Acoustic Blues | Greenville, GA and Richmond, VA
Hailing from Greenville, Georgia, Jontavious Willis grew up singing Gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather. From an early age, he had the talent and passion for 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 touch 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.
Andrew Alli is a Richmond, Virginia native. He took up music relatively later in life at the age of 20. After being inspired by a busker playing harmonica on the street one day, he hit the local music store and a harmonica of his own. From that point on, Andrew committed himself to learn the history of the instrument. He very soon fell in love with the blues and began studying all of the harmonica greats including Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior Wells, and more. He has developed his own unique style of playing, while still paying his respects to his biggest influences from the past. Throughout the years he has toured with dozens of musicians both domestically and abroad. For years, Andrew leads the band “Andrew Alli and the Mainline” with Ivan Appelrouth on guitar, Chaz Hibbler on drums, and Ken Kellner on bass. Andrew often plays in a duo with Jontavious Willis.