quick thoughts on Jeff Parker, “TNT,” and “Forfolks”

There’s a profile of guitarist Jeff Parker by Grayson Haver Currin up on Pitchfork today that you should read. I’ve been thinking about his place in music over the years, and whether he recently hit a creative peak or if it just feels that way because he’s getting more attention for his recent projects. But I’m at the point now where I immediately want to hear every new record with his name on it.

My introduction to the sound of Parker’s guitar was unforgettable, and could fairly be described as an epiphany: the opening refrain that runs through Tortoise’s “TNT.” From the first listen, I could hear entire worlds inside that handful of notes, and it was as if he’d perfectly articulated a state of mind that music had never described previously. That sounds lofty and maybe even a little crazy, but that’s the effect his riff and the piece of music built around it had on me.

It’s hard to put into words. So hard, in fact, that when I wrote a Sunday Review on TNT I tracked down his email to ask him about it. He sent a friendly response and tried to answer my questions. But I could tell from reading his thoughts, which had more to do with how the piece as a whole came together, that what to me seemed a once-in-a-lifetime flash of genius was for him another day in the office. I also realized that I was basically asking him to explain why this musical fragment made me feel so much, which is dumb. It was a beautiful reminder that so much of what happens when we experience music happens outside the realm of language, and when we are at our keyboards all we can do is try to get close.

In December 2021, I had the great fortune of seeing Parker with Will Hermes when he played Tubby’s in Kingston. That might have been my first show at the venue, which has since become my all-time favorite place to see a show by a considerable margin. It’s basically a corner bar with a small stage in an adjoining room that holds about 100 people; during this show, I was sitting on a bench about five feet from Parker watching him play. He was touring his then-new album Forfolks, a solo record of supreme patience and focus with some of the most Zen playing of his career. I bought my copy at the gig and he played a good chunk of it, working his hollow-body instrument while adding little loops here and there along with light feedback as texture. Watching him play, and listening to the record, you realize he’s basically duetting with electricity, allowing streams and droplets of electromagnetic current to add color to and fill space in between the notes. It’s the most gorgeous thing.