The blues that emanate from J.P. Soars are as diverse as the road he travels. Born out West in Anaheim, California, a very young J.P. and his family moved to Cedarville, Arkansas. Just to narrow that down, Soars tells me. “It’s in between Ft. Smith and Fayetteville.” In his teens, the family relocated again, this time even further east to West Palm Beach, Florida.
His musical journey began through chords from his father’s guitar and soon after from a friend’s cassette of Metallica and Ozzy Osborne. When he began playing professionally it was during the age of grunge rock and metal music and some of his earliest bands had names like Burner, Human Plague, Divine Empire and Raped Ape. So, how does a young person transition from thrash and death metal to become an award-winning, blues multi-instrumentalist, who incidentally is well-versed in gypsy jazz and two-stringed cigar box guitars, get to where he is today? J.P. tells me he just got lucky. “In 1988 I was 18 years old and I was in a music store looking at some guitars and this lady says, ‘you need to register for the giveaway we’re doing, because today’s the last day.’ They were giving away a Gibson SG guitar and two tickets to go see B.B. King. She said, ‘today’s the last day to register for them.’ I said okay, so I wrote my name on a little piece of paper and she put it in the raffle. About a week later I came home from school and my mom was all excited, ‘this radio station called today and said you won two tickets to go see B.B. King and a $1200 Gibson guitar!’ I said Oh, there’s got to be a catch, there’s no way they’re just going to give me a $1200 guitar and two tickets to go to B.B. King and meet him and stuff. But I went down to the music store, showed them my driver’s license and the lady went in the back, grabbed the guitar and brought it out and handed me the two tickets. A week later my dad and I went to see B.B. King at the Carefree Theater, front row-center in West Palm Beach, Florida…” J.P. smiles and repeats. “Carefree Theater. Front Row. Center! And it blew my mind. I had heard some blues stuff, but not like that and not ‘live.’ I knew from that point, that’s what I want to do. And then I got to meet him backstage and have him sign the guitar. He was just the most humble and genuine, kind human being.”
Life changing indeed, but let’s back up a little. You really started with an edgier, more intense music. You’ve got to tell me about the band, ‘Raped Ape.’ “That was a band I played in from 1989 to 1996. It was a metal band, crazy thrash metal stuff. The original singer in that band came up with the name. He was a fleet mechanic and he used to work on trucks and stuff and they had a saying when something ran fast or ran really well they would say that car or truck ran like a raped ape. I didn’t really dig that name and I always felt awkward telling people the name of my band.”
If I remember correctly, guitarist Paul Nelson from Johnny Winter’s band started out playing in a hard rock/metal group. Although you fall under the category of blues, you still have a lot of different influences in your sound. In other words, you don’t seem to have limitations or restrictions in the music you make. “I like a lot of different kinds of music. To me there are two kinds of music; good music and bad music. Music I like and music I don’t like and I like all kinds of stuff. If it moves me, I dig it. It could be metal, it could be blues, rock n’ roll or jazz, Americana, it could be country or Bossa Nova, Latin stuff, reggae. I got heavily into gypsy jazz for awhile with Django Reinhardt. I studied that style for a good while. I don’t know I just try to put all of these different influences and atmospheres into my music.”
You won the International Blues Challenge in 2009…did that change your direction? “It was great, because at the time we were just playing gigs around Florida. When we won the International Blues Challenge (IBC) we got on a bunch of festivals around the country and other club dates. We got on the blues cruise and that really opened the door for us. I saw it as an opportunity to get out of Florida…and we met folks. Everyone was nice to us and kind and accepting of the music, it really helped us.”
How many albums now? “There are six of them, now. The one I’m touring behind currently is called ‘Brick by Brick.’ It’s the sixth record as far as blues recordings I’ve done. It’s out on the Little Village label that’s based out of Northern California. That’s where this current tour is headed.”
You recorded an album with Tab Benoit. “It was a lot of fun. We recorded that album in five days in his studio and our drummer Chris Peet is a wonderful bass player and he played bass on it and Tab Benoit played drums. I met Tab on the blues cruise years ago; 2010 or 2011 and we became buddies and jammed into the wee hours on the cruise. He started that label, Whiskey Bayou Records and he put that out. It was fun, we had a blast.”
You’ve worked with so many people, including Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers. “I met Jimmy again, through the whole IBC thing. Through the IBC I met Sean Carney and he was doing a thing every year called ‘Blues for a Cure’ where they were raising money for cancer research. I think it was December 2009; he had me come up there to Ohio, where he’s from and Jimmy Thackery was on that gig. That’s where I met Jimmy. At the time he was living in Arkansas close to where I grew up. So we had that commonality and kinda’ hit it off. In 2011 he invited me to come on the blues cruise with him, which actually left out of San Diego. So in 2011 I flew out to Southern California and went on the blues cruise with Jimmy. The first two sets we did on the cruise were recorded, so after the second day the sound guy comes up to me and hands me two CD’s and says, ‘Hey, I recorded your all’s set, and it sounds pretty good.’ I went back to my room and listened to it and go, Man that does sound good and I told Jimmy and gave him the CD’s. He took it home and a few months later he tells me, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to put that out. And that’s where ‘As Live as it Gets’ came from.”
You had the opportunity to tour some with the late, great Johnny Winter. “We opened some shows for Johnny Winter. Man, it was incredible. We got to meet him and hang out with him a few times. He was a super, sweet guy, as nice as can be. I had a tune on a record that was out at the time that was called, ‘K.Y.N.O.M.B.’ (Keep your Nose Outta’ my Business)” (laughing) “And he loved that tune. And his manager and guitarist, Paul Nelson came up to me and said, ‘Hey man, Johnny would like to meet you, he loves that tune that you’ve got.’ So we went on his bus and met him and he was watching ‘Married with Children’ I guess that was one of his favorite shows to watch right before the gig. He was watching ‘Married with Children’ and eating Taco Bell. He was just super kind to us, you know?”
Talk a little about Southern Hospitality. Once again, you’re collaborating with some pretty amazing musicians. “Southern Hospitality was a project we put together back in 2012 with guitarist and vocalist, Damon Fowler out of the Tampa Bay area and Victor Wainwright on piano and vocals. I’ve known those guys for years; we would cross paths and jam. We all got to play together at the end of a festival in 2012 and thought it was really cool. We were going to do a tour together and call it the Southern Hospitality Tour. We would up getting a gig at the last minute at the Heritage Festival in Wheeling, West Virginia. Honeyboy Edwards was scheduled to play but had suddenly passed and they called us about a week before the start of the festival. We said okay and from that point the band was coined Southern Hospitality. We play together and just recorded a new record and it’ll be released on the next blues cruise in a couple of weeks. It’s a lot of fun playing with those guys.”
Your cigar box guitar adds new musical directions in your instrumentation. “I think it was 2002 or ’03 I was in a little club in Florida, this guy Richard Johnston came in there. The Riverwalk Blues Festival was going on and he was on that festival and they had an after jam. I was there and this guy, Richard Johnston came in with this freakin’ cigar box guitar, jumped on stage by himself, got behind the drum set and played the cigar box guitar and drums at the same time. It blew my mind! This is freakin’ awesome! Fast forward to 2008, I’m up in Memphis, Tennessee at the International Blues Challenge. I’m in a little club afterwards and a guy named John Lowe, who made the cigar box guitar for Richard Johnston, was having a cigar box guitar workshop. And he had a bunch of them for sale. Well, the cheapest one he had was a two-string one, so I bought it. I remember my bass player started laughing at me, ‘oh man, I can’t believe you bought a cigar box with two-strings and a broom handle on it.’” (laughing) “And I’ve been playing it, ever since. That was in 2008 and I showed it to my brother and my dad who are both carpenters and they said, ‘let’s try to make one of these.’ We made the one I was playing tonight and I’ve been playing one ever since. We make them and sell them now. I brought three of them with me to California and sold two of them on the first gig and sold the last one Friday night at the gig. So, I sold out of them. They’re a lot of fun.”
You spoke briefly about the new record, ‘Brick by Brick.’ What a great collection of musicians on that recording, Terry Hanck, Annika Chambers, Anne Harris… “A lot of that album was written during the pandemic. I didn’t have any gigs and was just writing stuff, playing a lot of guitar because I wanted to keep my chops up. I was just doing a lot of practicing at home and playing and wrote a lot of those songs during the pandemic. Terry Hanck I’ve known for years, he used to live out here in California but moved to Florida a few years back. My drummer, Chris Peet and I backed Terry for many years. I’ve been fortunate enough to have Terry play on all my records, except the one I recorded with Tab. Anne Harris I met again, on the blues cruise when she was out with Otis Taylor. Annika Chambers, she and her husband Paul DesLauriers moved down to Florida pretty much during the pandemic, I think. But it was Chris, my drummer, who had a little studio and that’s where Paul and Annika recorded their last record, ‘Good Trouble.’ I had a couple of songs that I felt could use some backup vocals and called Annika and Paul and they came down and sang on it.”
You’re amassing more and more Blues Music Awards recognition, since 2019 you’ve been nominated for Blues Rock Artist, Contemporary Blues Male Artist, Blues Guitar Player of the Year, Band of the Year with the Red Hots and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. “It’s very nice to be recognized and accepted. I haven’t won one yet, but it’s totally fine by me.”
Considering you’re in the same category as Billy Gibbons, Eric Gales, Sugaray Rayford and Laura Chavez, that’s some pretty sweet company. “Just to be mentioned among those folks is an honor. Laura is awesome!”
Who’s touring with you in the Red Hots? “Chris Peet is the drummer and we’ve been playing together pretty much for 20 years now. Our bass player is Cleveland Frederick who’s been playing with us for almost 10 years. It’s a nice, tight little unit.”
Having just witnessed you all torching the San Diego Bay, I have to agree. What’s next for J.P. Soars? “Well, I’m going on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues cruise with Southern Hospitality, and then back home to Florida. We stay busy in Florida; we’ll be gigging as soon as we get back and I’d like to start working on a new record when we get home. I’m writing some stuff so I’d like to start on a new record and I’d like to come back out to Southern California early next year.”
We’ll hold you to that.
