Ryan Christopher Parks is a songwriter based in Oakland, California. He has gone under the moniker “B. Hamilton” for over 15 years, which is also the name of a power trio he fronts with drummer/collaborator Raj Kumar Ojha and bassist Ian Miller. His low-tuned snarling guitar can be heard throughout the 2017 movie “Sorry to Bother You,” where he wrote a number of songs with writer/director Boots Riley. Parks’ latest solo EP, Billy Goat Acres and Other Words I Know How to Spell is the final of five EPs he wrote, recorded, and released every three months in 2023 and 2024.
Each EP details the lives of people in five California locations. The first is about the once-threatening but now charming holy trinity of John Wayne, Richard Nixon, and Mickey Mouse in his native Orange County. The second is about the High Desert and associated communities that exist at the borderlands of Hollywood’s influence in Los Angeles County. The third is a love letter to Oakland through a friend’s death. The fourth is a hate letter to Silicon Valley through Elon Musk.
There are your average storytelling songs, you know, the tunes that fill your imagination with vivid imagery. Then there is Parks’ new single, “A Beginners Pottery Class at Gavilan Community College Every Monday Night (Dongle).” The imaginative world crafted on this stand-out explores the mundane inventively as the artist makes ruminating on the simplistic feel like exploring the unknown. What starts as a minimalistic approach to modern folk slowly evolves into a breezy ballad as bright guitar melodies elevate the heartfelt songwriting. There is a certain rawness to Parks’s words that linger in your earphones long after the narrative comes to a close. The song’s vulnerability is hidden under the average day thoughts presented. The longing in this vocal performance reveals the harsh reality that sometimes, the tedious everyday tasks keep us centered and allow our minds to wander to new ideas. Thankfully for us, Parks’s mind wandered so far that it landed in a space where this otherworldly take on modern folk could become a reality. “A Beginners Pottery Class at Gavilan Community College Every Monday Night (Dongle)” is a moving piece from a refreshing voice in folk as Parks fearlessly mixes modern and nostalgic tropes to land on something entirely new.
“The song is about what happens after the circus leaves town following the death of someone you love. The procession is over. The phone stops ringing. You understand how alien grief is and stop caring,” explains Parks. “It’s here to stay, and time isn’t stopping. You might as well try to enjoy life and all of its stupid little pleasures.”
