BLUE JEAN BABY
Just before Christmas 2005, Mike's youngest
daughter, Amanda, (16 at the time) submitted
her Christmas wish list with a very unusal gift
request. Of course there were normal teeange
girl items listed on the sheet but one of the
Christmas wishes was for her dad to write a song
for her. She had asked before but never on a wish list so Mike decided to sit down and get this done.
Anyone who is familiar with Amanda knows that she is vivacious and full of 
life, always smiling and making friends, so this song had to be somethingupbeat, something sort of tough and sassy, something that made people feel good and would leave them smiling too.
So Mike grabbed his old Fender electric and worked out the chords as the lyrics came to him. Every line was approved by Amanda before it ever went on paper. And in a couple of hours, "Blue Jean Baby" was born.
It would still be another 8 months before the demo track was recorded but that was okay with her because she knew the song was written and she knew it was all hers. When "Blue Jean Baby" was finally done, well, it was indeed found to be a country / southern rocker with smokin' guitars including some very phenominal slide work by Sammy Hundley. Mike wanted the song to have a modern jitterbug tone accompanied by the sound of a 1950's Elvis & Jerry Lee slapback on the mic. The results far exceeded Mike's expectations . . . but not Amanda's. She seemed to always know that "Blue Jean Baby" would crank itself out just the way it did. It was a Christmas gift from a dad to a daughter and it turned out to be both timeless and priceless.
SUNNY DAY
Just a real good feel good song. The Everly & Righteous
Brothers meet the Allman Brothers in a Mike Parrish tune.
"Sunny Day" brings back some of the feelings that we
used to feel when listening to some of the bands of the
1950's and 1960's era. It's clean and wholesome but you can
still hear a clear and distinct southern rock / Texas country sound.
This song was a load of fun to record and often had Mike &
Sammy in stitches especially when Mike dreamed up the
"oo wah hoo" line. Mike recorded that particular part of the
vocals alone and when he was done he played it for the
family thinking they'd quickly tell him that the "oo wah hoo"
line would have to go. But they didn't. A few days later,
Mike played the song for Sammy and as soon as Sammy
heard the "oo wah hoo" he turned to Mike and said, "NO!"
Well, Mike just laughed because Sammy's reaction to
the line was just hilarious and, of course, it didn't
matter to Mike if the "oo wah hoo" line stayed or got
cut. A week later, Sammy was burning all the tracks to
a DVD, getting them ready for Kyle Smith who would be
doing the mixing and mastering, when Mike noticed that the
"oo wah hoo" line was still a part of the "Sunny Day" vocals.
When Mike asked Sammy about that, well, Sammy just
smiled and said that he wanted to let Kyle hear it and see what
he thought about it. Sammy told Mike that he felt that the "oo wah hoo" line kinda grew on you and he'd hate to see it cut until they could at least hear it mixed correctly.
As it turns out, the "oo wah hoo" line became a permanent fixture in the
tune with the band flipping quarters on who was gonna have to perform it!
So "Sunny Day" retained the fun factor with swimmin' holes and the Dairy Queen too. Mike hopes you enjoy listening to the tune as much as he enjoyed recording it. This song is sure to leave you with a sort of happy-go-lucky feeling inside!
