Plenty of listeners likely did a double take when Parker McCollum’s new single premiered on radio stations and streaming playlists on Sept. 13.
It was McCollum’s voice all right, but the Dylan-style harmonica, rough cut Flying Burrito Brothers arrangement and Hawaiian steel-like slide guitar challenge all the norms of modern commercial country. Even for McCollum, who openly tries to live at the margins of mainstream country, “What Kinda Man” is boldly different.
“I’m a little nervous about this song,” he confesses. “I think it’s going to stick out on country radio like a sore thumb.”
Standing out from the crowd is, of course, an asset for recording artists, even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable. Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton all earned their place in the genre’s strata by owning a unique sonic personality. McCollum, clearly aware that there are no guarantees about the length of a recording career, seems intent on enhancing his public identity while he has the opportunity.
“I’ve only got two records left on my first-ever record deal, and I just didn’t want to go put out a record that sounded like the last two,” he says.“I always wanted to be John Mayer and George Strait, you know, and their records are sonically perfect. And I kind of came to the realization over the last year [that] maybe that’s just not me.”
“What Kinda Man” is decidedly McCollum. He started writing it at home alone several years ago after turkey hunting in Kansas, “banging around on my guitar trying to find a melody” and free styling phrases. He landed on an apologetic line about pulling an all-nighter — “which,” he says, “I used to do all of the time” — and he played it forward from there, each melodic line and lyrical phrase arriving sequentially. The verse segued seamlessly into the chorus, and he worked his way to the payoff phrase: “Forget the man I am/What kinda man do you need?”
He knew that hook was worth pursuing, so he saved it for another day. That day arrived on April 26, 2022, when songwriters Natalie Hemby (“Heartache Medication,” “Pontoon”) and Jeremy Spillman (“Hell on the Heart,”“Arlington”) arrived at his house to work on songs. He played the verse and chorus of “What Kinda Man,” and it was already so far down the road, his cowriters felt strongly that they should try to finish it.
“Parker just gifted this to us like our Christmas presents,” Hemby says. “So very grateful to him. Maybe we changed a couple of lines, but that was about it on the first verse and chorus. He came in with a mapped-out idea.”
Like McCollum, they recognized the hook — “Forget the man I am/What kinda man do you need?” — was strong. “I just don’t know what girl across the universe doesn’t want to hear that,” Hemby deadpans, “because we love to change people.”
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