JP Soars – Brick by Brick | Album Review

JP Soars – Brick by Brick

Little Village Foundation LVF 1062

www.jpsoars.com

11 songs – 46 minutes

A California native who moved to rural Arkansas and then West Palm Beach, Fla., in his youth, JP Soars is basically a self-taught guitarist who grew up enamored by death metal, spending eight years in Raped Ape, a major thrash metal draw in the Southeast. Sitting front center for a B.B. King show forever changed the direction of his life and musical career.

He’s been a major force in the blues world since 2009, when he captured the International Blues Challenge, proving without a doubt that he’d learned his lessons well – and other talents, too. For the first time on disc, he shows off his love for gypsy jazz Django Reinhardt, too, mixing it into a healthy serving of blues, blues-rock and a little country blues, too.

Produced by JP and Jeremy Staska and recorded, mixed and mastered at Staska’s Studio 13 in Fort Lauderdale, Soars handles all vocals, dobro, banjo, lap steel, two-string cigar-box guitar, dulcimer, jaw harp and some bass, too. He’s backed by the cream of the crop of South Florida musicians, a lineup that includes longtime bandmate Chris Peet on drums and bass, Bob Taylor on Hammond B3 organ, Rockin’ Jake Jacobs on harmonica and BMA winner Terry Hanck on sax. The sensational Anne Harris adds fiddle with Paul DesLauriers and wife Annika Chambers adding backing vocals and Raul D. Hernandez and Staska addition percussion.

A driving six-string intro kicks off “Brick by Brick” in which JP announces he hasn’t taken any shortcuts in building up his home – or career – and that he takes plenty of pride in everything he does and that he does it his way. His mid-tune solo comes with a bite and the powerful sound he’s known for. It gives way to “Jezebel,” which comes with a Latin beat and describes a warning from his mother that the girl of his dreams would be trouble. Now, he “walks through the fire everyday…any way.” His solo envelops the sound of the Southwest, and the rhythm section is skintight.

The keys come in to the mix for the first time on the blues-rocker, “Keep Good Company,” which carries religious imagery as it delivers the advice to take care in choosing your business associates and friends or you’ll pay the price. It gives way to the rapid-fire “I Can’t Keep Her Off My Mind,” a country-flavored number on which JP picks up the banjo along with guitar and Harris is high in the mix. The mood changes from the opening notes of the sweet, unhurried and barebones instrumental, “In the Moment,” which introduces jazz elements to the mix and gives Soars space to display his prodigious picking chops.

But blues are back in style with the stop-time pleaser “That’s What Love Will Make You Do” to follow, describing losing control every time JP hears his lady’s name or is at her side. Hanck drives home the message throughout. “The Good Lord Will Provide” delivers a little more country blues and a message to be kind to your neighbors before Rockin’ Jake joins the action for the driving “Honey and Hash” describes having a “ganga woman” who keeps him all night long. It’s a match made in heaven, Soars says, before switching back to banjo for the rollicking instrumental, “Merlin Stomp.”

The uptempo “Things Ain’t Workin’ Out” serves up a complaint about a relationship not working out and includes some mighty fine guitar work before the Latin-flavored “Down by the Water” celebrates life at the ocean’s side to bring the set to a close.

Never boring and ever-changing, this one’s a seamless treat.

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