Peter Parcek 3 played to an enrapt audience at Smoken’ Joe’s BBQ & Blues last night. The trio, led by Boston’s legendary blues guitar ace Peter Parcek, put out a sound that kept all in attendance completely focused for three solid hours.
Parcek and his men opened with the instrumental piece “Just Play Rhythm, Baby.” Parcek’s phrase combined greasy notes and crunchy chords, sublime blues notes that ranged from grinding to a light, emotive flow. Segue into “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and Parcek played a flavorful phrase, reaching somewhere down deep inside himself for his sound, precise picking and phrasing to arrive at his own form of heaven.
“Evolution” by Cousin Joe Pleasant told the tale of women who have men climbing trees for them. Men evolve backwards over the women in their lives. Parcek’s guitar phrase was easeful and freewheeling while the rhythm guitar parts came out of the pure vintage era of blues. The old time coloring created the perfect backdrop for a song that mocks the basic male behavior.
Other Parcek numbers were marked by rapid fire note picking and shuffling grooves from his rhythm section. Bass player Joe Klompus and drummer Steve Scully supported Parcek as if they were born to the task. The trio, early on, went into a country blues progression while Parcek worked up a note picking frenzy.
“Things Fall Apart” played out with a lilting phrase and some snappy bits adorning the surface. Parcek soon built a mountainous arc with his phrasing. You close your eyes and listen carefully to what he’s playing and you feel like you’re in blues heaven. Bass player Klompus smoothly shadowed his boss here, adding another dimension of sound to caress the ears.
Parcek pressed out sweet, tender phrasing on “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” His easeful, mellow vocals carried his verses well. Funeral images combined with smoldering phrases, whistling guitar lines, and mournful chord progressions made this plea come alive in three dimensional sound and imagery. Parcek’s “Café Du Monde Boogie” featured the man playing intense boogie style with intervals of guitar notes around the beat, notes that were played with the freedom of children, the color and tone of art, and the precision of science.
The poetic lyrics of “Every Drop Of Rain” were beautifully sung over an avalanche of tremendously heartfelt notes. That was followed by the instrumental piece “Blues In D Natural,” a chirpy melody, notes skipping along a merry path, soon turning into smoky riffs. Parcek brought even more of his magic to “Tiger In Your Tank,” greasy slide notes crying out with passion over a speedy shuffling groove.
“Kokomo Me Baby” was marked by brittle, snappy, jaunty guitar parts. Its shuffle groove combined with Parcek’s grinding guitar notes to create a locomotive sensation. His phrase jumped in and out of the groove like a honky tonk number. The rhythm bounced far and wide, and the bluesy riffs spiraling off of that jumped and jived.
Parcek’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” turned the tune into a rhythm fest. His guitar was as feisty as ever and he grinded out a rugged, passionate phrase. There was also something else going on in this rendition. Parcek kept a sense of forlorn abandonment in the aftertaste of his expressions. He played some of his most sublime notes of the evening. The listeners could have felt a foreboding, a looming message that was in the music, as if taking one more step could lead one into oblivion.
Parcek’s original composition “Rollin’ With Zah” was another that had a train feel coming from the Rhythm Offices of Klompus and Scully. Over that groove Parcek peeled off more of his subtle stuff before suddenly riffing more heavily on one note. The guitar man went into a thick, crunchy chord thing before returning to a whistling high note excursion, complete with his note bending magic.
Parcek’s original song “Tears Like Diamonds” off of his 2009 CD The Mathematics Of Love played out its sad melancholy tale of lost love with cautious tenderness. You could almost picture the guy the song is talking about fumbling around his quiet room unable to concentrate on anything but his pain. The bits of guitar notes Parcek played were brief, subtle, but packed with the feeling of isolation and loss that one doesn’t want to experience more than once in a lifetime.
“Ashes To Ashes” and the trio’s cover of the Jimi Hendrix number “The Wind Cries Mary” kept things on an even keel, with both offering bits of mellow moments and tension building momentum.
The Peter Green song “Showbiz Blues” had a powerful drone going on behind the guitar chords Parcek was playing. The guitar man pressed them chords out so hard he created that secondary layer behind himself. Chockfull of vintage guitar picking, “Showbiz Blues” carried a lot of weight and packed a lot of punch. You could have driven a truck across a guitar phrase with so much texture. Parcek’s sandpapery vocal added the perfect layer to his picking. Some slide work as icing on an already textured cake.
It was another good night at Smoken’ Joe’s in Brighton, and it was another special performance by the uniquely talented Peter Parcek and his trio. The man plays the blues like the blues were meant to be played.
