Steve Parker spent the formative years of his life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.   He got his first guitar when he was 13-years-old. 
When Steve was 15, he began to jam with bass player Mark Herman and drummer Doug Bennett.  They made a horrible racket in Doug’s mom’s garage.   Fortunately, Doug had two uncles, Boo and Don Pourciau, who were working musicians.  And they had friends including legendary songwriter and Elvis bassist Duke Bardwell and master luthier Tim Lawson.  Duke and Tim provided Steve with encouragement and mentoring; Boo and Don taught the boys how to be less of a gang and more of a band.  Mark, Doug and Steve hooked-up with guitarist Jonathan Fletcher.  Together, they formed “Reaction”, a popular rock band that played throughout the bayou. In1987, Reaction played its last gig.For the next several years, Steve played swamp-pop with Don Pourciau and Tim Lawson in the Switch band, with Mark Herman and Nick Dimaio in Red Hot Chicken, with pianist Jeff Welch, and with Big Luther Kent.

                                                                          
 
 In 1989, Steve began a long association with Shannon Williford, a Handy Award Winner and Nashville Blues Society Harmonica Player of the Year.  Steve joined Shannon’s band Eyewitness Blues and they worked the club and festival circuit along the gulf coast.   Along with Eyewitness Blues, Steve also played with legendary pianist Henry Gray, blues great Larry Garner, and songwriter Michael Wolfe.  Steve appeared at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival three times.    Steve was the longtime house guitarist at the World’s Greatest Blues Jam held every Thursday night at Phil Brady’s Bar in Baton Rouge where he backed Raful Neal, Kenny Neal, Oscar Davis, Rudy Richard, and many other blues legends.
In 1994, Steve began to play with Steve Arnold and Tom Coerver in Catdaddy.  They worked the club and casino circuit.

  Then, in 1996, Steve put his guitars in a closet.
 
In 2009, after not picking up a guitar for 13 years, Steve made a resolution to rediscover his talent.  To regain confidence, he began by hitting jam sessions in Hoboken, South Amboy, and Matawan.  With encouragement from his friend Shannon Williford, in the spring of 2009, for the first time in more than a decade, Steve once again played gigs with Eyewitness Blues and Larry Garner.  In, with the recommendation of his friend and bassist Paul Harris, Steve was invited to join the Living Proof Band. 
Steve’s influences vary widely from blues greats to rock guitarists to country chicken pickers.  Mostly though, he tries to stay true to a lesson from swamp-pop great John Fred Gourrier who once told him, “Just try to make the band sound better and everything will take care of itself.”
 Steve plays Schecter, Fernandes, Washburn, Xavier, and Takamine guitars; Old Hickory mandolins;  Artisan lapsteels; and Marshall, Gallien Kruger, Fender, and Crate amps.  He recommends Jonathan Fletcher Music in Smyrna, TN and Tim’s Guitar Workshop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.