Spotlight: Graham Parker

Come to South by Southwest, play to a room packed silly with A&R types, Rock. Get assaulted with business cards after the show, be knee deep in hookers and blow within six months. Live the dream, right? That's the point of SXSW.

"I see no benefit in it at all," counters Graham Parker. "For me a gig is a gig is a gig. That's all it is for somebody of my standing who has been around this long."

Well, maybe it's a little different for Parker. 1979's Squeezing Out Sparks is the three-hundred-something most important album ever, according to Rolling Stone. It's also older than, oh, half of this year's SXSW participants. Since then he's done some 15 albums of varying critical and commercial appeal, leading up to this year's Don't Tell Columbus on Bloodshot Records.

"I've had all those breaks," says the Englishman. "So I have no idea what's around the corner. This record, I think, anybody who is honest who hears it who knows about rock & roll will say it's the best thing they've heard this year. But very few are going to say that because perception is more powerful than reality.

"Somebody who's been around as long as me can't possibly make a record that's going to be better than anything else they hear this year. And nobody can make a masterpiece when they are over 30 in rock music. It's impossible. But it's as good as anything I've done.

"I don't want to come across as, 'Graham Parker is a crotchety old man,'" he swears. "I just tell the truth."