Canton recording artist Christian Parker has paid tribute to the Roger McGuinn side of The Byrds’ catalog with the release of a new LP on Friday, March 22.

With the release of the new LP Change is Now: A Tribute to the Byrds, Parker taps into the sounds that made him fall in love with music in the first place: the 12-string-strummed songs of The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn.

On his last release, Sweethearts, an all-encompassing tribute to The Byrds’ classic, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Parker wanted to prove his skills as an astute music student. 

On Change Is Now, Parker lets his band, including original Byrds session player Earl Poole Ball, stretch their legs and build the album around the individual styles everyone brings to the recording. 

“Everybody knows their spot, and that was a  theme that I picked up on, to let everybody have their moment. It’s the best way to let the music breathe, to hear the beauty of these songs,” said Parker. You can hear it on the breathtaking harmonies of “Here Without You” and the expertly picked guitar lines that carry “Ballad of Easy Rider.” 

Parker said it’s an homage to one of the great, overlooked bands of all time, but the miracle is how he honors the music while still asserting himself as a confident, thrilling songwriter.

“This ability to blend his voice with some of history’s great songwriters like Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Gram Parsons comes from his reverence and respect for the music,” he noted.

Fans can now stream or purchase Change Is Now at https://orcd.co/changeisnowalbum. For a deeper dive into Parker’s Byrds tribute, listen to Sweethearts athttps://orcd.co/cpepbsweethearts. For more information, please visit christianparker.com.

Change Is Now Tracklist:

Change is Now

She Don’t Care About Time

Here Without You

The World Turns All Around Her

I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better

Chimes of Freedom

Wild Mountain Thyme

Ballad of Easy Rider

Get To You

Time Between

Your Gentle Way of Loving Me

Full Circle

Bugler

Farther Along

The Last Thing On My Mind

Parker says he always wants to tell an unexpected story, illuminating the less traveled and overlooked paths. A seasoned musician, Parker has been making music since childhood, heading to the maple woods and singing “Mrs. Robinson.” He took his first guitar lesson the day after John Lennon was killed, an inauspicious beginning but one that served more as a metaphor for his perseverance than anything else. Christian learned to play “Rocky Racoon” that night.   

A few years later, he was introduced to Bob Dylan’s music, which gave him the songwriting bug in a way he’s never been able to quit. Parker wrote his first tune as a 16-year-old, and that song, “Reflections of Tomorrow,” became the title track to his first album, which he released when he was 17. Through the ‘90s, he played regionally, improving as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist. He co-wrote several songs with Peter Pendras, who played with country artist Gail Davies and was a staff writer for Bug Music in Nashville.

Before his latest tribute to the Byrds, Change is Now, Parker released six studio albums, each building on his eclectic style as a keen observer of our modern world. With Change is Now, he expands this scope even further, imbuing one of music’s great catalogs with his one-of-a-kind voice.