Upon dropping out of Carnegie Tech in early 1963, Parks relocated to Los Angeles with the intent of being involved with the growing West Coast beatnik subculture and to play with his older brother Carson Parks as the Steeltown Two (later enlarged to three), which eventually became the folk group the Greenwood County Singers. The group included future RCA Records producer and recording artist Rick Jarrard. Parks later said of this decision, "Going to California meant I escaped John Cage. I escaped the abstractions, the music you can't remember, the highbrow angst." The two Parks brothers performed together at various coffeehouses around San Diego, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. One of the people in attendance at a Santa Barbara performance turned out to be future Byrds member David Crosby, who at the time remarked to friend David Lindley, "If they can get away with it, so can we." While in California, Parks attempted to land a job performing on the television show "Art Linkletter's House Party" but was not accepted. Parks took a short hiatus from this group, briefly moving to New England to be part of the Brandywine Singers, earning up to $3,000 a week.