JP Soars

Most blues guitarists haven't played in a handful of metal bands and aren't influenced by jazz icons like Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery. Which, as much as anything, explains why South Florida based JP Soars doesn't sound like any other area guitar slinger. The guitarist and vocalist fronts a self titled blues band and plays with both former Elvin Bishop saxophonist/vocalist Terry Hanck as well as “the Gypsy Blue Acoustic Revue”, which updates the classic 1930s and 1940s material of Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli.

JP was born in California and raised in Arkansas. He moved to South Florida in 1985. "I love Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan… but I don't try to play like them. I listen to the guys they listened to, like Albert King, Johnny Guitar Watson, T-bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Guitar Slim. I'm also very into Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery as well as horn players like Louie Jordan".

In February 2007, JP won the South Florida International Blues Challenge the second year in a row, and recently won the International Blues Competition's prestigious Albert King Award for upcoming blues guitarists, making him one of two musicians on the roster for Blues on the Green to have received the award (Sean Carney being the other). He and Terry's band – JP Soars and the Red Hots - also took top honors at the IBC by winning the award for Top Blues Band.