JP Harris
“After years of attempting to amplify acoustic instruments, with little or no success, I was finally turned on to LR Baggs equipment. As a touring professional, finding something that works in a variety of stage scenarios and replicates the true tone of an instrument was next to impossible...it always seems like you got poor-sounding pickups that were simple to use, or excellent sounding pickups wrought with feedback issues and delicate electronics.
Between the various pickup systems and DIs Baggs offers, I have at long last settled on what will surely be my top brand of equipment for life. Pair the mechanical quality of the gear with intuitive and easy-to-use functions and adjustments, and you've got what every professional is looking for. This is top-notch, real-world gear for real-world players.”
– JP Harris
In short, J.P. Harris plays Country Music. Not “Americana,” not “Roots,” “Folk” or any other number of monikers used to describe a slew of spin-off genres; he plays from the foundation of these styles, the music that has influenced four generations of songwriters. In a world where prefixes have been added to the term “Country,” JP simply sticks to the old-fashioned sounds that have called to him.
Born six minutes before Valentine’s Day in Montgomery AL in 1983, JP’s life was to be full of color, travel, hardship, and grace from the day he first saw the world. After more than six generations in Alabama, his family would leave seeking work, first to California and then on to Nevada. He left home on foot at the age of 14, traveling via thumb and freight train, living the next 4 years mostly from a backpack, tarp, and bedroll. Eventually landing in the northeast, he worked as a farm laborer, equipment operator, lumberjack, luthier, and carpenter.
His latest album “Home Is Where The Hurt Is” (produced by Harris, guitarist Adam Meisterhans, and engineer Justin Francis) was recorded and mixed at Ronnie's Place (formerly the personal studio of Ronnie Milsap) at home in Nashville. It features not your typical Music Row studio musicians, but young local players, many of whom have spent thousands of miles on the road in JP’s backing band The Tough Choices. Lending a hand on the album vocally is friend and local Indie-Country star Nikki Lane, as well as long-time friend Chance McCoy, singer and guitarist of Old Crow Medicine Show (McCoy also took rhythm and lead guitar in addition to fiddle duties throughout the album.)
When he isn’t touring, JP can usually be found repairing an old house, splitting wood in his backyard, or digging through the trash for useable refuse.