One of the many famed phrases used by vocalist James Brown (1933-2006), the “Godfather of Soul,” was “give the drummer some.”
It served as an instruction to the remainder of his ensemble to lay back and allow one of his great drummers, notably Clyde Stubblefield or John “Jabo” Starks, to solo unaccompanied or over a band vamp.
Chris Peet, of the gifted area blues trio J.P. Soars & the Red Hots (jpsoars.com), found a way to flip that script.
In January, this drummer actually gave some — as in one of his drum kits — so that Rudy’s at Bamboo in Lake Worth Beach could have a permanent house set by Japanese manufacturer Pearl for drummers to use. Previously, they had to schlep their own equipment upstairs to the second-story venue.
True to form, the humble Peet downplays the gift of the brown, birch wood Pearl BLX four-piece kit, which is completed by a Pearl piccolo snare drum, a bass drum pedal, and cymbal stands. Now, all drummers need to bring are drumsticks and cymbals.
“I still have my 1964 Ludwig kit and my Gretsch kit, which I bought in 2001,” he says by phone from his home in Deerfield Beach. “That Pearl set was the first new one I ever purchased in 1995, and it was in storage. [Rudy’s at Bamboo owner] MaryBeth Sisoian was flying in touring blues artist Hadden Sayers, and needed a drum set for his band. So I decided to just set it up there and leave it.”
Peet and singing guitarist Soars go back nearly 20 years. Both are also part of the regional all-star blues act Southern Hospitality, a veteran quintet with two album releases featuring singing guitarist Damon Fowler, vocalist/keyboardist Victor Wainwright, and bassist Terrence Grayson.
With Soars, Peet has appeared on his primary instrument, or on bass, on every release from the 2008 debut Back of My Mind through last year’s Brick By Brick (on which he contributed tracks on both instruments). The hard-touring Red Hots have now been rounded out by bassist Cleveland Frederick, whose rhythmic and harmonic sensibilities provide the glue between Soars and Peet, for nearly 10 years.
Soars’ vocals, songwriting, slide guitar playing and fiery soloing — on both standard electric instruments and his own cigar box designs — resulted in him winning both the Blues Foundation’s annual International Blues Challenge and the Albert King Award for best guitarist at its 2009 finals in Memphis, Tenn. Soars’ previous experience playing in heavy metal bands gives him a unique voice in both the blues trio and another project, his jazz-tinged Gypsy Blue Revue with violinist Anne Harris.
Blues Blast Music Awards and numerous other nominations have followed Soars’ IBC win more than 15 years ago. And his steady, understated drummer — influenced by diverse icons from The Band’s Levon Helm and The Beatles’ Ringo Starr to Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and Booker T. & the M.G.s’ Al Jackson Jr. — received a long-overdue nomination as best drummer in the Blues Foundation’s forthcoming 2025 Blues Music Awards. The awards ceremony takes place in Memphis on May 5.
“That’s an honor,” Peet says. “There are so many great drummers, and some of the other nominees are legacy guys. I feel lucky to be thought of in the same sentence as them.”
Such humility, not to mention his work ethic, is much appreciated by Peet’s co-workers.
“Not only is Chris an amazing drummer,” Soars says, “but he’s also a fantastic bass player and an awesome, extremely knowledgeable musician. Always going above and beyond the call of duty on so many levels. He drives the band, and the van!”
The lifestyle came naturally. A South Florida native, Peet’s uncle is guitarist Steve Siciliano, whose searing solos have lit up the area music scene from the 1980s (with the bands Straight Shooter and Brookes Bros.) through his current work with the Andrew Morris Band. Siciliano also now runs his own popular guitar repair shop in West Palm Beach.
Inspired by local drummers like Richard Tucker (Rickie & the Rocketships, Brookes Bros.) and George Anderson (The Dillengers, The White Owls), Peet then learned bass basics from the Dillengers’ multi-talented frontman, singing guitarist/bassist Rick Rossano.
The Red Hots have since become one of the hottest touring acts through Florida and beyond. The trio are spending most of April winding through the Sunshine State and into Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia before returning to customary local stops, including Rudy’s at Bamboo — where Peet selflessly reiterates that the house Pearl drum set qualifies as a gift to himself.
“It beats my having to lug a drum set up and down the stairs or into the elevator there,” he says. “It was either going to be there or in storage anyway.”
Cue the figurative, pay-it-forward, James Brown-influenced soundtrack of “Give It Away,” the hit tune by those other Red Hots, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
If You Go
See J.P. Soars & the Red Hots at 8 p.m. April 26 at Village Music, 10410 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington (561-798-5334, villagemusicwellington.com), and at 5 p.m. April 27 at Rudy’s at Bamboo, 25 S. J St., Lake Worth Beach (561-602-5307, rudyspubinlakeworth.com).