“Welcome Back Kid”: Parker McCollum Teases Return to ‘The Limestone Kid’ Era with New Album

Throughout his recent projects, it's felt as though Parker McCollum's heart was being pulled in two directions - half of him strives for a clean, polished sound, while the other half yearns for a return to the rawer, stripped-back feel of his earlier material.

Now, as he readies his Never Enough follow-up record, it seems he's leaning more towards the latter, with Parker McCollum hinting at a return to The Limestone Kid era of music.

In a new social media post, the Texas hitmaker has shared a series of studio shots, accompanied by the pointed caption, “Welcome back Kid”. This appears to be a not-so-subtle reference to his debut album, The Limestone Kid, which fans regularly point to as a touchstone for Parker's evocative lyricism and undulating melodies.

Arriving in 2015 as an independent release, it spawned the fan-favourite ‘Meet You in the Middle’, with Parker McCollum continuing in a similar vein for his stellar 2017 album, Probably Wrong. Across both these projects, Parker showcased his now-signature laidback croon and his ability to viscerally convey the bittersweet feelings of leaving your hometown and pursuing your dreams, serving as the thematic foundation for later Country Radio hits such as ‘Young Man's Blues’.

Although his subsequent major label releases, Gold Chain Cowboy and Never Enough, have produced a plethora of chart-toppers and an array of hugely popular tracks, some fans that have been with Parker McCollum since the start have wondered whether this sleeker sound has obscured some of the magic of his earlier projects.

Rather than dismissing these concerns, Parker McCollum has repeatedly highlighted how in tune he is with his fanbase, with the ‘I Ain't Going Nowhere’ hitmaker revealing in a conversation with Holler in February, “I've gone as far into the clean and polished production as I want to. Now it's time to find my way back to how I first started making records...I'm cutting a new path back to the old me”.

Parker has been keeping us updated throughout the creation of his record, with the ‘Burn It Down’ singer-songwriter sharing on X (formerly Twitter) in June that, despite the album being 50% done, he'd decided to start from scratch with a new direction, “i was half way through this album and decided to switch producers. Back to square 1”.

Although it's a shame we'll have to hold on a little longer for new music from Parker McCollum, it serves as a reminder of how much care Parker is taking with this album, meaning it's undoubtedly going to be worth the wait. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed he decides to drop the long-awaited ‘Big Ol’ Fancy House’ - and perhaps even ‘Sunny Days’ and ‘Always Starts with You’, too - in the lead-up to the album, with Parker confirming all three are due to appear on the project.

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Parker McCollum

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