How Parker McCollum’s older brother set him up for success

When it comes to musical mentors, Parker McCollum didn’t have to look very far to find his.

“The biggest musical influence or teacher was really my older brother,” he says. “Phenomenal songwriter, loved really raw Americana country music songwriters when he was very young. I’m six years younger than him. So I was like a literal child.”

Tyler McCollum populated Parker’s musical world with the artists who’d become his benchmarks.

“He was giving me Steve Earl records and Traveling Wilbury[s] records and Rodney Crowell records and just, I mean, on and on and on,” Parker recalls. “He’s the one who showed me who The Band is, Exile on Main Street by the [Rolling] Stones. I mean, he was giving all those records when I was a young kid. Robert Earl Keen, James McMurtry, Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, on and on and on.”

Tyler also instilled a musical work ethic in his little brother.

“He was really, really hard on me about the integrity of songwriting at a very young age, and I really identified with that,” Parker says. “I really connected to that when I was a kid. And so nobody’s really taught me as much about songwriting and music as a whole as my older brother.”

Fresh off his third sold-out show at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Parker plays the Iowa State Fair and the Crossroads 41 Festival Friday and Saturday.