Like Gold Chain Cowboy, it pairs Parker with producer Jon Randall (Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley), a fellow Texan who understands exactly what fuels Parker’s artistry: authenticity, vulnerability, and a little bit of defiance. Never Enough bristles with honesty and attitude and is shot through with equal parts rock guitar and country songwriting.
“What I do best is write songs from a very real place and sing country music, but also be very ‘me’ and not try to sound like someone else,” Parker says. “We definitely did that on this record and every one of the 15 songs sounds different.”
Compare album opener “Hurricane” and the confessional ballad “Have Your Heart Again” to hear his point. “Hurricane,” a song about a strong-willed girl who blows through your life and leaves it in tatters, is a driving rock anthem with a guitar riff that calls to mind the theme from Friends (“I’m sure some people will hate on that, but I don’t give a shit,” Parker laughs. “I thought it was cool”). “Have Your Heart Again,” meanwhile, is a simple vocal-and-piano arrangement with Parker hitting a stunning falsetto note. The songs are each irresistible and unique, rich in lyrical imagery, and unlike anything you’ll hear coming out of Nashville today.
Credit that to Parker, as sturdy as a live oak, for knowing exactly who he is.
“This town can eat you alive, the music business can eat you alive, with artists trying to remain relevant and have hit songs. That’s something I never cared about when I’m writing or making a record,” he says. “I’m never thinking about singles. I’m trying to just write songs that can potentially stand the test of time. That’s the sole purpose of writing songs for me.”
Even Never Enough tracks that have since become gold-certified hits weren’t written with radio in mind. To Parker, “Handle on You” was just a drinking song with clever lyricism (“I tell myself that I should quit/but I don’t listen to drunks”) and a late-Eighties country sound as smooth as Tennessee whiskey or, perhaps, a Shiner Bock.
“That song is a nod to some of the great records I grew up with,” says Parker, who counts George Strait, Willie Nelson, and cult hero Chris Knight as chief inspirations. “A lot of radio songs nowadays are kind of bubble-gummy. I don’t have any problem with pop-country, but I’d like to hear a little more classic country too. My team kept saying ‘Handle on You’ was a radio song and I said, ‘If y’all put that on the radio, then hell yeah.’”
A mostly solitary songwriter prior to his entrée into Nashville, Parker has now written with some of country music’s finest. Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, and Liz Rose (a.k.a. The Love Junkies), David Lee Murphy, Brett James, and Ashley Gorley all contribute to Never Enough, along with Parker’s Texas peers Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, and Ryan Beaver.
“That’s been the biggest change since coming to Nashville: having access to some of the best songwriters in the world and sitting in a room with them to write,” Parker says. “The way these songwriters care and write, it’s from a place that I think I do as well. It’s made me look at songwriting differently.”
The proof is in Parker’s chart history. He scored his first-ever No. 1 country hit with 2020’s “Pretty Heart,” his debut single. “To Be Loved by You” followed suit, also hitting No. 1. Now, he’s staring down a career-making single in “Burn It Down,” a moody, smoldering break-up song that equates a busted relationship to a house reduced to just ashes and smoke.
Written with the Love Junkies, “Burn It Down” was born during a writing session at Parker’s home, where he spontaneously started singing the words “burn it down” over and over again. “Some days are like that, where the melody and the idea for the song is so good and everybody is on the same page,” he says. “If you’re talking about moving the needle in my career, ‘Burn It Down’ is probably going to be the song.”
Parker lives for the type of spontaneous creation that happened that day. He’ll often challenge himself to write a song without changing a single word. He did that with “Too Tight This Time.” With a pretty acoustic guitar lick, a Dobro guest shot by Jerry Douglas, and a heavy dose of humility and introspection in Parker’s vocal performance, “Too Tight This Time” is Parker’s favorite track on Never Enough.
“I said, ‘Let’s pour this thing out and whatever it is in 15 minutes, that’s what it’s going to be forever.’ I love to write songs like that and live with the end result. This one was easy to do because the melody was so good,” he says. “The line ‘There must be something broken inside this lonely man’ just hits so hard.”
For all his quiet strength and rough-hewn masculinity, Parker isn’t afraid to bare his soul. But, ironically, one of the most personal songs on Never Enough is the only song he didn’t write: “Things I Never Told You,” penned by Monty Criswell, Lynn Hutton, and Taylor Phillips, parallels Parker’s relationship with his mother. “When I moved away from home/I didn’t realize how much I’d miss ya,” he sings. “A phone call don’t take the place/of your smilin’ face cooking in that kitchen.”
“Those lines were all in there. People send me songs all the time and I never really hear any that I’m blown away by,” he says. Currently getting ready for a massive summer tour, including stadium dates with Morgan Wallen, Parker debuted “Things I Never Told You” for his mother during rehearsals. “We were in this massive amphitheater and my mom came the last day and I sang it for her. It was pretty cool.”
To Parker, the gesture was a way to show he cared. Never Enough then is a testament to how much he cares about country music.
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t care so much because everything would be easier. Hopefully one day people will look back at what I’ve done in country music and think it was honest and good for the genre,” Parker says. “This album may be called Never Enough, but if they see that what I did was real, that’ll be enough for me.”
New Orleans
Parker McCollum Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I could not find my baby
My wallet or blue jeans
And all I gots what I believe
And a shoe for kickin rocks out by the road
Well I've seen you twice before but I will not see you again
I know it's you that left me stranded out in no where Lousian'
From the swamp out by the highway to the other side of Houston here I go.
You're the only thing as heartless as me
That I ever met
Ever since you left beyond the place I'd never leave
Well another thing I'll never do
Is love you like I did
I left the lights on for ya mama
You told me I was a kid
How the hell'd you have the heart
To never let me know I was alone?
Drove all the way to Texas with us dancin' in my head
Just preachin' to the window all the things I never said
Got two more waitin' on me
You ain't nothin like I ever seen back home
Oh babe, why can't you see
You're the only thing as heartless as me
That I ever met
Ever since you left beyond the place I'd never leave
I'm out here on the edge of town
There ain't no lookin back
Bout 80 pages to the wind blowin' white smoke from the stacks
You can find me on the front porch
Of the A frame out in Big Hill gettin' high
Oh babe, why can't you see
You're the only thing as heartless as me
That I ever met
Ever since you left beyond the place I'd never leave
The song "New Orleans" by Parker McCollum is a heart-wrenching ballad about a man who wakes up 50 miles from New Orleans to find that his loved one, wallet, and blue jeans are all missing. All he has left is his strong belief and a shoe for kicking rocks out by the road. He's been left stranded and alone by the woman he loved, and he's driving through Lousiana and Texas, preaching to the window about all the things he never said to her. The lyrics evoke a sense of desperation and loneliness as the singer struggles to process the loss of his loved one, and feels abandoned and betrayed.
The chorus of the song is particularly poignant, as the singer begs his lost love to understand that she's not the only one with a heart of stone. He's calling out the fact that he's just as selfish and cold-hearted as she is, and yet he's still unable to get over the pain of her leaving him. The reference to New Orleans is also interesting because it's known as the "city of jazz" and is often associated with music and culture, and yet here it's being used to symbolize loss and heartbreak.
Overall, the song "New Orleans" is a powerful anthem for anyone who's ever experienced a broken heart. The evocative lyrics and emotional delivery combine to create a song that's both haunting and beautiful.
Line by Line Meaning
Woke up this mornin 50 miles from New Orleans
I woke up far away from where I want to be, 50 miles away from New Orleans.
And I could not find my baby
I realized my lover is not with me, and I cannot find them.
My wallet or blue jeans
I lost my important possessions like my wallet and blue jeans.
And all I gots what I believe
All I have left is myself and what I believe in.
And a shoe for kickin rocks out by the road
I only have one shoe, and I am aimlessly kicking rocks by the road.
Well I've seen you twice before but I will not see you again
I have seen my lover two times in my life but this will be the last time.
I know it's you that left me stranded out in no where Lousian'
I am aware that you left me alone in a place like nowhere in Louisiana.
From the swamp out by the highway to the other side of Houston here I go.
I am travelling through the marshes by the highway towards the other boundary of Houston.
Oh babe, why can't you see
I am asking my lover why they cannot understand what I am going through.
You're the only thing as heartless as me
I have realized that my lover is as unfeeling and cold-hearted as I am in certain situations.
That I ever met
I have never met anyone as ruthless as my lover.
Ever since you left beyond the place I'd never leave
I am stuck in a place that I would rather not be in since my lover left me.
Well another thing I'll never do
I have decided that I will never do another thing again.
Is love you like I did
I know that I will never love my lover the same way again.
I left the lights on for ya mama
I left the lights on for your mother out of respect.
You told me I was a kid
My lover insulted me by calling me a kid.
How the hell'd you have the heart
I am questioning how my lover could be so cruel and unfeeling.
To never let me know I was alone?
I am lamenting how my lover never thought to inform me that I was alone.
Drove all the way to Texas with us dancin' in my head
I drove all the way to Texas with thoughts of dancing with my lover in my head.
Just preachin' to the window all the things I never said
I am speaking to the window about all the things I never got to say to my lover.
Got two more waitin' on me
I have other people waiting for me aside from my lover.
You ain't nothin like I ever seen back home
My lover is nothing like anything I have ever seen back home.
I'm out here on the edge of town
I am on the outskirts of town in a remote area.
There ain't no lookin back
I have made a decision to never look back at what happened in the past.
Bout 80 pages to the wind blowin' white smoke from the stacks
The wind is blowing white smoke from the stacks near where I am, and I am thinking about the pages I have in my possession.
You can find me on the front porch
I am out front on the porch.
Of the A frame out in Big Hill gettin' high
I am smoking marijuana in the A-frame house in Big Hill.
Oh babe, why can't you see
I am asking my lover why they cannot understand what I am going through.
You're the only thing as heartless as me
I have realized that my lover is as unfeeling and cold-hearted as I am in certain situations.
That I ever met
I have never met anyone as ruthless as my lover.
Ever since you left beyond the place I'd never leave
I am stuck in a place that I would rather not be in since my lover left me.
Writer(s): PARKER YANCEY MCCOLLUM, TYLER MCCOLLUM
Contributed by London S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.