Parker Wheeler

Since 1990, Parker Wheeler has hosted his Sunday Night Blues Party at The Grog, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. In doing so, he’s become a genuine local legend because of his great blues harp playing and for bringing some of the best artists in the area to participate and play at his longstanding, landmark North Shore jams.

Wheeler’s parents met when they were both seniors at the University of New Hampshire, and he was born on May 16, 1947. His dad earned his Ph.D. at Yale and became a sociology and history professor; his mother was an artist, sculptor and designer who passed away when he was just two years old.

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS

His childhood introduction to music came via the Philco radio next to his bed at his father’s parent’s house in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Late at night, he heard rockabilly from the south, blues from Chicago and Kansas City and R&B and jazz from all over. Wheeler spent grade school at Albany Academy, an all-boys military institute in upstate New York, where he sang in the choir and played the fife. He recalls always having access to music in his family home, including recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein, and seeing live performances in Europe while living there with this father for about a year.

“Between the ages of ten and 11, I had the good fortune to live in post-war Europe,” he explains. “As my father and I traveled throughout the continent, I recall performances of the Vienna Boys Choir and ‘La Traviata’ in Vienna and Italy and being in London attending “My Fair Lady,” in which Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison starred. Also, I remember performances of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Richard III’ at the Old Vic.”

INFLUENCES, LEARNING HARMONICA, SHIFT TO BLUES-ROCK

From 1961 to 1963, the precocious Wheeler was hanging out a lot in Boston and dabbled in trumpet and drums but never mastered either one. While dabbling, he could also be found rifling through record bins at places like Belmont Music, the Harvard Coop and the then-new Skippy White’s record shop. He was listening to a lot of Blue Note recordings as well as those by Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk and Rahssan Roland Kirk. He also immersed himself in the R&B of Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, James Brown and Motown’s complete catalog.

“At that time, I also learned that if I dressed up and acted reserved, my fake ID gave me entry to clubs like Connolly’s Stardust Room and The Big M,” he says. “Listening to music in these clubs, as well as R&B and soul reviews at Boston Arena helped direct me to my musical life and love of jazz and blues.”

By 1965, Wheeler was living full time in Boston and he met some musicians who were forming a band. He joined up as vocalist and harmonica player but he had a problem; He had to learn how to play the harp – immediately. “I went to the music store and, having ascertained that most rock ‘n’ roll was in the key of E, I bought an E harp. This is how I learned the concept of “cross harp.” To this day, I always play four keys above whatever the key the song is in.” From December 1965 to March 1966, Wheeler wandered through the Bahamas where he found, to his surprise, local bands playing American and English rock. Sitting in with those groups started his crossover into blues-rock.

THE BOUGALIEU, LARRY LOVE & JOY BELLE, SWALLOW

When he returned to the States, he stayed in Wakefield, Massachusetts, before going back to Albany, where he joined his first real band, The Bougalieu, most often known as The Starving Bougalieu. During that time, he honed his playing and singing further while working with the duo Larry Love & Joy Belle, working in small clubs around Albany with Larry on keys and Joy at the mic. “These bands and club performances helped me master my presentation,” Wheeler says.

In 1969, Parker moved twice, first to Louisiana and then to Los Angeles, before returning to Massachusetts. In November 1970, he got a call to join the George Leh-fronted band Swallow, who were recording a session for their debut LP, Out Of The Nest . He was asked to cut a harp solo cold on the song “Why Am I Treated So Bad?” Wheeler stayed with the group until 1973, when the band broke up and co-founder Vern Miller (formerly of The Remains) formed Taxi.

HOT ROMANCE, 1976-1989 HIATUS, SUNDAY NIGHT BLUES PARTIES

Wheeler was living in Newbury, Massachusetts with a couple of the Swallow horn players and they met singer Jeanne French when she was performing nearby, noticing that she was a lot better than her rhythm section. Not long afterward, they formed the band Hot Romance French on vocals. Like all bands eventually do, they disbanded and from 1976 through 1989 Wheeler did very little performing. There was a brief stint with a country-western band and some studio work, but for all intents and purposes, he was out of the music business.

Fast forward to March, 1990, when Wheeler was living in Elliot, Maine and he started a blues jam at a club in Kittery; by December, the now-named Blues Party had moved to The Grog in Newburyport, a roughly 30-minute drive from Elliot. There have been lineup changes over the years – guitarist extraordinaire Peter Giftos left, Tom Hambridge (Grammy-winning producer/drummer with Buddy Guy) moved to Nashville and became famous and North Shore legend Fly Amero has gone on to other music projects – but the show still goes on and has consistently showcased super-talented local cats for over three decades.

In May, 2016, after several years of discussion and tracking down the master tapes, Black Rose Records released Live: The Grog Sessions 1997, which features these tremendous talents and many other magnificent musicians. As for the future? “I am always hoping someone will want ‘the harmonica player’ for a gig.” Wheeler says.

(by A.J. Wachtel)