You want Alan Good Parker in the room.

Case in point: On the November evening that followed our phone interview for this article, the Richmond-raised guitarist and member of Lucy Dacus’ touring band helped her open for pop star Billie Eilish in the arena where the Phoenix Suns play their home games. In one video clip, taken during the most raucous section of “Night Shift,” Parker is chased by a spotlight as he crosses the massive stage while voicing a climactic lead guitar line before kneeling to wring every ounce of emotion out of the song’s potent catharsis. In a calmer clip, Dacus tenderly intones lyrics to “Christine” from the front of the stage while Parker sits cross-legged behind her, nodding along — a literal manifestation of the fact that some of the most influential modern-day recording artists are seeking Parker’s backing.

Parker wants to be in the room, too. With that goal in mind, at the start of 2025, the Virginia Commonwealth University jazz product and staple of the scene surrounding Spacebomb Studios moved to Los Angeles with his partner, Jenn Wasner, of Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes and Bon Iver. It’s been an eventful 12 months; Parker and Wasner landed in L.A. just ahead of the January 2025 wildfires, which forced the couple to evacuate just after moving in. Parker then joined Dacus — also a Richmond expat — on stages all over the world, appearing on national television, at massive festivals and alongside legendary guest collaborators.

There was “Ankles” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “Best Guess” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Bullseye” inside the National Gallery of Ireland with a vocal assist from Hozier. “Bullseye” again alongside Rufus Wainwright, and more recently, a cover of the Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love” alongside Chappell Roan.

His appearances on albums released in 2025 were just as stellar. He contributed to records that rank among the most critically acclaimed from last year, including “Sable, Fable” by experimental folk icon Bon Iver and “Baby” by Dijon, who is quickly becoming a Bon Iver-style guiding light both within and outside the world of alternative R&B.

Parker is approaching this exceptional run of change, growth and high-stakes gigging with characteristic humor and humility. “I essentially feel like a chopped uncle from Richmond, Virginia that plays guitar,” he says. “But when I can show up and offer that energy to someone, I try to, and it seems to be appreciated.”

Strumming westward

There was a moment when opportunities to show up in that way were scant enough that Parker began questioning whether he could afford to pursue a music career full time. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the combination of creative fulfillment, session work at Spacebomb, affordable cost of living and nearby family made Richmond an ideal home. “It can be a hard place to leave,” he says. “If you’re interested in doing music at a high level in a comfortable place that’s relatively cheap, why would you ever leave?”

But the years following the pandemic introduced acute financial uncertainty, as session bookings became less frequent and the cost of touring became unsustainable for many artists. “The middle section of the music industry felt like it tanked for me,” he says. It got to the point where Parker was taking stock of his non-musical skill set and looking for other types of work. “Either move to like an industry town like L.A. and give it a shot, or just do music as a hobby and figure out how to make a living doing something else,” he remembers thinking. “That was the calculation.”

He wasn’t the only Richmonder looking westward around that time. Shortly after the pandemic, Adrian Olsen and Alexandra Spalding of Montrose Recording picked up stakes and traded the spacious suburban Richmond location of their studio, Montrose Recording, for a view of the San Gabriel Mountains. Parker, who counts Olsen and Spalding among his closest friends, visited Montrose’s new digs in March 2023, spending 10 days in a city he’d previously only swung through while touring or shooting the odd TV spot.

Like many East Coasters, Parker grew up hearing about stereotypical L.A. downsides like traffic and sprawl. But his extended stay was eye-opening. “It was one of the short periods of my life where I was trying to journal,” Parker says. “And I remember, during that trip, I wrote an entry that was like, ‘If it was possible, I would move here today.’”

Moving at that very moment might have made for an easier settling-in process. As chance would have it, Parker’s move coincided with January’s Southern California wildfires; he and Jenn Wasner were forced to evacuate immediately after moving in and wondered whether the move would stick.

“I remember there was discussion about not sticking around,” Wasner says. “It was a really intense time. No one really knew what was going on. There was all kinds of information and misinformation flying around, and just panic. Is the air safe? Is the water safe?”

Fortunately, their home in the northern part of Pasadena withstood the devastating event, though a deep clean was needed to reverse the effects of the smoke.

“It was a wild time to start out there for sure,” Parker affirms.

New musical horizons

In truth, it could be said that Parker’s process of getting settled in is still ongoing. Given his globe-trekking gig with Lucy Dacus, he hadn’t been home in L.A. for more than three weeks straight when we spoke. Wasner’s Flock of Dimes project has also kept him busy with tour dates and studio sessions, including the ones that yielded the intensely beautiful, emotionally incisive 2025 album, “The Life You Save.”

Parker’s contributions to that album went far beyond the guitar he’s often asked to add to tracks. Over the past two decades, he’s answered the call on stage and in the studio for a slew of local and regional jazz standouts, including pianist Justin Kauflin; drummers Billy Williams Jr., Scott Clark and Brian Jones; and Butcher Brown multi-instrumentalist Tennishu. With his deep skill set and preternatural fretboard fluidity, he’s made his mark outside of jazz, as well. He’s released stylistically ranging singles and albums of his own and collaborated with his brothers, Jonathan and Wes.

For some, Parker is best known as a vital component of the signature sound emanating from Spacebomb Studios. His guitar work met — and often made — the kinetic energy that defined Matthew E. White’s maximalist masterstroke from 2021, “K Bay.” He’s been a constant on singer-songwriter Andy Jenkins’ recorded output, and Parker helped animate the airtight groove of Natalie Prass’ critically acclaimed sophomore album from 2018, “The Future and the Past,” both in the studio and on the tour that supported it.

Yet “The Life You Save” afforded Parker the opportunity to branch out beyond the guitar. The album’s liner notes credit him with various guitars — acoustic, electric, tenor, pedal and lap steel — as well as electric bass, mandolin and even cello. The latter acts as a uniquely striking companion during the closing track, “I Think I’m God.” Parker played the instrument on his lap as if it were a guitar, gliding bass notes up and down like friendly nods of encouragement propelling a set of lyrical reflections on addiction and accountability, the themes at the heart of “The Life You Save.”

Parker credits Wasner with helping him tap into the breadth of his own creativity. “She is such an incredible producer, songwriter, player, singer,” he says. “I think she recognized in me a skill set or artistry that was much bigger than just being a really good guitar player.”

“He’s such a well-rounded player, and he has such good ideas,” Wasner says. “Sometimes his ideas are even more interesting when you’re listening to him learn his way around an instrument in real time. We live in the same house now, so I get to hear that all the time, and it’s such a beautiful part of my existence.”

Wasner’s encouragement was especially critical along Parker’s journey from student to practitioner of the pedal steel. Parker picked up the notoriously complex instrument around the time of the pandemic after years of playing the lap steel. “She was the first person to let me play [pedal steel] in her band,” Parker says. “I had imposter syndrome, as most people will with that instrument, and always will, because it’s such a humbling instrument. And I remember her telling me, ‘You already have enough [of a] skill set on the instrument to make an artistic statement.’”

A new partnership

Parker and Wasner met near the end of 2020 at Montrose Recording’s original location, where Wasner was producing an album for singer-songwriter Alycia Lang. Wasner, whose six-string work and signature Reverend guitar are well known to devotees of Bon Iver, was looking to outsource some solos. Adrian Olsen put in the call to a guitarist he said would show up for “$50 and a bagel,” as both Parker and Wasner remember it. His playing made an immediate impression.

“He’s brilliant,” she says. “I’ve worked with a lot of really incredible, brilliant people. I’ve been in a lot of crazy rooms with a lot of crazy talent, and I picked up on the fact that he is special pretty quick.”

Parker’s name immediately went in Wasner’s Rolodex. Shortly thereafter, while COVID-19 was keeping concert venues’ doors closed, Wasner enlisted Parker and an all-star cast of North Carolina-based collaborators when filming a set of performance videos at Betty’s, the studio outside Chapel Hill founded by Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso. More recently, Wasner has gravitated toward performing with Parker as a duo — touring in a Toyota Prius with small amps, playing living room shows in conjunction with an organization called Undertow — an appealing option at a time when the profitability of touring with a full band is less certain.

Wasner appreciates how Parker’s endlessly inventive accompaniment keeps things fresh, offsetting her tendency to tire of full-band arrangements after working diligently to dial them in. “He’s someone who has many years under his belt as an improviser and so the way that he comes at live performance is a lot more free,” she says. “He’s always bringing a new energy to each performance, which has made it possible to perform in that configuration many, many times without it starting to feel stale.”

A fateful trip to April Base

Parker brought that same inventiveness to bear when afforded the opportunity to collaborate with Dijon, another East Coast transplant based in L.A. Parker and Dijon — full name Dijon Duenas — met in late 2023 at April Base, the recording studio and creative retreat operated by Bon Iver founder Justin Vernon outside Eau Claire, Wisconsin. While tying up some “Sable, Fable” loose ends, Vernon invited Parker to add some pedal steel at the same time Duenas would be onsite, assisting with vocals while writing songs his own. Parker sensed the gravity of the moment. “I had not been in a room with artists of that level ever, and it was a really cool opportunity for me,” he says.

Parker was already a big fan of Dijon’s music and the players with which he’d surrounded himself. “That band he was working live was like one of the great Miles Davis quintets,” Parker says. “It was like fire and lightning in a bottle — only happens maybe once in a generation.”

The two hit it off and ended up collaborating spontaneously when Parker heard Dijon working through a progression of piano chords and stepped in to lend a hand. “It was so out of character for me, honestly, the way in which I sort of swooped in,” Parker says. “But my connection with the dude was so quick that he made me feel comfortable enough.”

As a lopsided drum loop ticked by via an OP–1 sequencer, Dijon started improvising vocals over Parker’s piano, making up words while asking around for suggestions as to what sort of character would be at the heart of the song’s narrative. Parker was up for improvising on that side as well. “I kept bringing in different articles of clothing, sunglasses and hats,” Parker remembers. “At some point, he was wearing this ridiculous, fluorescent, construction [jacket], like for road workers. It was just really fun. It was the closest thing to feeling like a kid, almost like we were just playing recording studio.”

Parker ended up adding acoustic guitar as well, and Wasner provided bass. The exuberant song that resulted, “Higher,” is a real-deal success; it became track three on an album that ended up near the top of many a critic’s best-of list in a stacked calendar year. Dijon even performed the song on “Saturday Night Live” in December. Being part of the genesis of “Higher” was “one of the wildest experiences of my musical career,” Parker says. Moving to the West Coast is one way he can position himself to have more experiences like it.

“Everybody wants a piece of [Dijon] right now, but he’s saying he wants me to be involved in his world, [so] I’m going to make it easier on him,” Parker remembers thinking. “I want to be a phone call away from this guy, in case he gets a wild hair, like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’”

Playing it by ear

It remains to be seen how long Parker and Wasner will remain on the West Coast. “Me and my partner Jenn are sort of thinking of it as a musical sabbatical,” Parker says. “We could be out there for two years, we could be out there for five, we could be out there for 10,” he says.

“I think we both have hope and sort of expect to return back east at some point,” Wasner confirms. “The decision to come out here has a lot more to do with trying to make the math make sense as two working musicians in 2025. It was certainly not a thing we took lightly… But it’s a great place full of great people, and I’m happy to be here and see what comes out of it.”

Fans of Parker’s playing won’t have to wait long to hear what comes out in 2026. While Minimum Wage Studios was still located in Richmond, Parker stopped by to join the newly minted partnership of North Carolinian organist Sam Fribush and Butcher Brown drummer Corey Fonville on a red-hot trio session. That album, titled “What Day Is It,” drops on Friday, Feb. 27 via WarHen Records. Parker also has collaborative project with Grammy-nominated drummer Nate Smith in the can, and if the Montrose Recording Instagram is any indication, plenty of other Parker-inflected sounds are on the way.

As we listen along, Parker himself is discovering where this chapter of new horizons will lead. “It’s kind of like following the thread,” Parker says. “I had an opportunity to go out there, and I wanted to do it, and not wonder what would have happened if I had done it.”

To hear “The Life You Save,” visit flockofdimes.bandcamp.com. To hear and preorder “What Day Is It,” visit fonvillexfribush.bandcamp.com.