"Soul Music

There is a certain type of musician that can change your life the minute you encounter his music. During that minute, you’ve walked into a bar with a mind full of bullshit, had a much-needed drink, then opened your ears to realize you are being taken elsewhere — away from your day, away from your thoughts and away from whatever beef you have with your world at that moment. This rare yet colloquial brand of musician most likely doesn’t have a record deal or a well-polished album, maybe just a guitar, a voice and something simple but difficult to possess. Guitar player and vocalist Jessiah Soul is that type of musician. His smooth, charming music can save lives. Ironically, he just finished saving his own.

A local who has played music since he was 12, Soul was first schooled in guitar by his uncle, Jason Moss (guitarist of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies). Moss showed his nephew how to finger pick and play by ear, a talent that grew on Soul and became a saving grace for him as years unfolded.

If you happened to frequent Jo Federico’s Restaurant & Jazz Club before it closed down a few years back, you’d have found Soul playing there weekly, as frontman and vocalist for the acclaimed funk band Natural Progression. When that band reached its end, Soul disappeared from the scene. He re-emerged in 2006 with members of the bands The Dead Americans and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, forming a group called Runaway Slave.

Soul and I sit across from each other at a local restaurant and I ask him why Runaway Slave also folded. He smiles, cracks his knuckles and looks away before meeting my eyes. “Bad decisions,” he says. “The music industry comes along with a bunch of addictive things. And a lot of confusion can happen when you use substances to enhance your creativity.”

After Runaway Slave folded, Soul retreated to Hawaii for purposes of “healing and surf.” There he wrote more than 30 songs over the course of a month and returned to Eugene, ready to start over. A humble but powerful singer, Soul — a sober and rebuilt man — now picks up where he left off, guitar in hand.

Jessiah Soul"

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2011/06/09/music2.html

((((So if you’re anywhere ‘round The Last Bastion of truly human (not ree ree rah rah I’m a liberal well I’m a conservative! Pick a side and be denied life on earth as it could be & there’s NO balanced consideration whatsoever) thinking populace, and you can get out to the venues, please do check Jessiah Soul out firsthand, as there is NO WAY WE can this year…although we really, really, want to….))))

[Dan] I sure do miss when we could post photos & play round with typeface size & shape and other such nifty publishing gestures here on the mighty David Baerwald Info Source. I ain’t bitchin’, nope, No doubt it’s a task.