Cover photo © 2012 Marilyn Stringer

Most musicians will tell you that at one point early in their life, they were struck with a defining moment, one that inspired them to channel all their time and energies into playing music for a living.

But for Florida bluesman JP Soars, he had not one, but two, such epiphanies.

And to say they were at opposite ends of the spectrum would be a huge understatement.

You see, JP’s jolts came from hearing Metallica for the first time, and then seeing and meeting B.B. King.

Born and raised in the remote locale of Cedarville, Arkansas (Population 1,394), Soars, who had started playing guitar at age 11, moved to West Palm Beach, Florida (Population 99,919) in 1985, at the age of 16.

In addition to the culture shock socially, Soar’s ears received another kind of shock when he was turned on to the then still embryonic sounds of the future masters of thrash metal from the Bay Area.

“I heard Metallica for the first time and had never heard anything that sounded like that in my life,” he said. “That totally opened up a whole new thing for me.”

That exposure to Metallica helped set Soars on a journey through the world of death metal, including a stint playing guitar for one of the genre’s founding fathers – Malevolent Creation.

But just two short years later, Soars had another one of those ‘ah, ha’ encounters.

“I got to see B.B. King and meet him backstage. So when I was 18, I started to get into the blues and learn how to play them,” he said.
So while traveling the globe, churning out head-banging tunes like “Nocturnal Overlord” Soars was also working on songs like “Go Back to your Used to be” in his spare time.

And in the end, the power of the blues was just too much for Soars to overcome, and he traded in his B.C. Rich for a cigarbox guitar, choosing the blues over metal.

“Well, I knew that I could be 75 years old and play the blues, but I couldn’t see myself being 75 playing metal,” he said. “In 2005, I quit the metal band that I was in – not because I didn’t like the music, but because I was maturing and my tastes in music were changing. In the metal scene, I noticed that I was getting older, but the demographics of the audience were getting younger. The gap was getting wider. And hopefully, you’re just not as pissed off at 40 as you were when you were 18.”

Not wasting any time since fully emerging himself in the deep end of the blues, Soars released Back of My Mind in 2008, followed by More Bees with Honey (Soars High Production) from last year.

The well-received More Bees (the infectious “Doggin’” was selected as Song of the Year on the nationally-syndicated Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio program) has certainly kept Soars and his Red Hots (drummer Chris Peet and bass player Don Gottleib) at a breakneck pace, burning up the road from coast to coast, in support of the album.

“This has been an extremely-busy year so far. It’s been great,” he said. “We’ve done a couple of tours with Southern Hospitality and done some stuff with Jimmy Thackery and we got picked up by Piedmont Talent and I’ve been working on some new songs, so things are going really well. Just great.”

While he is focused on creating new material for the follow-up to More Bees, Soars is planning to head into the studio before that, to do some recording with Southern Hospitality, a project involving himself, Victor Wainright and Damon Fowler.

“Oh man, I’ve known Damon Fowler for about 10 years now and he and I have always connected well, musically. And I’ve known Victor for about three years and it’s the same thing with him. First time I jammed with him, it was an instantaneous connection. Those guys are great players and it’s a lot of fun to play with them. But it’s just really taken off and has a pretty good buzz about it. We played a show in Wheeling, West Virginia, at a festival – it was the first show we ever did and that kind of blossomed into things. We’re trying to have it (the album) done before the Blues Cruise in January. Blind Pig will be putting that out.”

Soars is one of several guitarists in the world of the blues to have ties to the Natural State of Arkansas.

Another is current Eureka Springs’ resident Jimmy Thackery.

“Yeah, Jimmy lives in Arkansas and the first thing I said when I met him was, ‘Hey, you live in my old stomping grounds.’ And we kind of hit it off from that connection,” Soars said. “And he’s helped me out a lot. We try to get together and jam whenever he comes through Florida or when I go back through Arkansas.”

Soars and Thackery also got together and created some serious sparks on the high seas last year, treating the patrons on the Blues Cruise to a set of Razorback-rockin’ blues.

The results can be heard on As Live As It Gets – Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers Featuring JP Soars and the Hydraulic Horns.

“The sound guy on the pool deck recorded the first gig we did – we didn’t even know he was going to record it – and we checked it out and decided that it sounded pretty damn good,” said Soars. “So we decided to put it out and Jimmy and his camp got things together and put it out. It was totally an afterthought, totally unplanned. And that’s one of the beautiful things about it.”

If one didn’t know Soars’ ‘previous life’ as a guitarist of the spine-snapping Malevolent Creation, a listen to More Bees with Honey would do nothing to give that away.

The album is chock full of gritty electric blues, with a healthy dose of Hill Country style added into the mix.

“I love Hill Country blues. The first time I was exposed to that style was through Richard Johnston. And then I got to meet Jessie Mae Hemphill and spend about a week up at her place before she passed away,” said Soars. “That’s where I really started delving into that style. There was a guitar player that lived around there and he showed me the two most important things to her style – tuning and the right-hand picking technique. So when I got my first cigarbox guitar, I had an idea of what to do.”

Not only did Soars know what to do with a cigarbox guitar, he also knew what to put on one – a red Razorback – as evidenced on the cover of More Bees with Honey.

“Boy, let me tell you, you get some flack in certain parts of the country – like Alabama and Texas – for having that red hog on there,” laughed Soars.

Soars’ initial cigarbox was hand-crafted by one of the innovators in the field – Johnny Lowebow.

“The second time I went to the IBC (in Memphis), I saw him (Lowebow) and he was doing a workshop on cigarbox guitars. And I knew that he had built some of the cigarboxes that Richard Johnston used,” Soars said. “So I went and checked out the workshop and bought one of Lowebow’s cigarbox guitars. The only one I could afford was the two-string model. He had some really elaborate, nice ones, but I went for one that I could afford for $200.”

At about that same time, Soars’ brother, who is a carpenter by trade, had also built a guitar from scratch.

“It was the first one he had ever tried to make and it turned out really nice. The thing plays great. But anyway, I showed him the cigarbox I bought and he got excited and said, ‘Let’s try to build one of those things,’” Soars said. “The one that I play is the first one that we built. And now, we make them and I sell them, too. (at www.jpsoars.com). I get my brother to put them together and then I put the pickups in and tuning pegs on and stuff like that.”

Music, guitars and family have always been crucial elements of JP Soars’ life.

His dad, who is also a carpenter, introduced young to JP to the wonders of creating music with his own two hands.

“My dad played guitar, so I grew up with music around the house and I jammed with his buddies all the time,” he said. “And I had uncles that were into music and played, too. So I’ve always been around music. I always associated those times with happy time, good times. There was no arguing going on, there was no madness going on when we were playing music (as a family). Really peaceful times.”

Times these days have certainly been good for Soars and the Red Hots, with all the road miles they’ve logged over the course of the past couple of years resulting in an ever-building corps of fans.

“I’m farther along now than I would have hoped to have been five years ago. We’re an international touring act now, we get played on XM Bluesville … it’s (his career) definitely further along now than I anticipated it would be,” he said. “But it’s not near the point I would like it to be. I always want to strive to move forward and move ahead. I want to build on things.”

There have been plenty of rock (and even some metal) acts that have dabbled in the blues over the years. Unfortunately, however, a lot of them sound just like rock-and-rollers trying to play an art form they’re not entirely comfortable, or schooled in.

But apparently, at the core of JP Soars, there lies the soul of a bluesman – because his take on the blues is not paint-by-number, nor is it forced and un-natural.

“When I first started playing the blues, I would try to not let that (his background in metal) play into it at all. I didn’t want to sound like some metal guy trying to play the blues,” he said. “I wouldn’t let that vibe come into play at all. I tried to be as traditional as I could be.”

But gradually, over time, Soars just decided to let the music flow out of him the way it wanted to come out, with no restrictions or chains holding it back.

“Well, on some of my own gigs (early on), I started to throw a little of that energy, that vibe into it. And I noticed that people would respond to it,” he said. “So there was a point that I finally said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to play what I feel. If it feels good to me, chances are it’s going to translate to the audience and they’re going to feel it.’ So lately I’ve learned not to be so worried about appeasing the traditional side of things so much.”

Even though he’s been ‘120-percent’ into playing the blues since 2005, Soars took every available opportunity to lay down some gut-bucket tunes when he could find time, long before that.

“Since 1997 or so, I’ve been playing in blues bands whenever I could. I’d come home from a metal tour and two days later, I’d be going to do a blues gig,” he said. “Or I’d get done practicing with the metal band and go, ‘Gotta run guys, got a blues gig to do.’ So I’d been doing both for a long time. But finally when I quit the band, I decided to put everything I had into the blues. I knew if I wanted to have any kind of success with it, I had to put 120-percent into it. And that’s what I try to do. I want longevity. I want to do this forever.”

And if the public’s reaction on More Bees with Honey is any indication, the blues-loving masses would seem to be happy with the idea of Soars hanging around for a long time.

“I feel very fortunate and I don’t take it for granted for a minute,” he said. “I feel blessed and privileged that I get to do this and that people would want to come and pay something to hear me play. It’s really just a privilege and an honor.”

Visit JP’s website at http://www.jpsoars.com/

Interviewer Terry Mullins is a journalist and former record store owner whose personal taste in music is the sonic equivalent of Attention Deficit Disorder. Works by the Bee Gees, Captain Beefheart, Black Sabbath, Earth, Wind & Fire and Willie Nelson share equal space with Muddy Waters, The Staples Singers and R.L. Burnside in his compact disc collection. He’s also been known to spend time hanging out on the street corners of Clarksdale, Miss., eating copious amounts of barbecued delicacies while listening to the wonderful sounds of the blues.