It's an auspicious year for rock and roll legend GRAHAM PARKER. The beloved British singer-songwriter hits the road for a series of solo shows in the US and UK, on a tour that marks a number of milestone career anniversaries to be celebrated in print and on vinyl with a new, full-band concert record on the way from Big Stir Records. We are delighted to present the first single teasing the release: a new live rendition of his classic song “Soul Shoes,” backed by his current ace band The Goldtops and featuring a longtime sideman Brinsley Schwarz on guitar. The new single is out April 17 on all digital platforms worldwide and up for preorder and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/grahamparker-soulshoeslive

GRAHAM PARKER needs no introduction, but with 2026 marking the 50th Anniversary of his classic debut album HOWLIN' WIND, the time has come to appreciate his amazing career once again. That album, first issued in 1976 (as was, amazingly, its acclaimed followup HEAT TREATMENT), was the beginning of a series of critically-hailed releases, with and without his backing band The Rumour (featuring Schwarz and current Goldtop Martin Belmont), including SQUEEZING OUT SPARKS (1979) and THE MONA LISA'S SISTER (1988) and extending to his latest studio album and Big Stir Records debut, 2023's LAST CHANCE TO LEARN THE TWIST. It was on the full-band UK tour for that most recent album, amongst reviews citing it as one of Parker's sharpest sets of songs in this century, that this version of “Soul Shoes” from HOWLIN' WIND was captured. We present it here as proof positive that Graham Parker hasn't lost a step in his half century onstage, and, naturally, as a sign of things to come as 2026 unfolds.

It's a bracing and energetic reading of a catalog cornerstone, with Parker's soulful vocals right out front and the guitars of Schwarz and Belmont pushing the band (keyboardist Geraint Watkins, bassist Simon Edwards and drummer Jim Russell) over the top, while the backing vocals of The Lady Bugs (Paige Stubley and Martha Evans) add a rootsy grit. Recorded live at The Brook in Southampton, England, and mixed by Graham's current producer Tuck Nelson, the track is a wonderful throwback to the singer's earliest days, picked from a setlist that draws in equal measure from those first records and the fresh tunes from LAST CHANCE TO LEARN THE TWIST, which was recorded with largely the same version of the Goldtops heard onstage here. And while Parker, a masterful storyteller, is rightly a strong draw for his solo shows, what's captured on this track is a rare-these-days opportunity to hear him in his natural, full band, rock and roll setting, reeling out his most recent songs with the same fire as the ones that made his name.

Which brings us to Big Stir Records' big celebration of fifty years of Graham Parker recordings: a full-length vinyl LP of tracks from the Brook show, featuring songs spanning the man's complete career. First to be available exclusively at the Springtime US tour dates, the strictly-limited album will be released to the public by BSR in early summer, and better yet, it will be offered in a bundle with the recent authoritative book GRAHAM PARKER'S HOWLIN' WIND by rock writer Jay Nachman in collaboration with Parker and his bandmates of that era. More details will be announced soon, but for now, don some quality footwear of your own and cut a rug to GRAHAM PARKER & THE GOLDTOPS' fiery live take on “Soul Shoes.”