Louisiana native singer-songwriters Clay Parker and Jodi James have joined forces and released their first EP as a duo after years of performing as solo acts.
Parker, originally from Thibodaux, can be characterized by his blues influence and finger-picked acoustic guitar. He met James, a Burnside native whose music blends folk, rock and soul, in 2009 when they were both performing as solo acts in Donaldsonville. In the past year, the pair has released its first EP and has completed four tours.
Parker and James will be performing Thursday at 7 p.m. at Varsity Theatre.
“We never had the intention of actually performing together,” Parker said. “But when we did get together to make demos it kind of clicked. We liked how we sounded together.”
The first songs Parker and James wrote together were written long-distance over email while James was working in Nashville. Without ever intending on doing so, they had a handful of songs written in a matter of days.
Parker said that the duo approaches songwriting a bit differently from the typical style. They don’t have a concrete topic for a song when they begin writing it. Instead, they begin with a catchy phrase and flesh out the song around it. A handful of the duo’s songs started out as phrases that Parker would write on old receipts.
“Clay has a lot of phrases scribbled on old pieces of paper that he keeps in his pocket,” James said. “One that’s on the record is the song ‘Meditation Blues.’ That started on a receipt.”
Parker and James’ self-titled debut was released in December 2015. The pair said their choice to stay independent of record labels was a decision to avoid situations that would put somebody else in charge of their music. Instead, they focus all of their energy on booking shows and performing wherever they can.
“Even in the social media age we still wholeheartedly believe in the timeless approach of traveling and playing your music for as many people as you can,” Parker said.
Their first EP was made possible by the work of Baton Rouge songwriters and producers Denton Hatcher, Paul Buller and Zachary Graesser.
Also performing Thursday night are longtime friends Adam Dale and Sean Bruce Dale, who used to play in the rock band The American Tragedy has put down his electric guitar in recent years and has been working on solo acoustic work. Bruce, who has played a handful of shows with Parker in the past, stands out for his modern folk sound.
“[Bruce] is a fantastic songwriter and a really dynamic performer,” Parker said. “I’d relate him to that new indie folk sound.”
James released her third solo album in April 2015 and Parker has plans to release a solo project later this year. They hope to release another project together in 2016, but their top priority at the moment is touring.

Clay Parker & Jodi James
WHEN: Thursday, January 14 at 7 p.m.
WHERE: The Varsity Theatre, 3353 Highland Rd.
TICKETS: $10

Gallery • 4 Photos

Haskell Whittington

Folk music artist Clay Parker & Jodi James at Highland Coffees soon to be performing at the Varsity on Highland on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2015, in Baton Rouge.