Parmalee, country veterans with consecutive No. 1 singles, are arriving 'right on time'

Perspective matters when contemplating Parmalee's consecutive No. 1 country radio hits with 2021's "Just The Way" and 2022's "Take My Name."

"This is the best time ever for us," says band guitarist Josh McSwain. It's a statement underpinned with an earnest grin that looks as weary as it must feel four hours into a media tour day accompanied by a No. 1 party in Broadcast Music Inc's (BMI) lobby.

A decade had elapsed since the band hit the top of the charts with "Carolina" in 2013. During that time, country music's been deluged by everything from a broader set of pop influences to a global pandemic. Being a rock quartet with pop and country influences -- which was once country's most "progressive" bread and butter route to success -- was suddenly very much mainstream and not entirely in favor at the top of the charts.

"We arrived in the mainstream in a whirlwind. Then, we got nervous and thought we needed to change things a bit too much. But for ["Just The Way" and "Take My Name"] we got back to speaking directly to [our female fans], which had worked for us before," says Parmalee's lead singer Matt Thomas.

"At our best, people get married to our biggest hits," says McSwain. Matt Thomas notes that military husbands and wives have grown attached to "Carolina," which sets a tone familiar to lives split by deployment with its opening lyrics "Home is where my heart is still beatin' / I don't know when I'll see her again / I hate to see her cry when I'm leavin' / Now I'm a thousand miles away again."

For the Blanco Brown duet "Just The Way," the group is "on cloud nine" about the ease of the process of creating musical synergy with the "Nobody's More Country" crooner. The song's message of "unconditional positivity and love" (I love you just the way God made you / Girl, he don't make mistakes / What you call your imperfections / I call beautiful, babe) spurred him to make the following prediction in a 2021 conversation:

"Just the Way,' it's going, number one. I feel it; when this record comes out, it's going number one.'"

For their most recent No. 1 hit, "Take My Name," Parmalee agrees that it's their biggest wedding song yet, because of how literal the song is about matrimony. Writing and performing songs that are a part of someone's forever life story is "no pressure," they joke.

After a decade, the group readily accepts that they now have a strong footprint in a creative lane: They're the group that excels at creating genuine songs that directly impact their fanbase's most personal, powerful emotions.

Matt Thomas continues that he "feels pretty d*** good" about the heights the band has achieved of late. "We're motivated to continue this trajectory," continued the band's bassist, Barry Knox. He highlights the band's in-studio production and live event presentation as directly benefiting from the group's increased acclaim.

"We tried a few different things that expanded past the path the 'Carolina' put us on," continued Knox. "It's everything from rediscovering the keys where my voice sits best," chimes in Thomas, highlighting that for the band's seventh album in two decades (their third for Stoney Creek Records), the group was finally able to sit down after a cyclical, arduous process between the road and the studio, and more molecularly contemplate what they needed to retain, plus what needed to evolve.

Thomas continuously mentions how the pandemic was an unexpected gift for a road-weary quartet unable to "turn off" after a seemingly perpetual set of touring cycles. "Our story is one where we've dug ourselves in and out of holes trying to make it," he adds.

As a related aside, the band discusses their formative years in Parmele, North Carolina. Alongside playing local gigs by listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn records, watching the then just-released comedic films "Friday" and "Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood," they occasionally took financially risky opportunities to head west to Nashville in attempts to achieve breakout success.

Charging credit cards with 36 percent annual percentage rates to their $5,000 limits and accruing over $50,000 in debt -- plus a $15,000 (now repaid) loan from Matt and Scott Thomas' mother -- was what the band calls "the gamble" they took on themselves in pursuit of mainstream success.

Quarantine allowed the band to redouble efforts in the studio and take several gradual developmental steps that their frenetic pace had denied them the opportunity to take.

"Success is a balance we had yet to achieve as a band, for sure. Radio gets you their ears, but touring keeps the people physically coming back to your show," says Matt Thomas. In regards to the previous point regarding country music's ever-expanding number of artists competing for the ears of an ever-expanding fanbase, he's keen to mention how that troubles achieving the balance that keys acclaim in the genre.

Related to this point, the band digs a bit deeper into how growing their business and marketing acumen over the years has aided their development. For example, understanding how to develop crowd demographics via a mix of live touring feedback and honestly assessing thoughts from focus group testing and constant conversations between booking agents, family members, management, and record label executives aided their development.

"All of these songs can't just be cool. Which ones do people really give a s*** about," states Thomas. "Compare this to baseball," says McSwain. "It's much more fun hitting home runs than just getting on base."

"We've kept our head down and worked hard," says Scott Thomas. "We have a better idea than ever of what exactly works best for Parmalee," says Matt Thomas. "From the outside looking in, we made a comeback. But we're arriving when we always wanted to -- right on time."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Parmalee's consecutive No. 1 singles are 'arriving right on time'