Parker McCollum has been working on new music in the studio and is now teasing it to fans during his shows. Earlier this year, McCollum noted that he was working on his fifth album, which he felt was some of his best work since the release of Limestone Kid.
Given these updates were in April, fans keep their fingers and toes crossed that an album announcement is coming. However, I would not be surprised if McCollum holds off a little longer to enjoy settling into his newest role as Dad.
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But while he is out on the road, he is dropping some Easter eggs of new music, teasing fans what is in store for the new record. Earlier this summer, he debuted a new one called “Big Fancy House” in front of his largest audience yet at Kyle Field. The heartbreaking song details the loneliness felt in a home after the end of a relationship. While the narrator is trying to move on, he is constantly reminded of the love once shared in every room of the home, leaving him feeling alone and heartbroken in his “Big Fancy House.”
Fans loved it from the start, and on the Red Rocks stage, he sang another unreleased track that I think fans will react to similarly. While hearing any unreleased track on stage is exciting, this one came with some news that makes this performance even better – McCollum shared it’s being released next month. Before diving into the new ditty titled “What Kind Of Man,” McCollum told the crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheater that he plans to release it sometime in September.
Parker has been sharing snippets of this song since the start of 2024, so fans who follow him avidly on social media were in the crowd singing along to almost every word of the song. The song details a wild man who finds it hard to settle down. While he loves being on this wild streak, he meets a girl who makes him want to give all of that up, and he is willing to change his ways to be the man who meets her needs.
While he has not explicitly said this song is about his personal life, it feels like inspiration is drawn from it. When he met his wife, McCollum was hanging out with Koe and living it up on the Texas red dirt scene. Perhaps when McCollum met Hallie Ray, he decided he needed to clean up his act because he would not lose this girl.
“There ain’t no woman who could settle me down
Wilder than a bat out of hell
Off the rails and blazing through town
Then you walk in, floating on air
And you look across the room at me
Forget the man I am
What kind of man do you need?”
I know I have been waiting for this one to come to us for a long time, and fans are thrilled to get this one as the first single from this next chapter of McCollum’s career.