Spotlight: Sam Morrow, Peter Parcek

The Aug. 28 edition of Greasy Tracks featured the music of and interviews with Sam Morrow and Peter Parcek.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here

Parcek is out supporting the release of Mississippi Suitcase (Lightnin’ Records), while Morrow is on the road following the release of Gettin’ By On Gettin’ Down (Forty Below Records).

A decidedly different sound than his country-tinged Concrete and Mud in 2018, Morrow, who says he prefers to write music first before dealing with lyrics, opted for a more-swampy/grooving feel for his all-original Gettin’ By On Gettin’ Down, giving a big nod to Lowell George of Little Feat fame. Morrow will include a Little Feat set at Arch Street Tavern.

Parcek’s Mississippi Suitcase — a mix of originals and some interesting covers — followed his 2017 release, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven and was gained a nomination for best blues rock album in the 2021 Blues Music Awards (the former W.C. Handy Awards).

A native of Portland, Conn., Parcek is currently based in the metro-Boston area. He has released four albums and has had some interesting concert experiences.

In the 1960s, a London-based band he was briefly in played at a party that the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd was involved with. Closer to home, on May 3, 1970, a band he was in was one of a handful of local groups that opened for the debut appearance of the Grateful Dead in Connecticut when they played Wesleyan University along with New Riders of The Purple Sage. Parcek remembers Jerry Garcia being very complimentary of his (Parcek’s) playing, but warned him not to drink anything in the backstage area.