Blues double bill with Danielle Miraglia and Peter Parcek 3 in Marblehead

By Linda Werbner

On Friday, February 19, 2016 the me and thee stage will resonate with two soulful masters of blues rock, local hero Danielle Miraglia and The Peter Parcek 3 for a double bill that will knock your socks off. The show starts at 8 p.m. The me & thee coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 28 Mugford Street in the historic ‘Old Town’ section of Marblehead.

Long before critics raved about singer-songwriter Danielle Miraglia’s rich, whiskey-smooth voice and her Gibson-honed blues guitar chops, teenage Danielle recalls bopping happily down Revere Beach Boulevard in her hometown, Janis Joplin pouring out of her Walkman and into her heart. Miraglia admits that she cut her teeth as a guitarist on heavy metal—Guns ‘n Roses, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin but gravitated towards the blues as she hit the vibrant open mic scene around Boston and Cambridge in the mid-1990s while a student at Emerson College where she studied creative writing. She credits the purchase of a Gibson J-45 as her official passport into the blue-roots-rock that she plays to this day. “It changed everything. It taught me how to play; I never wanted to put it down.” In addition to scorching, driving Delta blues guitar and slide dobro, Miraglia plays a mean harmonica.

Miraglia’s music does not fit into any pat, one-size-fits-all category, alternately wearing such labels as folk-blues and roots-rock with a touch of Exile On Main Street-era Rolling Stones thrown into the brew. “The music I love either moves your heart or it moves your groin,” she says. “It’s got to change your body chemistry in some way.” With three solid releases under her belt—2005’s debut Nothing Romantic, 2011’s Box of Troubles and 2015’s rousing Glory Junkies—Miraglia has a rich and varied catalog of original music to dip into. Her latest, Glory Junkies, explores our celebrity-besotted, “selfie nation” with a wary, witty eye. It’s a fun record that doesn’t take itself too seriously, full of scorching harp and dobro slide guitar and Miraglia’s stunning voice that comes out of nowhere, grabbing your heart and coverin you with goose-bumps.

The Peter Parcek 3 play the kind of pure, stripped-down, dirty blues rarely heard these days. It’s raw and gritty in the tradition of Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and B.B. King with a healthy dollop from the British blues interpreters Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, whom Parcek himself had the pleasure of experiencing live during a sojourn in England many moons ago. Raised in a tiny rural town in Connecticut, Parcek recalls what a revelation it was to hear Muddy Waters over the radio and how it sent him running to the record store to buy up every Chess recording of Muddy Waters he could find. “All of the hairs on my arm stood up! It just slayed me. Listening to Muddy’s record, I can’t explain why to this day but at some point I started crying. I believe it was recognition of something in the music that I didn’t yet understand.” It wasn’t long before the young Parcek was bugging his mother to buy him a guitar and the rest is history, but with a few bumps in the road.

Parcek not only sings and plays the blues but he has lived the blues as well, refusing to let a potentially devastating setback early in his music journey derail his vision and drive. In the early 2000s, Parcek releasedEvolution, a stellar collection of quirky original and traditionally-inspired tunes, establishing himself on the Boston music scene as a fresh and visionary guitarist and singer-songwriter. The disc sold briskly and Parcek’s career seemed to be on the up and up until legal issues brought his musical momentum to a discouraging and bittersweet halt. Fast forward a decade and Parcek returned with The Mathematics of Love, a captivating mix of vibrant originals and covers by the likes of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Jessie Mae Hemphill. This Vizztone disc heralded the return of Parcek and garnered him widespread critical acclaim and nominations for a Blues Blast Music Award and a Blues Music Award. Mathematics continues to spread the blues love around the world and has become a winning calling card as he tours the world with his Fender and pork-pie hat, spreading the gospel of the blues.

Tickets for the performance by Danielle Miraglia and The Peter Parcek 3 are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. The Landing Restaurant at 81 Front Street, Marblehead offers a 10% discount on dinner if you show your ticket or receipt. Enjoy a meal before the show! As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA buses 441 and 442.