PARKER BARROW // Georgia Nevada // The Treehouse // Frome

Parker Barrow // Georgia Nevada // The Treehouse // Frome

The collective smile on the faces of the six members of Parker Barrow as they made their way from the dressing room at the rear of The Treehouse to the stage just about said it all. A UK tour starting on the same day as the release of their second album Hold The Mash, and a sold-out show at that; could things get any better?

The evening started with a short burst from singer and occasional acoustic guitarist Georgia Nevada. Aided by guitarist and bass drum kicker Edd Robinson, the duo played a warm and engaging 30-minute set, and you can’t help thinking that this is pretty much how When Rivers Meet started out. And look where they are now.

Georgia Nevada

John Tucker July 2026

Photography: Emma Painter

Pacific Curd Photography

The night, however, was always going to belong to Nashville’s Parker Barrow. With a bristling new album of blues-infused Southern rock ’n’ roll to showcase it’s no surprise that Hold the Mash was going to feature heavily and, although four of the songs had appeared on the EP of the same name last year, by my reckoning the whole album got an airing, aside from ‘Glass Eyes’. The triple blast of …Mash newbies ‘Nothin’ Left To Save’, ‘Blinded’ and ‘Novocaine’ kicked things off, with the pumped-up musicians giving it all they’d got and singer Megan Kane skipping around the stage with the energy of 1,000 Duracell bunnies. A real live wire, aside from a short, seated spell, Kane didn’t stop moving the whole night, while guitarists Alex Bender – often hunched over his Les Paul – and Will Tipton traded licks with apparent ease. It’s unfortunate that keyboard player Eric Safka was often lost in the mix, although his showcase during an extended ‘Count Your Dollars’ workout towards the end of the set showed what he was made of.

If there was a downside, the sound deteriorated badly and that extended instrumental work-out around ‘Count Your Dollars’ was perhaps too long. The endless soloing certainly illustrated the instrumentalists’ individual talents, but the duration of the extemporisation was questionable and the hoary question ‘does any set ever really need a drum solo?’ sprang to mind. “I’d rather have heard more songs,” opined one punter on the way out. Still, the band bounced back with the short, sharp blast that is ‘Peace, Love, Rock N’ Rollin’’ and eschewing the usual offstage/onstage encore routine – Kane pointed out that it was just too problematic walking back through the crowd to the dressing room and then coming back through the crowd again to reach the stage once more – Parker Barrow blasted through ‘Make It’ to send the punters home happy. The band are back in the UK in November / December and you’d be wise not to miss them.    

John Tucker July 2026

Photography: Emma Painter

Pacific Curd Photography