by Danny Coleman
originally published on Rock On! This Week’s Sound Bites…September 3, 2026 (NewJerseyStage.com)
“We’re a blues infused southern rock band out of Nashville, Tennessee,” began Parker Barrow drummer Dylan “Trigg”Turner as he discussed the band, their new album, a local Jersey Connection and their show this evening, September 3 at The Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck. “My wife and I started the band about eight years ago and over the last several years we’ve put together a solidified lineup of extremely talented awesome musicians who are some of our best friends and are family. We are blessed to be out here traveling the country and even internationally to do what we love with the people we love; man, it’s a real blessing and we’re super excited to be returning back to Teaneck and back to New Jersey. Our keyboard player, Eric Safka is actually from Asbury Park so it’s sort of a home market for us. Eric has been with us for about two years now and he is a madman on the organ (Laughs).”
There are chance meetings and there are meetings that appear to be nothing more than a smile or a head nod hello; no handshakes, hugs, just a simple acknowledgement that you are in the same room. So, how do two people from two different states (Alabama and Maryland), who were both involved in their church communities, happen to meet and form a band? Was it by chance or was it just, “In passing?”
“I moved to Nashville from Maryland in 2017, I grew up about 40 minutes south of D.C. in a town called La Plata,” he began to explain. “It’s sort of kind of funny how our story started. I had moved to Nashville, put a band together and was out on the road touring and had met Megan (Kane)in passing through a friend of a friend. We were out at a show and kind of just met in passing, kind of just exchanged hellos and it wasn’t even two days later that the singer in my band at the time quit and left me with less than 24 hours to figure out a plan “B” and hit the road and drive from Nashville to I think it was Delaware. So, I kind of remembered meeting this girl a couple of days before and I slid into her DMs on Instagram and begged her to come sing with my band for a weekend and here we are eight years later and married for three. I think, since we’ve known each other, we’ve spent maybe 10 days apart. We’ve done everything together, we live together, eat together, write together, work together, play together, the whole thing. So, it has been crazy and as she joined, that band kind of fell apart, for a little while we did the hired gun thing where we’d have a couple of guys come out with us on weekend runs or whatever and it wasn’t until around 2023 that we met our guitar player Alex Bender and where we started to build on the foundation and he’s been with us ever since. Eric joined almost two years ago and then over the last year-and-a-half or so we added our guitar player Will Tipton and our bass player Kyle Priber. So, it has sort of been a natural progression of things; we hadn’t put a lot of pressure on this and just kind of let things happen the way they are.”
After successfully releasing “Jukebox Gypsies,” they’ve followed it up with “Hold The Mash,” featuring their latest single, “Blinded” and are currently on the road bringing it to their fast growing fan base; interestingly enough, they’ve recorded their music in the south; as in South Jersey.
“We just released “Hold The Mash” on July 17 or just about a month ago and we actually recorded it just outside of Philly in Sicklerville, New Jersey. Our producer, Stephen McKnight has a studio there where we recorded our first record, “Jukebox Gypsies” and returned to do our second record and actually just got the contract yesterday to do our third which we will be doing at the same location.”
“Alex and I wrote this last record together,” he went on, “He writes a lot of the music and rifs and all of that and I write the lyrics and some of the melodies. Megan helps out and our producer helps out but the majority of it on this last record was myself and Alex; Megan and I wrote the first record together with some help from our producer as well. So, it’s very much a collaborative effort but I’d say me and Alex carry most of the weight when it comes to that.”
Not uncommon but also not talked about much is the fact that drummers are not always thought of as songwriters and lyricists; is this something Dylan has always done?
“I mean, it’s something that I’ve always been passionate about and it’s not something that I put a whole lot of pressure on; for me, I feel like the songs are sort of given to me, they almost feel like gifts. So, it’s not something I put a whole lot of pressure on, I try to be ready to capture the inspiration whenever it strikes and if I can do a good enough job at that to get something down on paper that Megan can sing and that will make somebody feel something, that’s all that matters to me. I didn’t get into writing songs for the accolades or to have my name written on something, it’s just something I love to do and I’m very thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to do it with some other very talented musicians and songwriters. I think, for the most part, that the music speaks for itself and as long as the ideas keep coming, I’m gonna keep trying to capture them (Laughs).”
After tonight’s show at Debonair Music Hall, the band heads to New York for two shows and then to Indiana; what can those heading to Debonair Music Hall expect?
“We usually do around a 90 minute set, 90 minutes to two hours and it’s just a high energy rock ‘n’ roll show; true blue, down to the bone rock ‘n’ roll. We do a lot of improvisation, a lot of off the cuff stuff, nothing is ever really set in stone, it’s a new show every night for us. We love what we do and we cherish every opportunity that we get to do it so just come ready to rock.”
When asked how long the current and subsequent tours will last, Dylan responded immediately and with a laugh.
“Forever if we’re lucky! We’ve been on the road since the beginning of May, our official Summer tour wrapped up at the end of August and then we start our Fall tour in September or beginning of October. That tour will run through December and then we’ll take some time off at the beginning of the year to record the record and then full steam ahead. I think we’re in Europe to start out in February, then another Florida run and anything else we can think of, we try to cover as much territory as we can.”
To keep tabs on Parker Barrow or purchase tickets to tonight’s show in Teaneck, please visit https://www.weareparkerbarrow.com/