In an interview last year, Bob Geldof suggested that the impact of punk had not been entirely a good thing. “It swept away people like Graham Parker, which was a shame because I thought he was fucking great,” he said. Yet despite not having had a hit since 1980, Parker has continued to craft potent songs and make highly listenable albums ever since. Now a New York resident, on Your Country he’s lost the anger of old and instead made an album of mellow country romps and contented roots-tinged rock that in feel is reminiscent of Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey period. Yet Parker has lost none of his lyrical sharpness on songs such as “The Rest Is History” and the home-thoughts-from-abroad of “Nation Of Shopkeepers”.
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