Parker Millsap On World Cafe

Parker Millsap grew up in the small town of Purcell, Okla., where he began singing in the Pentecostal church his parents attended. In 2014, he released his self-titled debut, which was full of songs and characters from his youth and earned him an Americana Emerging Artist of the Year nomination.

Millsap's follow-up album, this year's The Very Last Day, displays a lot of growth. It lays bare the influence of the blues on his songwriting — an influence he says he had to discover on his own. Hear Millsap and his band perform four songs from the new album live in the World Cafe studio.