JP Soars has never been one to stay inside the lines, and Gypsy Blues Review finds him pushing that instinct even further.
This is not a record that sits politely on the shelf. It crackles with the energy of musicians chasing the moment. Teaming up with violinist Anne Harris, Soars delivers a set that feels less carefully constructed and more discovered in real time. Blues remains the foundation, but rarely the final destination.
Viper immediately sets the tone. Built on a slinking groove and a haze of late-night tension, the track coils around Harris’ fiery fiddle lines as they weave through Soars’ rugged vocal delivery. There is a genuine sense of risk here, the kind of loose chemistry that sounds ready to burst at any second.
Jessie Mae leans closer to tradition, but even then Soars refuses to settle. A gypsy-jazz undercurrent, nodding towards Django Reinhardt, runs through the arrangement and gives the song a restless swing.
Meanwhile, Goin’ To South Carolina arrives on an open-road rhythm that feels built for summer festival stages and dust-filled encores.
What defines this album is conversation. Harris is not simply adding decoration. She is driving these songs forward. Her violin acts as a true counterpoint, locking horns with Soars’ guitar and keeping each track alive.
There are moments that echo the deep groove of Muscle Shoals, others that feel like front-porch improvisations stretching long into the night. None of it feels forced. It breathes.
At times, the album’s stylistic wanderings can make it feel loose around the edges. But that is also its strength. Soars is not chasing cohesion. He is chasing feel.
That instinct pays off in a record that is as unpredictable as it is alive, less a fixed statement and more a snapshot of an artist refusing to stand still.
Reviewed by Colin Campbell
