Today we’d like to introduce you to Parker Hawkins.
Hi Parker, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up in Nashville, music was all around me. As a child, I had friends whose parents were songwriters, musicians, and producers working in the music industry. My dad played bass, trumpet, and banjo in his younger days, so we always had instruments in the house growing up. As a teenager, I become interested in playing music and had other friends who were starting to play too, so we formed bands and played at local events, house parties, and anywhere else anyone would allow us to play. But I think we had an important advantage of growing up in Nashville: we were alway surrounded by high-quality professional musicians. Even the guys playing in the dive bar on the corner by my house on the weekends were A-list session players on Music Row during the week, so the standard was set very high for anyone who was bold enough to claim the moniker of “musician”.
Seeing that level of professionalism all around me gave me an early understanding of how prepare for a gig, how to play with a band, and the level of musicianship that was expected as a baseline anywhere in Nashville. I took that foundation to the University of Richmond, where I studied every kind of music I could, from jazz and classical to bluegrass and sample-based digital composition. Having a stronger foundation in music theory and a broader understanding of various musical styles, I returned to Nashville and started picking up gigs right away. I cut my teeth playing country in the Broadway honky tonks, fusion jazz in various clubs around town, touring the country with singer/songwriters, and picking up session work on both upright and electric bass.
The collaborative aspect of music has always been where I found the most joy, but when covid hit and all of the gigs evaporated in the space of a few days in March 2020, I found myself in unfamiliar territory. Without the ability to play music with my friends and bandmates, I had to find other outlets to fill the void where my robust musical schedule had once been. I began learning to play and sing some of my favorite songs to fill the silence, which inevitably lead to writing my own songs. I also took an online class from Berklee School of Music on recording and mixing to hone my abilities as a recording engineer. This opened up a whole new world for me. I had always been a multi-instrumentalist, but now the ability to record and mix at my own home studio allowed me to compose full arrangements that I heard in my head all by myself.
I released my first solo album “Flyin Solo” under the name Nighthawk (a play on words using my initials and last name– P. M. Hawkins) in 2022, with the help of great friends and musical collaborators Chris Tench, Dave Coleman, and many other top-quality Nashville musicians. The project was a genre-bending exploration of all of my musical influences, reaching out to every root of the vast Americana musical tree. I also used the opportunity to explore other artistic outlets by painting the album artwork for the project. I was a talented visual artist as a child, but largely abandoned those pursuits in favor of music in my adolescence. My own album cover was the perfect canvas to reinvigorate my love for visual art, and I found that designing, drawing, and painting the artwork compounded my creative abilities rather than detracting from my musical creativity.
My second album, “Street Dog” was released in 2025 and pays tribute to my late dog Jaco (aka Jockomo) who died of cancer just after my first album release. Musically, the album dives deeper into my New Orleans roots, where my mom’s family is from, a city whose culture, food, and music were deeply formative to me as I grew up going down to visit family during the summers and holidays.
I continue to write and produce my own music, but I have also been busy over the last few years touring with blues dynamo Piper & The Hard Times, a Nashville-based blues/rock band that has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the blues world after winning the International Blues Challenge in 2024 and then the Blues Music Awards’ Best Emerging Artist in 2025.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t know that there is such a thing as a “smooth road” in the music business, and I don’t think you find great music on smooth roads. I have spent my years as a “starving artist”, sleeping on floors and couches on the road, pawning my gear to pay rent, wondering if it was all a huge mistake. I have been in amazing bands with great songs and world class players for decades, but only started enjoying commercial success in recent years. Being a professional musician is always a labor of love, with lots of bumps along the road. I think all of those experiences have given me a greater appreciation for where I am now, and I wouldn’t change any of it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a session musician, I am known for being prepared, coming up with parts quickly that serve the song, and nailing them as many times as I need to until the band gets the perfect take.
As a band member, I think my greatest strength is my desire to make my other bandmates sound their best, which means being a good listener, not overplaying, and following the energy wherever it leads the music.
As a songwriter/bandleader, I think my background as a session player gives me the ability to articulate my vision to the other players and engineer allows everyone involved to be collaborative, creative, and efficient with their time and energy.
How do you think about luck?
Any honest musician will tell you that luck is an important part of success. Of course, you have to practice, be prepared, work well with others, etc. but then you also have to be at the right place at the right time.
In 2022, I had just released my first album. I was enjoying my foray into being a bandleader for the first time in my life, but I quickly realized that all of my hard work in promoting my own project was also detracting from my ability to pick up work as a sideman. People stop calling you to play on their music when they keep seeing you singing your own songs all over the internet! Then one day, my long-time friend and Nighthawk drummer Dave Colella called me up and told me that the bass player in his other project, Piper & The Hard Times, had fallen ill and wasn’t able to do the long, late night gigs and travel anymore and asked if I would be interested. When he sent me the material, I quickly realized I had been training my whole life for this gig. I enthusiastically accepted the offer, and I have been with them ever since!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nighthawk615band.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighthawk615_official/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parker.hawkins.509
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nighthawk615band
