JARED JAMES

The fiery fingerstylist testifies to his blues devotion with every note.

HAILING FROM WAUKESHA, Wisconsin — the home of Les Paul — Jared James Nichols has spent the past few years reigniting the heavy blues-rock fires, strangling his Les Paul into pick-less submission with some of the most incendiary fingerstyle licks in modern blues. “You have to commit and you have to mean every damn note you play,” he says.

What led you to the blues??

I came into it through the classic-rock door. I remember being a kid and hearing Zeppelin and Sabbath, and I would hear these licks and the guitar sound and I didn’t know what it was or where it came from. And then when I started to play guitar, I was 15 and someone showed me a VHS tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan — it was Live at the El Mocambo — and I saw a force of nature. I had no idea what I was watching, but it hit me upside the head. I was like, “I want to do that.”

You play with your fingers, and in a very aggressive style. How did that develop?

I do a lot of things in life with my left hand, but when I first picked up a guitar, my teacher said, “You have to play righty,” and he was trying to get me to use a pick. It just wasn’t gelling. But I noticed that when I didn’t use the pick, I had more of a connection with the instrument. It was always more natural to feel the strings under my fingers. Plus, when I started to play blues, I noticed that the fingerstyle approach took me away from trying to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, from trying to emulate this person or that person. I started to feel the licks and the phrases in my own way. As for the aggressive side of it, I think that just comes purely from my excitement to play.

You’re at an early stage in your career, and yet you already have two signature Les Pauls based on your number-one guitar, Old Glory, as well as a signature Blackstar amp, the JJN-20R.

It’s so cliché, but if you would have told me at 15 years old I would have two signature guitars and a signature amplifier, I would never have believed you. But I’ve always taken everything I do to heart. I love the Les Paul so much. I’ve forged a big piece of my identity through it, and so to be recognized by Gibson and Epiphone is something I don’t take for granted.

How do you interpret blues for a modern audience?

I try to flip it on its head and breathe fresh air into it. I listen to all types of music, and I think the best part about playing blues and playing it the way that I do is that I’m able to take influences from classic rock and more modern rock, as well as country and all these other things and blend them together. Also, I’m a very simple, raw-approach kind of player. I don’t use a lot of effects. I don’t have much beyond my hands, the guitar and the amplifier. So for me, the way to keep it fresh is to always explore. The key is to take what we’ve heard, what we love and what we know, and continue to water it and let it grow. That’s the way we evolve and the music lives on.

“IT WAS MORE NATURAL TO FEEL THE STRINGS UNDER MY FINGERS. I STARTED TO FEEL THE LICKS AND THE PHRASES”

There’s an aspect of electric blues guitar performance that is highly visual, in the manner of Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray. You certainly continue that lineage. You have a big sound and maybe an even a bigger stage presence.

Whenever I see what I think is the most exciting versions of the blues, it’s when the performers are all in. They’re giving everything they have, and it’s almost like this coming-to-God moment, where whatever’s inside of them is being translated through the music. So for me, when I pick up the guitar and perform, I want to put every ounce of my being, physically and spiritually, into it. There’s a mantra I have: “You have to be the notes.” I know that sounds very Bruce Lee–like, but you have to. [laughs] And when you do that, it shows and it flows.