By David DeRocco dave@gobeweekly.com  https://twitter.com/?lang=en 

It’s a sunny day in Boca Raton, Florida, and bluesman J.P. Soars is trying to soak it all in. Back at home after his recent three-week road trip, the California-born/Arkansas-raised singer/guitarist is recharging the batteries before hitting the road once again, this time on a tour that brings him to Niagara for BLUES ON THE BATTLEFIED June 28^th through July 1^st, the latest production from organizers of the Canal Band Shuffle Blues Festival.

The four-day free festival has many scheduled highlights, and Soars will definitely be one of them. Hot on the heels of his recent nomination for “Blues Rock Artist of the Year” at the 40^th annual Blues Music Awards, Soar’s career is definitely soaring to new heights in blues circles. His last album, Southbound I-95, is just the latest in a string of great releases that showcase Soar’s versatility as both a guitarist and a singer, talents that have found audience in North America, across Europe and Australia. In anticipation of his return to Canada June 30^th, Soars took time to chat with GoBeWeekly about his nomination, the first song he learned on guitar, and meeting the legendary B.B. King.

Gobe: Your bio says you got bitten by the blues bug by seeing the legendary BB King. What was it you remember being so impressed by that fateful day?

JP: Just the sheer power of the music and how it made me feel, and the tightness of the band. But I think the real thing when I got to meet B.B. King that night, what I remember most was just how humble he was and how he made me feel when he spoke to me. What a down to earth, humble, gentle human being he was.

GoBe: For a blues guy that’s like meeting Jesus.

JP: Yes, it was really amazing.

GoBe: Now he wasn’t your first influence. Growing up in Arkansas your dad started showing you chords when you were a young man. Do you remember the first song you mastered on guitar?

JP: I don’t know if I mastered it but my dad showed me “House of the Rising Sun,” which was the first song a lot of folks learned. And then it was Neil Young “Down By the River.”

GoBe: Well you’ve got some good pedigree there, it looks like it translated well over the years, especially this year. Congratulations on your 2019 nomination for Blues Rock Artist of the Year at this year’s 40^th annual Blues Music Awards. You’re in pretty good company alongside the likes of Billy Gibbons, Eric Gales, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Tinsley Ellis. How validating is that for you at this stage of your career?

JP: It was really amazing to be in the same category, just to be mentioned in the same paragraph as those guys was pretty awesome. It was humbling.

GoBe: All these guys are players too. There’s a stereotypical and mostly inaccurate view of blues as being rather rudimentary to play – and yet the genre produces so many highly skilled guitar players. What do you think is the reason for that. Blues can be so simple, and yet so many guys who pick up guitars become so highly skilled. They take the guitar farther than is necessary. Is it born of the passion for the music or the guitar?

JP: There’s a lot of great ones out there. I can only speak for myself. I’ve always just wanted to master the instrument and I’m still trying. Aside from the blues, I play a lot of stuff other than blues. I love the blues to death, but I want to be able to hold my own in any musical situation that I might find myself in. That’s my long-term eventual goal with the instrument. And if you were truly tying to master the instrument, it’s a never-ending process. That’s one of the beauties of it. You can always learn something new.

GoBe: Where’s the sweet spot for you, when are you most in your zone…..in a long, languid emotional piece like “Gypsy Woman,” something acoustic like “Arkansas Porch Party” or a barnburner when you’re just shredding?

JP: It just depends on the night, it depends on the mood I’m in, it depends on the audience and what they’re feeling. Some audiences respond to different things. It’s always different. I don’t have one thing in particular.

GoBe: As a blues-loving rocker myself, I was surprised to see you were in a hardcore metal band called Raped Ape. Do you ever break out into some speed metal in the middle of a blues performance just to shake people up a little bit?

JP: Not necessarily, but I incorporate some of the energy of that music into what I do. You can kind of hear it in there at times. I don’t try to make it so blatant, I kind of do it subliminally.

GoBe: You’ve got some new music on the horizon with the upcoming release of Let Go The Reins, your follow up to your last release Southbound I-95. Looking at your catalogue I have to say I love the artwork. Who does your covers for you, it’s almost a lost art form.

JP: It’s funny you mention that because you just mentioned the metal band I used to play with. I’m still friends with those guys, I joined that band in 1989. The guitar player Michael Pucciarelli is a phenomenal artist. He has a tattoo shop, he does a lot of painting. He’s done the artwork for my last three CDs. I like to keep it in house.

GoBe: You’re coming up to Canada for Blues on the Battlefield June 28 through July 1^st, celebrating Canada Day weekend with us. That should be fun. Will you be coming up here with the Red Hots?

JP: Yea, we love coming up to Canada. We love it. We’ll be there with the Red Hots, my trio consisting of myself on guitar, my drummer Chris Peet and Cleveland Frederick on bass. It’s a nice tight unit.

GoBe: Is the band name a tribute to Billy Lee Riley, the original singer of the rockabilly classic, “Red Hot?” Or is it something more food inspired?

JP: Years ago, back in 2008 when I first got this trio going, we needed a name for it. We were going up to Memphis to do the International Blues Challenge thing, and we needed a name for the band. When I was a young kid me and my buddies used to joke around that we were going to start a band, and I remember my buddy saying ‘you should call it Johnny and the Red Hots.’ So when I was kicking around the name, J.P. Soars and the Red Hots just kind of popped into my head. So that’s where it came from.

GoBe: It totally works. For fans who haven’t had the thrill of seeing you perform live, what can they expect to see and hear.

JP: Well, we’re going to play a lot of original music. We’re going to put on the best show we can possibly put on. I’m going to play my home-made two-string cigar-box guitar, which is pretty cool and fun to play and is very unique sounding. They can expect to have a good time.

GoBe: Final question, and I know it’s probably impossible to answer but we can give it a try. If you had to pick your definitive favourite blues song, what would it be?

JP: That’s a tough one there. There’s so many good ones. If I said something, 10 minutes later I’d go ‘I forgot about that one.’ There’s just so many great tunes. “Gypsy Woman” by Muddy Waters, “The Thrill is Gone” by B.B. King. I could just go down the list.

GoBe: I hear you. It’s like sitting at the world’s best buffet and only eating one thing.

JP: (laughing). That’s right. That goes the same way with music, trying to incorporate different things and bring new things to the blues. Why paint with one colour when you can paint with an abundance of colours. That’s the way I look at it.

For more information on Blues On The Battlefield visit: https://www.bluesonthebattlefield.com/

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