JP Soars is Making a Scene

September 13, 2026

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with JP Soars

JP Soars has spent more than two decades building his reputation the way roots music was meant to be built: onstage, night after night, with a guitar in his hands and a road-tested sound that refuses to stay politely inside one genre. A fiery guitarist, soulful singer, and inventive songwriter, Soars moves through blues, rock and roll, Latin rhythms, country, Southern soul, and gypsy jazz with the confidence of a musician guided less by category than by feel.

That wide-open musical vision comes into sharp focus on Gypsy Blue Revue, his collaboration with acclaimed Chicago-based violinist, singer, songwriter, and recording artist Anne Harris. The project brings together two restless musical spirits: Soars with his blues guitar fire and road-house grit, and Harris with a violin voice that can move from rootsy and earthy to soaring, cinematic, and nearly otherworldly. Together, they create a sound that blends Southern soul, blues, rock, Americana, country, folk, and Django Reinhardt-inspired swing into something raw, adventurous, and deeply alive.

The partnership began in 2019 after Soars and Harris crossed paths on the festival circuit and joined forces at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas. The chemistry was immediate. What started as a one-off collaboration quickly grew into something larger, as the two musicians discovered a shared appetite for songs that could stretch, breathe, and move beyond the usual boundaries of blues-based music.

Gypsy Blue Revue was recorded live in a rural Ohio studio without click tracks or overdubs, capturing the immediacy of musicians playing together in real time. Soars has described the approach as similar to a live show, with everyone in one room and the focus placed on honest performance rather than studio perfection. That choice gives the album its pulse. The record does not feel assembled. It feels played. It carries the sound of musicians listening to one another, responding in the moment, and trusting the spark in the room.

The album also features Soars’ longtime rhythm section, drummer Chris Peet and bassist Cleveland Frederick, whose groove and chemistry have been central to Soars’ sound for years. With Harris added to that foundation, the music opens into wider territory. The violin does not sit politely on top of the songs as decoration. It pushes, answers, colors, challenges, and lifts the music, giving Gypsy Blue Revue a voice that is blues-rooted but never predictable.

The songs show the range of Soars’ storytelling and musicianship. “Jessie Mae” draws from a real-life encounter with Hill Country blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill, turning memory into a song filled with strength, humor, and reverence. “Goin’ To South Carolina” grew from the energy of a spontaneous studio moment, expanding from a single riff into a full-bodied groove shaped by Soars’ guitar work and lap steel textures. “Viper” takes a darker, more cautionary turn, telling the story of romantic trouble with bite, humor, and bluesy warning signs flashing all over the dashboard.

Born in California, raised in Arkansas, and now based in South Florida, Soars found his direction at age eighteen after seeing B.B. King and meeting him backstage. That moment helped cement his devotion to the blues, even though his musical path briefly moved through heavy metal before circling back to the roots that best matched his voice, guitar style, and emotional instincts. That detour matters, because Soars never became a narrow traditionalist. He carries the blues forward with the ears of a player who has absorbed rock, world music, swing, country, and anything else that moves him.

His catalog reflects that restless curiosity. Across albums including Back of My Mind, More Bees with Honey, Full Moon in Memphis, JP Soars Live from the Netherlands, Southbound I-95, and Let Go of the Reins, Soars has continued expanding his vocabulary while keeping blues feeling at the center. Let Go of the Reins, produced by Tab Benoit, further established his place as an artist willing to follow the song wherever it wants to go, whether that means swampy groove, blues-rock muscle, soul feeling, or sharp-edged roots storytelling.

Soars’ career has earned major recognition. In 2009, he won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge with JP Soars and the Red Hots and also received the Albert King Guitar Award. He has received multiple Blues Music Award nominations, including recognition in categories such as Best Guitarist, Best Blues-Rock Artist, Best Contemporary Blues Artist, Band of the Year, and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. His albums have reached the Billboard Blues Top 10, earned recognition from Little Steven’s Underground Garage, and brought Blues Blast Music Awards attention, including Blues Band of the Year.

Anne Harris brings an equally distinctive musical presence to Gypsy Blue Revue. A classically trained violinist based in Chicago, she has built a career that crosses pop-rock, folk, blues, country, roots music, and global musical traditions. She has released six studio albums, toured internationally, and spent a decade collaborating with Blues Music Award-winning artist Otis Taylor, an experience that helped shape her sense of space, texture, and storytelling. Harris has also served on the Chicago Chapter Board of Governors of the Recording Academy, reflecting her long-standing role not only as a performer but as an active member of the music community.

Together, JP Soars and Anne Harris make Gypsy Blue Revue feel less like a side project and more like a natural collision of musical instincts. It is blues with room to roam, Americana with sharper teeth, roots music with a passport, and a live-band record that actually sounds like people breathing the same air while they play. In an era when too much music feels sanded down by machines and committees, this project has the nerve to sound human.

Gypsy Blue Revue showcases both artists at their most vital: raw, adventurous, deeply connected, and unafraid of musical left turns. It is a record forged onstage, captured in the studio, and built for listeners who still value authenticity, musicianship, and songs that refuse to sit still.