Haynes, Buddy Guy and Sonny Rhodes.

In Chicago, Michael was the late great blues vocalist BB Odum's piano player and played with Barkin' Bill Smith, Casey Jones, Dave Specter, Don Griffin, Steve Arvey, Magic Slim, Smokey Smothers and the late Lefty Dizz, arguably the most seriously bad-ass mofo to ever leave Baby (his strat) behind the bar at Brady's blues (47th street in south Chicago) while telling everybody "I GOT to go" and bailing out of the joint on an ad hoc basis, and then turned to Michael in the packy-store portion of the place and proclaimed "This is a great musician." That aside,, the story is true, and Parrish tells it as a matter of pride. Durin" g this time, Michael contributed to some of the most significant blues field recordings made in recent years as part of the Music Maker project in North Carolina, more specifically playing piano in Brothers in the Kitchen, the band behind Piedmont legend Guitar Gabriel, as well as fellow Winston-Salem stalwarts Macavine Hayes, "Captain Luke" Luther Mayers and the incomparable, dear-departed snake lady herself, Willa ("Baby Let Me Play with Your Yo-yo" Mae Buckner. One result of these sessions was the Music Maker Relief Foundation audiophile blues series, which combined the aforementioned talent with what was at the time arguably the most transparently pure recording technology ever assembled.

Michael toured and recorded with legends of country blues Guitar Gabriel (Living Blues Magazine's 1992 "Comeback Artist of The Year") and Big Boy Henry (National Heritage Award Recipient). With Gabriel, Michael contributed piano tracks to Deep in The South, nominated in 1993 for the W.C. Handy Award for "Best Acoustic Blues Album." 1993 also saw the release of A Living Past: The Music Maker Patron Sampler, featuring Michael on 7 cuts.

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On April 22, 1994, Michael played piano in Carnegie Hall's "Circus Blues" as accompanist to Guitar Gabriel, Rimgmaster Ward Hall and Willa Mae "The Snake Lady" Buckner. That same year, Joe Louis Walker released the critically acclaimed JLW (Verve/Gitanes), featuring the Parrish-penned "Rain on My Mind." New York guitar slinger Popa Chubby also recorded the song.

While on tour with Guitar Gabriel, Michael performed at some of the most prestigious festivals in the world, including the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Jazz Charlotte, Nave Blues (Clusone, Italy) and Blues to Bop (Lugano, Switzerland).

In 1995, Music Maker recordings released Came So Far and Guitar Gabriel Volume 1, which again feature Michael's piano and guitar playing throughout.

That same year Michael made Automobility, his first solo record. David Fricke, music editor of Rolling Stone, wrote of the CD that "Parrish writes about the road as if he knows the potholes personally." Automobility featured both Spin Doctor Aaron Comess and the legendary Howie Wyeth on drums. The albums Beautiful Rocks and Christy's Big Secret followed with The Michael Parrish Band, which played on the HORDE tour and opened for Blues Traveler and the great NRBQ. Christy's Big Secret featured "Forgoing a Home", a song co-written by the late great BT bassist Bobby Sheehan, and featuring him on bass as well. Michael also recorded the critically-acclaimed duo blues piano record, One Heart, with the legendary Pinetop Perkins.

Michael played piano on the great Sugar Man by Greenville, SC-based songwriter, gospel-style singer and down-home blind blues troubador Cootie Stark. Subsequent to recording with Cootie, Parrish performed on the "Winston Blues Revival" at New York's famous Knitting Factory banging on Piano behind Cootie, Beverly Guitar Watkins, Cool John Ferguson and notably on bass the inimitable Taj Mahal.

As Bud Lake, Michael sang the four-word theme song to the MTV hit grossoutfest I Bet You Will, one of a string of collaborations with Actor/writer/director Morgan Spurlock which included an MPB video for the song "Money" on Christy's Big Secret, co-writing the theme song of Spurlock's early web-based "The Instant Show" and flying in tandem single-engine aerobatic stunt planes with Austin, Texas-based folksinger/pilot/spelunker and Geographic recording artist Barb MacLeod, whose aerobatically-inspired album Air Circus provided the soundtrack to a Parrish-produced, Spurlock-directed long-form video.

Michael and partner Bill Kelly recorded the yet-to-be-released CD Folkfoot in 2002. "Anesthesia" on the Music page is from the solo-based Folkfoot, on which Bill Kelly contributed vocals, and Tom Kaelin, Sean Boyd and Chris Hansen added drums, banjo and guitar. Subsequently Folkfoot have recorded Dos Hombres, which includes "It Must Stink to Be Pink", one of two Parrish-penned pieces on display in the cinderella-story indie doc Super Size Me. While the last bit of music over the end of the end credits is an (uncredited) Parrish solo blues piece, both the piano improv "Health Blues" and the extended 7 minute-plus "It Must Stink" are happily featured in the June-released SSM SOUNDTRACK.

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Discography
Folkfoot, Dos Hombres
Michael Parrish Band, Christy's Big Secret (Geographic)
Michael Parrish Band, Beautiful Rocks (Geographic)
Michael Parrish and Pinetop Perkins, One Heart (Geographic)
Automobility (Geographic)

Instrumental Contributions
Macavine Hayes, Drinkhouse (2005, Musicmaker)
Various Artists, Songs From the Roots of America II (2002, Musicmaker)
Various Artists, Expressin' The Blues (1999, Musicmaker)
Various Artists, Winston Blues Revival Sampler (1999, Cello Recordings)
Popa Chubby, One Million Broken Guitars
Big Boy Henry, Beaufort Blues (Musicmaker)
Cootie Stark, Sugar Man (1998, Cello Recordings)
Various Artists, Came So Far (1995, Music Maker Recordings)
Guitar Gabriel, Guitar Gabriel: Volume 1 (1995, Music Maker Recordings)
Popa Chubby Band, Gas Money (1994, Laughing Bear Records)
Various Artists, A Living Past: Music Maker Patron's Sampler (1994, Music Maker Recordings)
Various Artists, Distinguished Friends of Cello (1994, Cello Records)
Guitar Gabriel, Deep in the South (1992, Karibu Productions)

Album Cuts
"Health Blues" Various Artists, Super Size Me Soundtrack (2004)
"It Must Stink to Be Pink" Various Artists, Super Size Me Soundtrack (2004)
"Rain on My Mind" - Popa Chubby, The Hungry Years (Blind Pig, 2003)
"Rain on My Mind" - Popa Chubby, The First Cuts (Dixie Frog, 1996)
"Rain on My Mind" - Popa Chubby Band, Gas Money (1994, Laughing Bear Records)
"Rain on My Mind" - Joe Louis Walker, JLW (1994, Verve/ Gitanes)
"Leave My Goat Alone" - Guitar Gabriel, Volume 1 (1995, Music Maker Recordings)

Film
"No Haelth Blues" Super Size Me (2004)
"It Must Stink To Be Pink" Super Size Me
"Wuzza Blues" Super Size Me

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