Carol Parks

Carol Parks (born Carol Celeste Carmichael, 30 November 1949, Pasadena, California) is a zine author, composer, painter, and journal artist. She was at one time married to fellow musician Dean Parks. Both live in Los Angeles, California.

Career

As a teenager, Parks, then Carmichael was a member of the Jimmy Joyce Children's Choir, performing with such luminaries as Art Linkletter ("Kids Say the Darndest Things"), Ann-Margaret and Johnny Green. One of Parks' most significant musical contributions to the film world was for 1986's "", for which she and Dean wrote all of its seven songs. Additionally she sang main titles for "Where's Papa?", "The Miracle Worker", "Save the Tiger", "Lifeguard", "The Last Picture Show", and the television program, "Ironside". As a Hollywood studio singer since the early 1970s, she contracted for the Andy Williams and Tom Jones shows, and was in the choir for Sonny & Cher, Cher, and Danny Kaye. Her featured backing vocalist performances in pop were most notably on "Desiderata", "It Never Rains In Southern California", "Undercover Angel", "Rock Me Gently", "The Goodbye Girl", "Little Green Apples", "Train of Thought", "That's The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" and "Delta Dawn".

She produced Rita Jean Bodine and Hodges, James and Smith in the seventies, The New Monkees in the eighties and associate produced for Donald Fagan, Walter Becker and Ricky Lee Jones in the nineties. She contracted recordings for Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Johnny Rivers, Lambert & Potter, Michael O'Martian, Marty Paich, Melanie, Lee Greenwood, Helen Reddy, Alan O'Day, Andy Kim, Albert Hammond, David Gates, Johnny Mathis, Vicki Carr, Billie Joel, and many others.

Parks sang commercials for Ernest and Julio Gallo, Avco Financial Services, Bank of America, Toyota, Datsun and countless other clients. Under the names Honey White and the Night Man, Kim Carmichael and Carol Carmichael she recorded two albums "Songs My Father Taught Me", "The Carol Carmichael Songbook", and two singles, "All Night's Alright", "Shake A Hand", and published a songbook of the same title. She also recorded two albums "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Touring The Motor City", plus a single "Summertime Love" with, and was a road member of, The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority, with such notables as The Hagar Twins, Gary Mule Deer, Randy Sparks, Kin Vassey and Fats Johnson. Parks recorded "The Persuader" on the first automated recording console invented by George Massenburg at The Complex in the early eighties.

Recently

After fifty years in the music business, Carol Parks, writer, composer and painter finally set down her headphones and picked up her paints in 2001 returning to her childhood dream of being a full time fine artist. Her work ranges from major works, murals and banners for large spaces to small mixed media images that appeal to collectors from coast to coast. She studied for a few years at Art Center in Pasadena, California and Otis/Parsons in neighboring Los Angeles but eventually branched out to train with a long succession of notable teachers in the Alternative Arts field. "I just felt I was not getting everything I needed in the traditional school setting. Although Art Center and Otis/Parsons are both incredible learning environments that I often recommend to other artists for foundation work, at my age and place on the time line I simply needed some broader choices...more intense and varied learning opportunities. I now travel to the teachers, spending two or three days in deep immersion learning. I often experience major breakthroughs with this method of study. I also find this to be the best way to find great teachers to invite to my place!" Hosting visiting teachers such as Sabrina Ward Harrison, Lynne Perrella, Juliana Coles, Traci Bunkers and LK Ludwig and bringing exclusive workshops and new techniques to her clients has turned Parks' NoHo Studio and classroom into the happening place to go in the Los Angeles area. Parks completed her external degree/ B.A. in Fine Arts at the age of 56. She lives in and works from her amazing home studio with her dogs, Drake, Candy and Petey in Southern California's NoHo Arts District.

Personal life

Parks is the daughter of contemporary Christian music composer/conductor/arranger Ralph Carmichael, and mother of Los Angeles based photographer Amanda Parks and Philadelphia based psychologist, Acacia Parks-Sheiner. Parks' mother, Evangeline Carmichael McPherson is married to Dr. Rolf McPherson, son of the famous evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson.

External links

* [http://www.carolparks.com Official site]
* [http://www.carolparks.com/artfreak.html Art Freak Zine]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:dvfrxqq5ldae~T4 Discography] at Allmusic website
*imdb name|id=0662920|name=Carol Parks