It would be fair to say J.P. Soars has been a bit of a musical chameleon over the years.
Cutting his teeth as a guitarist with several heavy metal bands in the 1990s, all the while honing his skills playing in blues projects on the side. That all changed in 2005 when Soars looked out over the crowd while playing his six-stringed trade with Divine Empire and he realized he was twice as old as the average age of his audience.
He was just 36 at the time and he knew he had a choice to make.
“I was doing both simultaneously,” Soars tells ThoroldToday. “I would go on tour with the band, and I would come home, and I'd be playing blues gigs a couple days later.”
Soars will be in Thorold on Saturday, July 13, when he brings his Gypsy Blues Review featuring Anne Harris to Club Belvedere at 4 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the club located at 57 John St. or online at ticketscene.ca.
It’s hard to envision the transition between playing two styles of music so diametrically opposed to each other. Most modern heavy metal being built on speed – guitarist jamming as many notes as possible in 12 bars – versus the more sparse and emotive style of classic blues music.
But Soars has managed to do it.
‘It's an emotion, you know, it's a totally different feel,” Soars says. “In heavy metal, it’s high energy, very aggressive, frantic energy, and stuff. Whereas the blues, you can have that in there at times, but it's got so much other… “
Soars pauses, looking for the right word.
“You know, it’s different,” he says.
Not one to get stuck in a rut, Soars’ style is constantly evolving.
“I'm always learning and still growing,” Soars says. “I’m always discovering new music and different stuff so it's never ending. Recently, I've been into some Brazilian stuff, listening to bossa nova and samba and stuff like that.”
A lot of those influences can be found on Soars latest album, Brick by Brick, released just last month.
“It's got quite a few different styles,” says Soars. “It's got some straight-ahead blues stuff, but it's got some outside the box stuff as well."
He says the variety of styles came about naturally while making the album.
“I didn't go about it saying, ‘I'm going to record this record with all these different styles and things like that.’ Whatever happens to come out of me, I just go with it.”
He first met Harris while both were performing on a rhythm and blues cruise in 2011.
“She was playing with Otis Taylor,” Soars said. “We wound up jamming at a couple impromptu jams and stuff. I just love her playing. I love her energy. She’s just a really great person and phenomenal musician.”
The pair would run into each other on the festival circuit often and Soars thought it would be great to work with her on something a little more than just an impromptu jam.
So, after a festival run back in 2018, he did just that.
“I got home from that trip, and I thought to myself, you know, maybe you should put a project together with Anne and that's what we did, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”
Between special events and festivals, the pair will perform at upwards of 20 gigs.
"It's always just a real special, special treat and a special show for us as musicians and for the audience,” Soars says.
The Thorold stop will be Soars’ first in eight years.
“Has it really been that long?” Soars asks.
Then, the memories of that time come to him. His last performance was at the Battle of Beaverdams Park on Canada Day in 2016.
“Yeah, it was at the park, in the pavilion there,” Soars says. “Paul Deslauriers played, Brandon Santini, and we all got up and jammed at the end. It was a blast. It's a great time.”
Visit jpsoars.com for more information.
