Posted September 2026

Megan Kane and Dylan Turner talk Hold the Mash, marriage, life on the road and making music that honors the past without living in it

Every now and then, a band comes across my desk that makes me stop what I'm doing and listen.

Parker Barrow did that to me.

There's something immediately familiar about their music. If you grew up on Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Aerosmith, The Black Crowes and the glorious sound of loud guitars, big drums and singers who actually SING, you'll recognize some of the musical DNA.

But don't mistake familiar for imitation.

Parker Barrow sounds fresh.

At the center of it are Megan Kane and Dylan Turner, a husband-and-wife team whose story sounds a little like something somebody might have made up for a movie.

They met by chance in Nashville in 2019. It wasn't exactly love at first sight. In fact, it was barely an introduction.

Then, about two weeks later, the singer in Dylan's band quit with roughly 24 hours' notice before they were supposed to leave Nashville for some shows. Dylan remembered the girl he'd recently met who said she could sing.

He found Megan on Instagram.

And, as Dylan tells it, he basically begged her to come sing with his band.

There was only one minor complication: He hadn't actually heard her sing yet.

Megan apparently decided that getting into a van with a virtual stranger for a 15-hour drive sounded reasonable enough—and fortunately for everybody involved, it worked.

Really worked.

Years later, they're married, they've traveled through dozens of states and multiple countries, and they're making music together as Parker Barrow.

Finding Megan's Voice

Megan's road to Parker Barrow started long before Nashville.

She began singing in church as a child and sang publicly for the first time at her baptism when she was 10. Guitar followed at 11.

But finding the music that truly fit her voice took longer.

Megan had spent time trying to find her place in country music. Then Dylan began exposing her to artists including The Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers.

She heard something different.

More importantly, she heard somewhere her voice could belong.

Hearing powerful singers such as Susan Tedeschi helped Megan realize she didn't have to force herself to sound like somebody else. There was another musical world where the qualities that made her voice different could become strengths.
That realization helped shape Parker Barrow.

Dylan's Education in Live Music

Dylan's education was different.

His father owned a coffee shop that hosted singer-songwriters and open-mic performances.

When Dylan was still young, it evolved into a full-fledged live-music venue.

That meant he didn't merely watch musicians perform.

He watched bands arrive. Load in. Set up. Soundcheck. Perform. Tear down. Settle up.

In other words, he grew up watching how the business of being a working band actually works.
That education never left him.

When Dylan eventually moved to Nashville and started putting together a band, he already had a vision: a female-fronted Southern-rock group with the kind of dual-guitar attack that had long been part of the genre.

Then he heard Megan.

The vision began turning into a sound.

Why “Parker Barrow”?

Then there's that name.

Parker Barrow.

Yes, it's exactly where your mind probably went: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

Megan and Dylan became fascinated with the Bonnie and Clyde story while watching movies and documentaries. When they were searching for a band name, Dylan's father suggested Parker Barrow.

It stuck.

Not because they romanticize what Bonnie and Clyde did. What connected with Megan and Dylan was the idea of two people who went through everything together.

There's also one rather important difference.

As Megan puts it, Parker Barrow is “running to something, not from something.”

For a husband and wife who spend most of their lives together—at home, in the studio and on the road—that idea of togetherness became a pretty appropriate name for the band.

Building Hold the Mash

That partnership continues to evolve musically.

Dylan explained that Parker Barrow's earlier recording process depended heavily on their Click Above To Order "Hold The Mash"!producer to help turn the foundations Megan and Dylan brought into the studio into finished arrangements.

This time, the process changed.

With their guitarist becoming much more involved in the writing, ideas could develop organically while the band was on the road. Riffs, words and other pieces of songs could be worked on before they ever entered the studio.

That also changed the producer's job.

Instead of having to write parts and play multiple instruments, he could step back and concentrate on producing—listening to the bigger picture and helping Parker Barrow explore different sounds and textures.

The result is an album the band doesn't find particularly easy to summarize with one song.

And maybe that's the point.

They point to “Nothing Left to Save” as one of the record's rockers. “Olivia Lane” reveals another side of the band and showcases Megan's voice. Their treatment of The Black Crowes' “My Morning Song,” meanwhile, captures more of what happens when Parker Barrow takes the stage.

There's more than one side to this band.

Classic Without Becoming a Copy

That led to something I especially wanted to ask them.

I'm a Baby Boomer. My first concert was Elvis Presley. I grew up with Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Frampton and the rest of that era.

So what makes musicians from Megan and Dylan's generation embrace those sounds rather than simply chase whatever happens to be current?

For Dylan, the answer is remarkably uncomplicated.

It's the music he grew up around.

His father's band played it. Dylan loved the loud guitars, the big drums and the authenticity of it. When he began making music himself, that's naturally what came out.

The influences are there. Dylan readily acknowledges The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin.

But Parker Barrow isn't sitting around trying to calculate how to sound like them.
In fact, Dylan believes thinking about it too much is precisely how a band risks becoming a copy.

Instead, Parker Barrow tries to make music that's true to who they are.

If that music can simultaneously feel fresh and honor the artists who paved the road before them, that's a pretty good place to be.

I agree.

Parker Barrow made a fan out of me.

And if your musical DNA includes loud guitars, great vocals, blues, Southern rock and good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll, I have a feeling they just might make a fan out of you, too.

Look up, thank God, and keep smiling. It's going to be okay. It really is.