Roxercat’s EP “Pearls” is an exemplary well put together, polished, and satisfying listening experience that showcases the band’s ever so evocative and imaginative storytelling and dexterous musicianship. Led by singer and songwriter Price Jones, guitarist Stan Lassiter, and bassist Bill Francis, the band’s sound blends together elements of a multitude of genres but anchors itself around a core feeling and ethos of progressive rock. The EP, co-produced by Price Jones and Grammy award-winning engineer and producer Clarke Schleicher, was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios with overdubs at Cat Tracks Studio.
The songs on the EP touch on various themes, including life’s challenges that the modern internet age has thrown us in. Everything from the intricacies of love and relationships to the more existential questions about changes in life and persevering through times that are uncertain and layered with struggle finds a voice on the record.. The title track, “Pearls,” embodies Price Jones’ worldview as a simple message: no matter the current status of relationships with the people who come and go throughout your life, you can still wish them happiness. It’s immensely empowering but also deeply empathic at the same time. You’re reminded about the beauty in the life that you have and your own duty to persevere it, even when that might come at the cost of relationships that are invariably tearing you down in some way or the other.
Price Jones’ vocal performance is a definitive highlight of the record, at once both vulnerable and exceptionally powerful. The guitar work of Stan Lassiter alongside Bill Francis’ pulsating bass work add so much to the overall mood and tone of each record, really anchoring the emotional core of the record. Finding itself both epic in scale and subdued when it needs to be, Pearls is a truly wondrous piece of progressive music.