https://fervorcoulee.wordpress.com/page/1/

When I reflect on the joys writing about roots music bring me, I can itemize many elements that inject pleasure in my life. Among them, and perhaps in the Top 3, is that in writing about music in the way I do—off the mainstream grid, without the day-to-day constrictions more widely read writers must traverse—I am exposed to musicians doing their thing within similar circumstances. 

In this way and over the last two decades I have been exposed to ‘local heroes’ I…

https://cashboxmusicreviews.wordpress.com/2018/05/10/hard-to-love-cd-by-joyann-parker/

Joyann Parker has the look of a blues singer who would thrive in a smoky lounge late at night. Looks can be deceiving as her voice has a soulful quality that fuses the two styles together. She brings that duality to her new album titled Hard To Love. 

Parker keeps it fairly simple and her approach is more emotional than flashy. She is backed by a basic foursome of guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums with some horns on…

https://www.bluesmagazine.nl/recensie-joyann-parker-hard-to-love/

Sometimes a career is completely different than you expected. Take that of singer Joyann Parker from Minneapolis. She is a classically trained pianist, but after her ears came into contact with the soul sounds of the famous Stax label and later also added blues, she decided to invest in a career as a soul singer. And I dare to be cheeky to predict that we are dealing with a future big star here. In terms of sound I hear the rawness of a…

http://www.bluenight.com/BluesBytes/wn0418.html

The name Joyann Parker was a new one to me when her newest CD, Hard To Love (Hopeless Romantics Records) arrived in my mailbox. The quality of music on this disc sent me scurrying to Ms. Parker'swebsite to find out where she's from (the Twin Cities) and whether she's recorded before (yes, she has a previous CD called On The Rocks). She's a powerful sassy, soulful singer who also plays guitar, piano and trumpet, and wrote all 13 of the songs on Hard To Love. 

https://www.pasadenaweekly.com/2018/04/12/trax-04-12-18/

Blasting forth defiantly (“You say you’re gonna change/ But I ain’t staying to find out”) with the throbbing “Memphis,” the Minnesota blueswoman throws down a gauntlet and sets a high bar of expectations that the rest of this 13-track album generally meets. It showcases her as a singing, songwriting (with guitarist Mark Lamoine), guitar-playing, self-producing, self-aware powerhouse, but the driving force is unquestionably her voice — a formidable…

http://michaelsmusiclog.blogspot.com/2018/04/joyann-parker-hard-to-love-2018-cd.html

If you want music with a whole lot of soul and passion, music that can move your heart one moment, then move your feet the next, check out the new release from Joyann Parker, Hard To Love. The album features all original material, written by Joyann Parker and Mark Lamoine. The songwriting is strong, with lots of good, memorable lines, like “You go to sleep in the driver’s seat, but you wake up in the trunk” in “Bluer…

https://www.tahoeonstage.com/genres/blues/joyann-paker-hard-to-love/

People say the blues are “Hard to Love,” but Joyann Parker proves them wrong with her eloquent new album with the same title. 

“I’ve been performing for some younger crowds,” Parker said. “They say they don’t like blues. People in general say that. I tell them, ‘I think you do.’ And after I perform something for them, they say, ‘Oh. I love that song.’ I say, ‘That’s blues.’ Every kind of music they like comes from blues. The music in a…

Joyann Parker 

Hard to Love 

Album Reviews 

 | April 12th, 2018 

Artist:     Joyann Parker 

Album:     Hard to Love 

Label:     Hopeless Romantics 

Release Date:     4.13.2018 

There’s some serious singing and musicianship afoot here. Minneapolis-based Joyann Parker is a classically trained pianist with a degree in music from the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse. She sang in church and in wedding bands before she was struck with the blues-soul muse. It happened serendipitously as she was…

http://nodepression.com/album-review/new-love-explored

This rather youngish sounding singer, with the well worn voice leads you to think she grew up singing the blues or was listening to them all her life; this is not the case at all.  In fact she is a classically trained pianist who didn’t know anything about the blues until about 4 or 5 years ago when she and the blues met up and seemed to greet each other as long lost old friends.  She seems to take a bit of a journey with the music, and there are stops…

http://chickenwilson2.blogspot.com/

Joyann Parker 

Hard To Love 

Hopeless Romantics Records HRR1001 

I found this one difficult to review, not because it was lacking in the least, but quite the opposite.  I went back and looked over my previous review and listened again to the last album.  If anything, Joyann Parker has raised the bar.  An incredible "package deal", she is a powerful vocalist, an accomplished musician on both guitar and piano, and the writer of songs that hold up over time.  She is also…

http://www.thealternateroot.com/reviewarchives/joyann-parker

Joyann Parker (from the album Hard to Love) 
Blue Jazz backs the vocals of Joyann Parker as she strips songs down to their Soul on her recent release, Hard to Love. Her voice wanders in what-if’s on piano rambles and a sturdy upright bass as Hard to Love plays old school honky tonk rock’n’roll to check its look in the mirror asking “What Happened to Me”, and matches the groove with the thick flow of the Mississippi as the river and the story move…

https://www.makingascene.org/joyann-parker-hard-to-love/

Joyann Parker 

Hard To Love 

Hopeless Romantics Records 

The classically trained pianist Joyann Parker has a degree in music from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Parker had previously sang in church and with a wedding band but only discovered the blues four years ago. After singing Aretha Franklin’s soul classic “Chain of Fools” Parker received an invitation to join a Minneapolis based blues band. In 2015 Joyann Parker and Sweet Tea…

https://donandsherylsbluesblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/joyann-parker-review-april-9-2018/#respond

JOYANN PARKER 

HARD TO LOVE 

HOPELESS ROMANTIC  HRR 1001 

MEMPHIS–ENVY–HOME–DIZZY–JIGSAW HEART–WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY–BLUER THAN YOU–RAY–EVIL HEARTED–TAKE MY HEART AND RUN–YOUR MAMA–WHAT HAPPENED TO ME–HARD TO LOVE 

It’s hard to believe, when you listen to Joyann Parker sing, that she’d never thought about singing the blues until about four years ago.  She sang Aretha’s “Chain Of Fools” in a contest, and…

https://fervorcoulee.wordpress.com/2018/04/29/joyann-parker-hard-to-love-review/

When I reflect on the joys writing about roots music bring me, I can itemize many elements that inject pleasure in my life. Among them, and perhaps in the Top 3, is that in writing about music in the way I do—off the mainstream grid, without the day-to-day constrictions more widely read writers must traverse—I am exposed to musicians doing their thing within similar circumstances. 

In this way and over the last two decades I…

This midlife newcomer is the next great Twin Cities blues singer 

Joyann Parker is the new Twin Cities singer you need to hear. 

By Jon Bream Star Tribune 

APRIL 13, 2018 — 9:50AM 

Joyann Parker is the best Twin Cities female singer you’ve never heard. 

Imagine a sober Janis Joplin. And that’s a good thing. Imagine a taller Shemekia Copeland without the my-dad-was-a-blues-star pedigree. And that’s a really good thing. 

There’s pain in Parker’s heart — and in just about every song she writes and sings…