Parlor Greens Keep It Cooking with Emeralds

Seattle guitarist Jimmy James talks groove, mentorship, and finding the pocket decades into his career.

By Gregory Adams

Published on March 13, 2026

Jimmy James is a seasoned player in Seattle’s soul scene, a prolific guitarist who spent his teenage years understudying six-stringers at local bars around the Emerald City, gleefully absorbing their lessons on life and how to sit in the sweetest spot of the rhythmic pocket. He’d get his on-stage start playing James Brown songs at a high school talent show, then make his way onto the all-ages club circuit playing originals. Sometimes he’d bring an unplugged electric to outdoor concerts he wasn’t even playing just to flash a smile and a spritely lick or two to friends in the crowd.

This all set him up for a prolific, now decades-long career. These days he’s delivering flavourful instrumentals through longtime septet the True Loves, and he just started working with his new psychedelic funk unit, Champagne Bubblebath. Like the folks who helped him back in the day, he’s now mentoring younger musicians as they’re breaking into the local music community.

Parlor Greens is another active band of James’, and the name of the group’s new album, Emeralds, feels like a nod to his roots in the Pacific Northwest. That’s not entirely the case though, considering the line-up also includes Nashville-based timekeeper Tim Carman (Canyon Lights, GA-20) and Brooklyn native Adam Scone, a veteran Hammond-organist who has collaborated with soul titans like Lee Fields and the late Charles Bradley. And when it comes to a meaty Emeralds strut called “Parlor Change,” that one was actually inspired by an irreverent, off-the-bone slogan the group saw on the side of Texan barbecue landmark.

“We happened to be in Austin, Texas, and we drove by this barbecue joint — [it] said, ‘You don’t need no teeth to eat my beef,’” James shares through a laugh from his home in Washington State, adding that the mealtime motto at the famous Sam’s BBQ seeped into their thoughts throughout the rest of the drive. “All of a sudden, we’re sitting in the car and we start singing ‘You don’t need no teeth to eat my beef’! I recorded it on my phone. The next thing you know, I took the melody and we grooved it. And then it became the song ‘Parlor Change.’”

Altogether, Emeralds is the second helping of vivacious soul-jazz from the U.S. trio, and James knows the hooks on the instrumental outfit’s latest release will stick to your ribs.

The three musicians’ debut album, 2024’s In Green / We Dream, was the product of them traveling to Loveland, Ohio’s Portage Lounge recording studio and working on the fly. They playfully found their way to the pocket on the LP, and continued to hone the dynamic through North American tours and a few Japanese concerts.

They start this new 11-course meal with “Eat Your Greens,” a vitamin-packed rave-up upon which B3-player Scone lays down a crisp bed of Hammond sounds. Carman drum-sticks his way through a solid backbeat, while James’ rhythmic plinking acts as the lemon-zested dressing. They follow this up with “Mustard Sauce,” which brings things to a boil with piquant, percussive funkiness. The record also features a series of soulful shuffles, rock-solid jams like “Red Dog” and a sly run-through of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” No matter the tempo, Parlor Greens specialize in good vibes.

“When you do your first record, it’s wild, brash and new — you haven’t broken things in yet. But when you get to your second record, you’re getting a sense of the feel,” James theorizes.

Though Parlor Greens have become an international enterprise, James still got into his rhythm while living in Seattle. He comes from a musical family — He has fond memories of watching his late sister Chelsea drumming for a folk-rock group called Tribal Therapy in the ‘90s, while his mother sang in a band called the Champelles in the ‘60s. The gentle, melodic introspection of Emeralds’ closing “Queen of My Heart” is a tribute to the latter, who passed away in 2022. The sweet-shimmering finale gets especially emotional in its closing moments by including a tender, loving conversation between Jimmy and the matriarch — it’s the final recording he has of his mom before she died.

“‘Queen of My Heart’ was actually written at my mother’s grave. I brought a battery-powered amp there and I was just playing,” he explains of the music, which he was initially unsure about sharing with his bandmates. “The night before [Parlor Greens] recorded it, I had a vivid dream of her. She kind of winked at me and said, ‘Go ahead and do it,’ and then the dream was over. And then the next day we recorded it.”

“I would say that’s one of the hardest songs that I ever had to write,” he continues, adding that it may be too personal of a song to ever play on-stage. But he’s glad he tracked the tribute with Carman and Scone. When he got the final mix back, James returned to the graveyard to stream the recording for his mom. “It’s very emotional,” he says of the song, “but it’s home.”