Roots Rocker JD McPherson and his band at Belleville!

J.D. McPherson … this renaissance man/hepcat seamlessly meshes the old and the new, the primal and the sophisticated, traditional American rock ’n’ roll with 50’s rhythm & blues. McPherson brings a rarefied gift for mixing and matching disparate styles and textures, fusing Little Richard with a dash of Clash and Wu-Tang Clan, all unmistakably rooted in traditional R&B and unmistakably original.
 
If you went to middle school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 2008 to 2011, you may have been lucky enough to take a class with one Mr. McPherson. As the chair of the art department, he taught students about Andy Kaufman, organized an avant-garde art program and had a mixtape club that even the high school soccer players took part in. “This is why I lost my job,” the teacher says. “Maybe you shouldn’t give 15-year old kids Bad Brains.”