- The JP and Chrissie part of the group
After three decades fronting the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde finally steps out for a new project. Akron’s favorite daughter makes an inspired move with JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, going rawer than she has in years on the band’s debut album, Fidelity! The group’s warm, vibrant songs recall early Pretenders albums. Maybe it has something to do with Hynde splitting leadership duties with Welshman JP Jones, who co-wrote and sings the record’s 11 songs with Hynde. There’s definite chemistry between the 59-year-old Hynde and her collaborator, who — as she famously states in Fidelity!’s opening song — is less than half her age. But don’t call it a comeback. The celebrated vegan still has a lot to say as she approaches her AARP years. The Pretenders’ 2008 album Break Up the Concrete was the band’s best work since the mid ’80s. If JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys are as loose onstage as they are in the studio, it should be a great show, especially since Hynde always seems to crank it up a notch when she comes back home. JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, with Amy Correia, play the Grog Shop at 8 p.m. Tickets: $30, $25 in advance. —Ed Condran
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