Episode 20-3: Jontavious Willis, also featuring All Aboard: Songs of the Railroad

About This Episode

Every generation or so, a young bluesman bursts onto the scene
and sends a jolt through the blues community. Jontavious Willis
may just have that effect on people.


Hailing from Greenville, Georgia, Willis grew up singing Gospel
music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather.
Since an early age, he had the talent and passion for the music
and the ability to sharpen his skills fast. At the age of 14, he
came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie
Coochie Man” and was instantly hooked on the blues.


He got his much-needed break from the living legend Taj Mahal,
who described him as the “Wonderboy” and “the Wunderkind.” In
2015, Mahal asked Willis to play on stage with him. That
appearance resulted in a roaring response from the audience and
led Willis to bigger stages and broader opportunities, including
an opening slot at select shows along the TajMo tour, featuring
his musical mentors Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’.


Many fans of Willis regard him as an old soul. His style of
playing the instruments and his voice touches the very roots of
country blues. He brings back the true soul of the music. A
newspaper headline once called him a “70-year-old bluesman in a
20-year-old body.”


Spectacular Class is the follow-up release to his debut album,
Blue Metamorphosis, which was released in 2016 and garnered him
rave reviews from such notable magazines as Living Blues and
Blues & Rhythm. In 2018, the album earned recognition by the
Blues Foundation through their International Blues Challenge,
where he was honored with the Best Self-Produced CD Award.
About Michael Perry

Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist
and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.


Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love
Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom, and his latest, Montaigne in Barn
Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His first book for
young readers, The Scavengers, was published in 2014 and first
novel for adult readers, The Jesus Cow, was published in May of
2015.


Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself
through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then
wandered into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters
in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire
and rescue service and is an intermittent pig farmer. He hosts
the nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a
humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently
recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has
recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A
Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues.


Learn more about Michael and where to get his publications at
www.sneezingcow.com.


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