Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven

Peter Parcek, a Boston-based guitarist/vocalist, released his first album, Evolution, in 2000 and followed it up 10 years later with the highly acclaimed The Mathematics of Love. Now, after another gestation period, here’s Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, featuring the bluesman on 10 compositions, six of them his. A self-taught musician, he credits a 1960s stay in London and first-hand exposure to musicians there who were digging into American blues, such as Peter Green (his biggest influence), with inspiration. Fittingly, it’s Green’s impassioned “World Keep on Turning” that opens the album. Parcek calls his approach “soul guitar” and there’s no denying that description while listening to his nearly eight-minute powerhouse version of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” Recorded in Nashville, he shares guitar duties with Luther Dickinson—just one of several guests—and it’s hard to imagine anyone else more compassionate while entertaining Parcek’s muse. This is a stunning album from start to finish and the slow-paced title track should give everyone pause.