Time flies.
It’s no secret that Parker McCollum has quickly become a household name in the country music scene, and it’s been awesome to watch the journey along the way.
Starting off playing in bars in front of basically nobody, to garnering a rabid fanbase in the state of Texas, and then signing a major label record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville in 2021, his career has truly taken off.
However, we have to go back to the album that officially put McCollum on the map…
His debut album The Limestone Kid, which dropped on this date back in 2015.
“The LimeStone Kid came out 8 years ago today! What a ride it’s been! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving that album and what I do!”
I’ll admit, there isn’t a single bad song on this project. Of course, it’s not as polished as his 2017 Probably Wrong and 2021 Gold Chain Cowboy albums, but there’s such a uniqueness to each and every song on The Limestone Kid that always keeps me coming back.
You have your major hit, “Meet You in the Middle,” which is probably the first song many OG McCollum fans listened to, but from top to bottom, each song tells a different story from Texan’s own personal life experiences.
From the upbeat boot stompers like “Lucy,” to “Prohibition Rose” about a female bootlegger who sells moonshine to everybody in town, heartbreakers like “Galveston Bay,” and the hilarious story about getting ditched in Louisiana in the song “New Orleans,” it may be McCollum’s most versatile album to date.
Hard to believe it’s been eight years.
And ya gotta love this grainy homemade music video for “Meet You in the Middle” as well. Talk about humble beginnings:
Parker McCollum Explains The “The Limestone Kid” Nickname
it’s always interesting going back and finding old interviews and performances of these now incredibly popular artists, back when they were fresh onto the scene, having no idea what was to come in their music careers.
After going down a couple rabbit holes, I found this gem of a Cluttered Corner Interview from Texas Music Chart with McCollum from back in 2015, when he was fresh off his debut album, The Limestone Kid.
Throughout the interview, he talks about growing up in Conroe, Texas, his music influences like John Mayer, to life on the road and how he got his start.
However, there was one particular section of the interview about how he got the nickname “The Limestone Kid,” and where it came from.
I’ve often wondered that, as I’ve seen numerous people reference him as that, it’s the name of his debut album, and he even refers to himself as The Limestone Kid in his song “All Day.”
He explained:
“In the summer times, I grew up in Conroe, but in the summer me and my cousins would work on my grandfather’s ranch in Limestone County, which is just outside of Waco… It doesn’t really have anything to do with actual limestones.
We would work out there all summer long, and that’s when we were listening to all the guys who kinda influenced us playing music.
I was also obsessed with ‘The Houston Kid’ by Rodney Crowell, and I was really fascinated with Billy The Kid, so I kinda took my interest in that and put my own spin in it.”
So there ya have it, “The Limestone Kid” comes from Limestone County, Texas, the place that played a huge part in McCollum’s writing inspirations.
Check out the full interview here:
