# Dakota Ray Parker turns a life of struggle to noteworthy country music

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/roots-music-rambler-6599265/dakota-ray-parker-turns-a-life-of-struggle-to-noteworthy-country-music
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/roots-music-rambler-6599265/dakota-ray-parker-turns-a-life-of-struggle-to-noteworthy-country-music.md
Podcast: [Roots Music Rambler](https://stenobird.com/podcast/roots-music-rambler-6599265)
Published: 2026-02-13T13:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rootsmusic.link/dakotarayparker
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/MPNL7319665369.mp3?updated=1771005512
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/roots-music-rambler-6599265/episodes/dakota-ray-parker-turns-a-life-of-struggle-to-noteworthy-country-music
Duration seconds: 2956

## Resource

If most of us grew up the way Dakota Ray Parker did, we’d have given up a long time ago. But the resilient, friendly Parker navigated his way through a rough and tumble childhood to funnel those traumatic experiences into outstanding songs and singing in his music. Parker joined us on Roots Music Rambler this week to talk about his turbulent upbringing, finding music was a natural escape to distract himself, then to writing and recording music that is now finding its way to a nice audience for the Kentucky native. His music is inspired by everything from Southern Gospel to 90s Country and even hip-hop. He told us his first musical dream was to be a rapper. Parker released two albums in 2025 and continues to knock out singles every so often. His latest single “Clown” has already amassed 150,000 streams on Spotify thanks to his traditional sounding vocals and catchy lyricism. His new single “Freeborn Man” drops the day this episode does (Feb. 13). We not only got to hear his story and how he approaches songwriting, but we’ll listen to snippets of four of his songs on the episode as well. Frank and Falls also chat about Falls’s recent trip to the Grand Ole Opry and rant a little about people who talk at certain types of concerts. The two also have new Pickin’ The Grinnin’ choices for music recommendations this week. Frank points to multi-instrumentalist and frequent session and guest musician John Calvin Abney. Falls shouts out The Wildmans. Watch the Episode on YouTube Download the episode and subscribe at rootsmusicrambler.com, watch the full episode on YouTube, or download wherever you get your podcasts. Also be sure to help spread the love of the show with Roots Music Rambler’s new merch, now available at rootsmusicrambler.com/store. Authentic t-shirts, hats and stick…

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## Transcript

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