In Facebook and Twitter posts Monday, pop and rock legend Elton John praised Oklahoma singer-songwriter Parker Millsap and Texas singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz by saying the duo had “restored my faith in music.”
The post came the morning after Millsap and Jarosz had played at Variety Playhouse.
Variety Playhouse is a combination theater and nightclub that sits blocks from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the Carter Center in Atlanta.
Sir Elton wrote:
Last night in Atlanta I saw one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Parker Millsap and Sarah Jarosz. Both were astonishingly good. And their respective musicians too.
It restored my faith in music. Bravo to you both.
Parker Millsap receiving national praise
Millsap, who hails from Purcell, Oklahoma, appeared on Conan O’Brien in July promoting his latest album, The Very Last Day. The performance of the album’s title track drew national acclaim.
Tour with Sarah Jarosz
The Sunday performance where Elton John apparently saw Millsap and Jarosz marked the end of an eight-stop tour for the Oklahoma-Texas pair. Each remains on tour through the fall, according to their websites, with Jarosz spending November in the U.K. John is also on tour himself.
Monday’s Facebook post from the knighted British pianist would seem to be the sort of marketing boon that agents and artists dream of.
To hear Jarosz’s powerful voice, watch this performance of a song called House of Mercy:
‘A guilty conscience’
The praise of having “restored” Elton John’s faith in music is certainly a notch on the belt of the 20-something musicians, but Millsap has been deflecting questions about his youthful wisdom for years already.
He noted in a 2014 interview with NashvilleScene.com that he was raised Pentecostal, which he said can be stressful since he had/has “a guilty conscience”:
People ask me questions like, ‘How did you get this way?’ I don’t know. I’ve just been here for as long as I have, doing what I’m doing. … I’m not that calculated. I didn’t set out trying to be, like, an old soul or anything.
Millsap’s latest record can be found here, and Jarosz’s can be found here.
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