Jontavious Willis

Jontavious Willis (born 1996) is an American country blues singer, guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Willis has released three albums to date, with his sophomore effort, Spectacular Class, debuting at number 12 in the Billboard Blues Albums Chart in May 2019.

He has been mentored through his early career by Keb' Mo', and Taj Mahal.

Biography Jontavious Willis was born in Greenville, Georgia, United States. He grew up singing gospel music, alongside his grandfather, at his local Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church. At the age of 14, Willis watched an online video of Muddy Waters performing "Hoochie Coochie Man" and was drawn towards blues music. Blue Metamorphosis got favorable reviews from both Living Blues and Blues & Rhythm magazines. Paul Oscher stated "When I heard him play I said to myself: this is how the blues, as I know it, is going to stay alive." It won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. On the resulting promotional tour, Willis played as the support act for the two seasoned blues men on several dates. The album was issued on Kind of Blue Music. The collection contained ten sides with the lyrical content all penned by Willis. He provided vocals and acoustic guitar (fingerpicker/flatpicker/slide) with Keb' Mo' on electric guitar, Eric Ramey on bass, Phil Madeira on keyboards, plus Martin Lynds and Thaddeus Witherspoon on drums. Spectacular Class debuted at number 12 in the Billboard Blues Albums Chart in May 2019, and was nominated for the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Tour dates for 2019 and beyond include concerts in the US, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Discography Albums Year Title Record label 2017 Blue Metamorphosis Self released 2019 Spectacular Class Kind of Blue Music 2024 West Georgia Blues Strolling Bones Records