JP Soars has shared “Goin’ to South Carolina,” the latest single from ‘Gypsy Blue Revue’, his forthcoming collaboration with Chicago-based violinist, vocalist, and songwriter Anne Harris, arriving May 29 via Forty Below Records. The track captures exactly what the album promises, loose, instinctive, and alive from the first note.
“The music for this song was essentially written in the studio on the spot,” Soars says. “I had the main riff at the beginning and one vocal line. We started playing the riff while the engineer was moving microphones. We all just kinda looked at each other, smiling. It fell into place immediately and felt great.” He finished the lyrics and vocals weeks later in Florida, building a character-driven narrative around that initial spark.
‘Gypsy Blue Revue’ was recorded live at a rural Ohio studio with no click tracks or overdubs, with Soars’ longtime bandmates, drummer Chris Peet and bassist Cleveland Frederick, anchoring the sessions alongside Harris. “We approached it exactly like a show,” Soars explains. “All in one room, playing together. We just wanted it to sound like us.” The partnership with Harris grew out of a meeting on the festival circuit in 2019 and solidified at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas.
Previously released singles “Viper” and “Jessie Mae,” the latter drawn from a real encounter with Hill Country blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill, round out a picture of an album with serious storytelling range. For over two decades, Soars has built his reputation onstage, blending blues, rock, Latin rhythms, country, and gypsy jazz on his own terms. ‘Gypsy Blue Revue’ is the natural extension of that, and it sounds like it.