David Parsons strums a tune on his guitar at his mother's residence in Sparta.

Local musician tries a new approach after years of playing country music

It was a somewhat ironic twist of fate: when David Parsons became unable to continue working as a truck driver last year, he fell back on another vocation in which he had aptitude and experience: the music business.

However, having already tried the Nashville approach to pursuing a music career, Parsons and his collaborator have decided to try a more independent strategy with their new endeavors.

They have started their own record label and publishing company. Parsons is trying to build popularity for his new country music compact disc on a local and regional basis.

"I'm just getting started, but I wanted to start at home first," he said. Parsons is from Piney Creek.

The DaBeck Music studio, where he and Chris Beckerdite recorded the song "Eyes Don't Lie" and the CD by the same title, is in Siloam, near Pilot Mountain.

Parsons and Beckerdite wrote seven of the CD's 10 songs. With their own record label, publishing company and studio and by marketing their music themselves, they look to exercise more control over their ventures. They also hope to mentor other up-and-coming musical artists, using what they've learned to help those getting started. "It's fun; we're experimenting and seeing what all we can get done, how far we can go with it," said Parsons.

Musical Influence

He was born in Maryland. Parsons' family moved here when he was two years old, and he grew up on a dairy farm in Piney Creek. It was his mother, Ada Parsons, who got him started with music. "It's all her fault," he joked. "She used to be an excellent musician; she played fiddle, banjo, guitar."

Mrs. Parsons played with a group that included several family members. They performed on a radio station, based at an old store in Turkey Knob, which had only seven square miles of coverage. "I think some of them (group members) went to Nashville and made it," she said. David Parsons recalled, "I've had a guitar in my hand as long as I can remember." He said to his mother, "I was five or six when you showed me two or three chords."

Ada Parsons remarked, "They told me any boy that likes to fish and play the guitar would be a good young man."

David Parsons added, "I just took it from there and kept beating it out."

A Popular Band

He played in some local bands, leading to the formation of Backstix, his first commercial band. Some other local musicians — Jackie Wyatt, Joe Wyatt and Grayson Lucas, all of Sparta — heard Parsons and Randy Absher playing and invited them to a practice session. "We went down and practiced with them, and the next thing you know, we had a band," Parsons said.

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