Brian T Parks - a brief biography
Brian T Parks is an award-winning singer/songwriter based in Hampshire, England. His more serious songs often have loss as their theme, while his lighter pieces are characterised by a wistful air of melancholy. His music encompasses a wide variety of genres, from acoustic ballads ((Lighter than a) Butterfly’s Wing and Tell Them I’m Gone) through roots rock ‘n’ roll (Hot Vinyl and Better Late) to prog rock (Turn Out the Light).
Five of his songs (Hampshire Born, Imagine a Boy, Meet Up for Christmas, How the Devil and The Tips of my Fingers) reached the semi-final stages of the 2019 UK Songwriting Contest organised by the BRIT Trust. Imagine a Boy then went into the shortlist of five songs in the finals of the acoustic/folk category.
He is an experienced gigging musician, having played in cover bands since the mid-1960s. In the late 1970s he attended Music College at Colchester in Essex where his tutors were Philip Cannon and Alan Bullard. He graduated from the college in 1981 with a degree in classical music composition. Brian plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and keyboards. He has also written three published non-fiction books and over a hundred sleeve notes for CD compilations.
In 2011 he retired from his “proper” job as a teacher, and a couple of years later decided to try his hand at song writing, having played and arranged other people’s music for a half-century. The result was the well-received album Better Late… released in April 2017. His second album Up on the Downs appeared a year later. Brian released his third album Big Issues on 15th January 2019 with a live launch on Wey Valley Radio. His fourth album, mE, was released in January 2020.
For more information about Brian, see his website www.brianparks.co.uk
What they say about the songs:
Absent Friends:
"A fine song on an emotion-laden topic" - Jack Kershaw (American folk-singer and civil rights activist)
Up on the Downs:
"A beautiful song and beautifully put together" - Brian Player (Wey Valley Radio)