JP Harris & the Tough Choices

What we do know is you’ll get full band performance from each of these songwriters and plenty of collaborating as well. You’ll do the dancing and drinking and, more than likely, the calling in sick the next day. Whereas Joe has been seen on the road solo a lot this past year, he will be in full glory with backing band, bringing his tales to full and vivid life. And as JP has made a name solely as a loud, electrified honky tonker, this tour features a visitation to his past, throwing in eerie fretless-banjo murder ballads, new and unrecorded material, and some covers you would have never otherwise expected when he is seen with his backing band The Tough Choices. Both men have something unique to bring to the table, so bet on red or black; anywhere the ball stops will be a win.

Joe Fletcher’s White Lighter record (featuring David Lamb and MorganEve Swain of Brown Bird, and John McCauley of Deer Tick, Middle Brother, and Diamond Rugs) soared up the Americana Music Association charts in 2012 earning him his first appearance at The Newport Folk Festival and opening slots for Lucero, Brown Bird, and The Head and The Heart.  He’s currently finishing up his third album, You’ve Got the Wrong Man.

As the winter loses is frigid grip, the wheels begin to turn again…The Tough Choices hit the road for points west and south May 2, hitting AR, OK, TX, and MS before returning home briefly before their first trip to the upper midwest. Once May wraps up, JP hits the road for something a little different…”The Highway Roulette Tour” with Providence, RI’s acclaimed Joe Fletcher (as seen supporting Brown Bird, The Low Anthem, Lucero, and featured repeatedly at the famed Newport Folk Festival…www.joefletchermusic.com) is a very slight digression from what most have seen over the last 3 or 4 years. Bringing a skeleton-crew band, Harris reaches slightly out of his box to include new, unrecorded material, covers by Towns and Blaze Foley to name a few, and digs into his past to bring his weathered fretless banjo to the stage…unearthing haunting murder tales from the 18th and 19th century, ballads few have seen JP perform in over 5 years. Expect to also see Joe and JP collaborate on this rare pairing of two rising songwriters, a string of shows you should be sure not to miss.

Great news from the frontlines of the war on god-awful country music: This week The Nashville Scene released it’s yearly “Best of Nashville” issue, and J.P. Harris’ “I’ll Keep Calling” tied with the legendary Chuck Mead’s most recent record for the win! Wonderful news for J.P., and even better news for the world of country music at-large; Nashville is a changing city, and a lot of folks here still believe in the old way of doing things, apparently…
Read the blurb here:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/arts-music-and-culture-writers-choice/Content?oid=3039725