Alliance Vinyl Club to Host Special Guest in April

JJ VicarsThe Alliance Vinyl Club will take on a bluesy vibe in April.

The group will welcome special guest J.J. Vicars when it gathers at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5 at Rodman Public Library.

The guitar-slinger and singer is well known among Blues fans in and around the Carnation City, having built a following playing around the area for the last decade and winning the 2017 Northeast Ohio Blues Challenge.

Vicars, who has several albums to his credit, will spin some of his favorite tunes and talk about his career as a musician in his visit with the Alliance Vinyl Club, which is open to all music lovers and meets every first Wednesday of the month in the auditorium at Rodman Library. No registration is needed to attend the program.

Born into a musical family, Vicars took up the drums at a young age and played in his junior high marching band while studying behind the kit. Jazz dominated the record player at home while the birth of Rock 'n' Roll commanded the car radio. A few years later, Vicars discovered guitar and blues and he has never looked back since.

For the first decade of his guitar playing life, he mainly worked as a sideman in various blues and rock groups occasionally picking up a country gig here and there.

In the summer of 2001 while living in Austin, Texas, Vicars cut Sci-Fi Diner, his first solo album, and forged ahead on his own. He released two albums of old material, Hi-Tech Hillbilly and Heartland, along with the studio leftovers album, Longhaired Leftovers, during a decade-long sojourn in Japan. He finished up Long Way From Home and released it upon his return to the U.S. in 2013. Recuperating in northeast Ohio, he released Irreverent Dissident to rave reviews and heavy airplay.

During the pandemic shutdown, he began working on a series of singles testing the new business model. As of 2022, with the pandemic winding down he started working on Pickin' & Grinnin' , an all-instrumental album.

Those attending Alliance Vinyl Club meetings, which are held at 6:30 p.m. every first Wednesday of each month, are encouraged to bring along an album to share a song with others. The group, which has no formal membership, offers the opportunity to hang out, have good conversation, and make new friends.

For more information about the Alliance Vinyl Club, call 330-821-2665, ext. 216.