When Jared James Nichols joins the Zoom meeting, he is seated on a couch in his home, vintage Les Paul in hand. It is easy to believe that he spends much of his time this way. Even though it’s early in the morning (by rock and roll standards), Nichols is looking his rock star best, with lots of blond pre-Raphaelite hair and a silver skull ring on his right hand. This guy is the genuine article.
Nichols has steadily risen through the ranks of guitarists over the past several years, creating a reputation as something of a throwback, a link to the work of artists like Leslie West, Bad Company and Free. In other words, music best listened to on an 8-track tape deck in a Camaro or GTO. He will bring his monster chops and incredible enthusiasm for music to the Acadia Bar and Grill for a show this Friday.
As is often the case these days, Nichols first appeared on many guitarists’ radar as a result of YouTube, recording video demos of vintage instruments for the Los Angeles boutique shop Fretted Americana. Nichols would run down the specs of the instrument in question, singing and playing the riffs associated with a particular guitar, e.g. Jimi Hendrix songs on a mid-‘60s Fender Stratocaster or Eric Clapton’s Cream licks on an early ‘60s Gibson SG. He also gained fame for his powerful live performances, opening shows for the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top.
The Les Paul sitting on Nichols’ lap during the interview isn’t just for show. He frequently cranks up the volume knob and blasts some licks to illustrate a point. “Here’s the first thing I learned on guitar,” he says, slowly playing the riff from “Smoke on the Water,” recreating a moment shared by guitarists around the world.
Nichols’ father, a construction worker with no formal knowledge of music, could, nevertheless, hear that his son was onto something. The elder Nichols quickly headed for a music store to upgrade the youngster’s gear, buying a starter pack containing a guitar, a small amp, and all of the necessary accessories. He also gave the aspiring musician a key piece of advice. “He said,” Nichols recalls, “‘If you’re going to do this, you have to work hard at it. You have to be all in.’”
The young guitarist took his father’s words to heart, obsessively practicing and quickly improving. “It was a pursuit. I was one of those guys who, from the moment I woke up, I grabbed a guitar and played until I fell asleep,” Nichols says.
Some have tagged Nichols as a savior of guitar-based, plank-spanking rock and roll. Since he grew up during the ‘90s, how is it that he didn’t end up an M.C. Hammer fan instead? Nichols laughs before answering. “I grew up listening to – and loving – classic rock radio. So before I even had dreams of becoming a musician, I knew every word to every song by Zeppelin and The Who.
“I just loved music. And it was easy for me to get into it, because I felt that music of that time – especially going back to the blues-influenced rock and roll – comes from a different place. It’s timeless for me. Performers were playing from their hearts. It was the humanity of it, and that’s what I was drawn to. To me, it’s just as current and relevant as it always was. I’m trying to inject myself into the music that I love,” Nichols says. “I’m not saving it, man, I’m just doing my little part to keep breathing fresh air into it.”
A key aspect of Nichols’ style (and one that sets him apart from most guitarists) is that he doesn’t play with a pick. “When I first started playing, people started saying to me, ‘Dude, you’ve got to play with a pick. It’s an electric guitar, you know?’ But there were specific guys: Jeff Beck, Albert King, Derek Trucks, Mark Knopfler. I started seeing these guys who were playing without a pick, and I thought that if they’re doing it, maybe I could do it,” Nichols says. While this technique is a significant element of Nichols’ unique sound, the approach is not without its drawbacks. To wit, frequent damage to his fingers.
“When we’re on a run – let’s say we’re playing 30 shows in 33 days – it starts to turn into a thing where your fingers, from all of the snapping and the attack, they get raw and don’t have time to callus back over. It will get to the point where I wrap tape and Super Glue around my fingers just to get through the shows,” he says.
Nichols fronts a power trio, handling both vocals and guitar, which can present a significant challenge in that he has no down time during a set, no opportunities to lay back and coast from time to time. However, there are benefits. “By the end of the show, I feel like I have had the best therapy session I could ever have, because I’m able to just let it all out, right? The best thing is that I can express myself the way I want,” Nichols says.
Nichols has just released a new single, “Down the Drain,” with an accompanying video. Like many hard-rocking videos, “Down the Drain” explores the seemingly inexorable attraction that some women have to loud guitars and the guys who play them. Only in this case, the couple in question appears to be around 13, with dude’s band rehearsing in a barn. Quite wholesome, actually, without an exotic dancer in sight.
It has been said that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Nichols employs this minimalist approach to his guitar equipment, only using effects pedals when they are necessary to reproduce sounds created in the studio during the production of his records. “What I have found is that, with the least number of things in the way between my guitar and the speaker, that’s when I feel most at home,” Nichols says.
“It’s just refreshing sometimes to plug in and say, ‘This is me. Here I am. Let’s go!’”
Jared James Nichols will play at the Acadia Bar and Grill, 3939 Cypress Creek Parkway, on Friday, November 11, at 8 p.m. More information is available at www.acadiabarandgrill.com or by calling 281-893-2860. $15 in advance, $20 the day of the show.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
