“Getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me,” roots rocker and former Oklahoma high school art teacher JD McPherson says with a light laugh. The guitarist, vocalist and bandleader is currently setting eardrums ablaze with his second set of original compositions, Let the Good Times Roll (Rounder), which channels the earliest days of rock and roll and rhythm and blues but pumps up those raw sounds with electrifying modern embellishments. Though he “was never without a band”—playing punk, metal and Western swing since he was 15—music remained a secondary priority to teaching. Stockpiling songs, McPherson eventually slipped the demos to Hi-Style Records owner Jimmy Sutton, his current bassist, and was invited to cut an album. Then the pink slip arrived.

“Weird things happen sometimes,” McPherson laughs. “If I had been laid off a year earlier, I wouldn’t have had a record already made. If I’d been laid off a year later, it would have been too late,” he explains. “I was happy doing what I did, but I’m much happier now.”

McPherson’s musical future was unknowingly shaped when, as a young, hard-driving punk, he discovered Buddy Holly. There was an instant connection to the rebellious nature of Holly’s music. “It was like the best of both worlds. It was hot and primitive, but it had a finesse to it,” he recalls. “Black Flag has no finesse. I approach my music with what attracted me to those early rock sounds.”

McPherson’s music builds off 1950s simplicity, jumping, shaking and shimmying in a blend of Little Richard, Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran. Though already in his 30s, McPherson channeled that youthful exuberance into his 2010 debut, Signs And Signifiers. “It’s pure rock and roll,” he concurs.

Yet, McPherson needed to let in more modern influences. His songs, as he tells it, are alive. Given their undeniable, spontaneous energy, in many ways, they forced McPherson to take chances and explore new ground.

“They were just asking for a different treatment. I’m amazed some songs were reaching out as far as they did,” he asserts. “I was starting to push my elbows out on the first record, but it was nothing like this one. I’ve changed lyrically and sonically, and I’m glad I did. I love my first record, but this is much more personal.”