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 drum sticks 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 [i]Back of My Mind[i] through last year's [i]Brick By Brick[i] (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, TN. 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 knowledegable 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 will spend 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).

Christian Rock. It's a relatively vague 20th Century description that crept into music ranging from pop stars (Irish group U2) to hard rockers (Missouri-launched trio King's X) to metallic acts (California band Stryper), all of which rose to prominence between the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Times have clearly changed. The current, rechristened Contemporary Christian subgenre became one of the fastest-growing in music in 2024. And a current area disciple is the Stuart-based trio Called (www.CalledMusicUSA.com).
Call it a higher power trio. Featuring vocalist/guitarist Heather Sharp, vocalist/bassist Andre Boucher, and drummer, percussionist, keyboardist and vocalist Paul Marcucci, Called offers private spiritual retreats and public acoustic meditations at various South Florida places of worship. Offering "An Experience of Music & Prayer," it's contemporary Christian music with a Catholic sensibility as displayed on the group's new sophomore release, [i]Ethos[i].
Like the above-mentioned bands, there are secular elements within Called's faith-based lyrics. Sharp's vocals and guitar playing echo Heart's Nancy Wilson more than anything resembling a traditional Christian star like Amy Grant; Boucher's intricate bass playing and songwriting were influenced by British classic rock icons Black Sabbath and California ska, rock and funk practitioners Fishbone, and Marcucci's solid drumming, percussive accents and inventive keyboards wouldn't sound out of place in the music of pop stars The Cars.
"What we're doing is more spiritual than necessarily sacred," says Boucher, a deacon at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Stuart. "We call what we do a music ministry, doing some preaching as well, and we try to deliver a message through the music in the process."
"It's about sharing life experiences of our own with other people," Sharp says. "Those experiences include our influences, and our message is often to let them know that they're not alone."
Sharp moved to South Florida with her family as a child from her native Ohio in 1974; Boucher from Massachusetts to attend the University of Miami in 1983. Marcucci, a longtime public school band director both locally and in New York, was the latest to convert geographically (2003). And spiritually, at least from a recording and performing standpoint.
"Some of my early influences were Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Allman Brothers Band, and Led Zeppelin," he says. "I'd seen Andre play with his former band Boss Groove, and thought he was the best bass player I'd seen in Florida before we actually met in person at the gym. And I didn't start playing music like ours until he called me to be part of this project."
One major reason for Christian music emerging more as its own entity -- as opposed to being somewhat cloaked in the various forms of popular music made by the artists listed early here -- is the rise of streaming platforms over terrestrial radio stations. U2 remains an international sensation with Christian underpinnings that were never too overt for Top 40 radio stations, yet were never overt enough for Christian radio. Modern streaming acts in the subgenre often mix sacred lyrics with secular instrumental elements and song structures, yet they can now avoid such obstacles.
"Christian music is having a moment," Brett McCracken recently wrote in the online publication [i]The Gospel Coalition[i], "in part, because it sounds more authentic and organic, rather than formulaic and gatekeeper-approved. Artists like Frank and Queen make the music they love, even if it's outside the box. Other artists like Jon Guerra, Andy Squyres or Taylor Leonhardt can reach audiences with the sort of Bob Dylan-esque troubadour lyricism that Christian radio would never touch."
[i]Ethos[i] is thus a release made for the moment. Sharp's fiery electric guitar and vocals propel the heartfelt rocker "Inside the Blue," and her acoustic playing, Marcucci's percussion and Boucher's fretless bass drive the anthemic "Overcome." The album's first single, the self-explanatory "He Leads Me," and the human trafficking-themed "27 Bones" even echo spirited strains of Aerosmith and Rush, respectively. However spirited, there's no escaping the deep secular roots in Called's music.
"I sang and played for seven years in a local Led Zeppelin cover band called Swan Song," Sharp says. "I still have the crushed velvet banner with Zeppelin's record label angel logo."
Boucher even delivers a closing [i]Ethos[i] verbal statement in "State of Affairs," tossing thoughtful, rapid-fire a Cappella words and phrases about current events that would make rap emcees envious. In the immortal words of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, one could call it the bassist's Christian hip-hop oratory of deacon blues.
"While the world has not failed," Boucher sermonizes, "the veil of dismay-al and betrayal makes it hard to find our right minds in these times."
Called's new eight-song disc is a fitting follow-up to its self-titled, 11-song 2022 debut album, which featured videos for both the rocking "The Balance" and the production and pro-life, message-driven ballad "Mother."
"At the retreats that we do, so many women come up and mention that song," says Sharp. "Men too. They all identify with it in some way. An 80-year-old woman told the story about being pregnant with twins, but feeling she had to end their lives. She said she'd kept it a secret before she opened up to us about it."
All three trio members answer questions thoughtfully, thoroughly and sincerely. Boucher, for his part, is always introspective enough to answer even the most illogical question.
So to paraphrase Steely Dan lyrics once again, did the deacon cry when he wrote his "State of Affairs" mini-sermon?
"No," he says with a laugh. "We love to play our instruments, but our music boils down to the lyrics. And I'd been ruminating for some time on those. You can call it my homage to, as much as a white guy is capable of, everyone from Martin Luther King to [Fishbone vocalist] Angelo Moore."

If You Go
See Acoustic Meditations with Called at 4 p.m. April 6 and May 4 at St. Andrew Catholic Church, 2100 S.E. Cove Rd., Stuart (772-781-4415).