Vermont-based singer-songwriter Reid Parsons (they/she) shares their powerful new single “Get Out Of Bed,” the second release from their forthcoming debut album Back to Back, out April 25th. Featured by The Big Takeover, who called Parsons “one of Vermont’s most compelling musical voices,” the track is a soul-stirring exploration of resilience, inertia, and the quiet heroism of simply beginning the day.
“There’s a moment in ‘Get Out Of Bed’ where a gentle haze lifts, and something defiant stirs beneath the melancholy,” wrote The Big Takeover in their premiere. “It’s the sound of reckoning with inertia—not just the physical act of rising in the morning, but the psychological weight of trying to meet the day when the world feels too heavy.”
Written during a time of deep self-reflection, the song captures the essence of emotional reckoning with a tender yet commanding vocal performance. “This is a song that I wrote as a tool to dig myself out of the thick blanket of melancholia and self-pity that sometimes holds me down,” says Parsons. “I hope listeners interpret it however they want—that’s the beauty of music—but I wrote it as a kind of kick-in-the-pants anthem to step out of my comfort zone and face the day.”
As The Big Takeover described it, the arrangement of “Get Out of Bed” “builds patiently, matching the lyrical arc: from fog to focus, from stillness to motion.” Parsons’ voice—warm, unpretentious, and edged with bluesy grit—guides the listener through that emotional shift, anchored by a Hammond B3 organ that, as she recalls, “shook the whole room.”
“Get Out of Bed” sits as the second track on Back to Back, an album Parsons produced, arranged, and wrote entirely (save for a haunting cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire”). Engineered by Ben Collette (Trey Anastasio, Susan Tedeschi, Sharon Jones) and tracked live-to-tape at Burlington’s iconic Tank Recording Studio, Back to Back is a meticulously crafted orchestral Americana record designed with the intentionality of a handmade space. As Parsons puts it, “Music has always been where I can build a world to embrace all parts of myself.”
From the everyday intimacy of the title track “Back to Back”—a bossa nova-tinged meditation on the quiet rhythms of partnership—to the genre-spanning arrangements, Back to Back is both deeply personal and architecturally intricate. The record weaves together elements of folk, jazz, blues, classical, soul, and country into a cohesive sonic patchwork that feels at once timeless and entirely unique. “I strive to write from a place of simplicity,” Parsons says. “I want to leave space for interpretation, to build a room for others to process, to emote, to have their own experiences in."
Parsons grew up in Moretown, Vermont, a town of 1,500 nestled in the Green Mountains, where they absorbed the emotional range of everything from Lucinda Williams to Patsy Cline and Steely Dan. Classically trained and self-taught in equal measure, Parsons honed her musical voice singing in a 13-piece soul and Motown band while studying music and anthropology, and performing regularly at local haunts like the now-defunct Purple Moon Pub—a launchpad for fellow Vermonter Grace Potter.
Back to Back is a product of passion, persistence, and deep introspection, partially funded through a crowdfunding campaign and completed with income from Parsons’ work in farming and food systems. “These sounds I had in my head are now tucked in this magical little locket that, when I open it up, transport me to a wonderful world,” they say. “Making this record has been the most meaningful thing I’ve done in my life.”
Parsons is currently on a run of select spring tour dates across Vermont, including a hometown album release show at Shelburne Vineyard. Full tour info and tickets can be found at reidparsons.com.
Reid Parsons – Spring 2025 Tour Dates
Saturday, April 5 – Monkey House – Winooski, VT
Thursday, April 17 – American Flatbread – Stowe, VT
Back To Back by Reid Parsons
1. Back to Back
2. Get Out of Bed
3. Lightbulb
4. Heavy Load
5. Show Me You Love Me
6. Holiday
7. I’m On Fire
8. Figure It Out
9. Same Old Shit
10. Where Are You Now
