The National Parks
The National Parks is a folk/pop band comprised of five members: Brady Parks (Denver, Colorado – guitar and lead vocals), Sydney Carling Macfarlane (Kaysville, Utah – keyboards and vocals), John Hancock (Sacramento, California – electric guitar), Cam Brannelly (Draper, Utah – drums), and Megan Taylor Parks (Draper, Utah – violin). The group was formed by front man, Brady Parks, with original band members Sydney Carling, and Paige Wagner, in Provo, Utah, in early 2013, with 15 March 2013, marking the band’s first public performance. They produced their debut album Young through Kickstarter under the name of the founder and front man, Brady Parks but was eventually released under the name The National Parks on 3 September 2013. The album was recorded at June Audio with producer Scott Wiley and climbed to #13 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart.
In January 2014, they released “As We Ran,” a standalone single which was written for the documentary film Love in the Tetons. The first month of their proceeds was donated to the National Parks Conservation Association. The online success of the album and “As We Ran” helped them find growing crowds around Utah, as well as, in Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. International attention to the band began with the release of “Helsinki,” which premiered on NPR’s All Songs Considered in January 2015.
The band’s second album, Until I Live, was released independently in September 2015 and reached #52 on the iTunes Pop Chart, #5 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers Chart for the Mountain Region, and boosted Spotify streams beyond 2.5 million. The two albums and the standalone single combined have amassed more than 13.2 million Spotify streams and garnered praise from press outlets such as NPR’s All Songs Considered, CMT Edge, Baeble Music, and Pop Matters. Following their sophomore release, the band has been favorably compared to a wide variety of acts including Foster the People, The Civil Wars, and Mumford & Sons, and has sold out shows in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
The National Parks self-booked tour began in the summer of 2014. By 2016, the band was filling clubs in every region in the country while also performing at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, School Night at Bardot’s, Musikfest, Snowmass Mammoth Fest, and Make Music Pasadena. The group has also performed with acts such as Andy Grammer, Peter Bjorn and John, The Lone Bellow, LeAnn Rimes, and The Moth & The Flame.
In March 2016 City Weekly magazine named them Utah’s Band of the Year. The following month, “Monsters of the North” – a lead single from Until I Live – was announced as the winner of the International Songwriting Competition for all unsigned artists.
The National Parks is currently working on their third studio album Places. The lead single was released as a lyric video on their YouTube channel on 16 June 2017 via Rock Love Magic Records. Please visit the tour page on their official website for their upcoming concert dates.
Follow The National Parks
Recent Posts
TREN’s New Song Encourages Us to Seek After All Things “Fantastic”
The amazing music group TREN has released an exciting new original song called “Find Fantastic” inspired by the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The song was released on their YouTube channel on 25 November 2016. The movie is based on the spellbinding...
The Five Strings and Alex Boyé – Amazing Grace Africanized
Perhaps the most beloved hymn of the past two centuries, Amazing Grace is performed an estimated 10 million times annually and has been included as one of the tracks on more than 11,000 albums. The song was referenced in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s acclaimed anti-slavery...
Dynamic New Group SPARK Uses Music to Set the World on Fire
It only takes a tiny spark to ignite a flame. That single flame can be used to ignite other flames and collectively those flames soon become a roaring fire. That analogy accurately depicts an exciting new Contemporary Christian group just appearing on the Mormon music...
Amy Hansen’s Beautiful Rendition of “For the Beauty of The Earth”
Traditionally, the fourth Thursday of November is set aside for the celebration of Thanksgiving. However, every day is a reason to pause and give thanks for our many blessings and to even sing songs of praise to Him from whom all blessings flow. How can a person...
Jennifer Thomas and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
The feel of Christmas is in the air. Christmas Eve will soon be upon us. On that magical night, children sleep in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads as they anticipate what unique gifts were left by the jolly old man dressed in red. As their...
Imagine Dragon Frontman Dan Reynolds Talks about His Debilitating Disease
In a recent interview with People, Dan Reynolds, the frontman of Grammy-award winning band Imagine Dragons, opened up and talked about how at the age of 21 “debilitating” pain that he was experiencing caused him to cancel shows. Dan’s health problems began just as the...