Quon Willis

Every generation or so, a young bluesman arrives and sends a jolt through the music. Not a pastiche. Not a tribute act. The real thing — someone who has absorbed the tradition so completely that it flows back out of them as something entirely their own. Jontavious "Quon" Willis, born 1996 in LaGrange, Georgia, raised in Greenville (population 864), is that person for this generation.

Taj Mahal called him on stage in Atlanta in 2015 and branded him "Wonderboy, the Wunderkind." Paul Oscher, who toured with Muddy Waters, said he was the first blues musician in thirty years he would pay to see. Living Blues Magazine called him "one of the brilliant new voices." He was nineteen years old.

None of it surprised the people who knew him. At age three, Quon was standing on a chair beside his grandfather Simon Reeves at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Greenville, singing to the congregation. "That was the first time I ever had an audience and the first time I ever had musicians," he has said. "I pretty much learned everything I know about music in the church — timing, phrasing, how to read the crowd, making them feel like they're part of the performance."

"That's my Wonderboy, the Wunderkind. He's a great new voice of the 21st century in the acoustic blues. I just love the way he plays."

— TAJ MAHAL

The Guitar That Changed Everything

Quon's father was an electronics technician and a guitarist. The house was full of music — gospel, secular, hip-hop — and it connected him to everything. Around age eight he took trombone lessons, discovered a talent for piano, and then, at twelve, stumbled across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters performing "Hoochie Coochie Man." It was a life-changer.

"His voice kinda reminded me of my pastor in the way he got that rich tone," Quon has recalled. "And after seeing Muddy, I made a conscious decision to play the guitar — to play blues guitar. Even then, I knew."

That Christmas he received a Fender Squire under the tree. He switched to acoustic within months — first a rental, then a Kay Old Kraftsman he found at a yard sale. His grandmother talked the seller down from $150 to $100. He still carries that guitar everywhere today.

Illustration: Just Gerald Magazine

A Double Major and a Double Life

While other young musicians were dropping out of school to tour, Quon was at Columbus State University in West Georgia, completing a double major in Sociology and Anthropology. It is not incidental. His understanding of the blues is inseparable from his understanding of history — of the culture that produced it, the economics that shaped it, and the people who lived it.

"I think almost every blues musician you find — at least the good ones — is gonna have that black church background because the music uses the same vernacular," he has said. "I don't think of it and slavery. It's music created by freed slaves — the first ones to have a voice."

His influences run deep: Big Joe Williams, Son House, Willie Brown, Charley Patton, Kokomo Arnold, Blind Willie Johnson. He traces every tune back to its creator, however long the journey. His grandfather, who lovingly called him "Old Man," would have recognised the instinct.

Three Albums. One Mission.

His debut, Blue Metamorphosis (2016), was recorded acoustically and drew rave reviews from Living Blues and Blues & Rhythm. Two years later it won the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge award for Best Self-Produced CD — the same year he opened for Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' on their joint TajMo tour, performing to national audiences for the first time.

Spectacular Class (2019) earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. Ten tracks across Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel styles — all original compositions, all written by Willis himself. The nomination confirmed what the blues community had known for years.

His third album, West Georgia Blues, arrived in August 2024. It is named for the red clay country where he grew up — the same landscape that produced the church harmonies, the porch-step guitar sessions, and the deep historical curiosity that runs through everything he plays. He is currently touring across three countries with dates running into 2026.

Three albums: Blue Metamorphosis (2016), Spectacular Class (2019), West Georgia Blues (2024)

"When I heard him play I said to myself: this is how the blues, as I know it, is going to stay alive. Jontavious Willis is the first blues musician I've seen in over thirty years that I would pay to see — and he's only 20 years old."

— PAUL OSCHER, who toured with Muddy Waters

On Just Gerald Radio

Quon Willis is featured on Just Gerald Radio. If you have not heard him play, that is the place to start. Put on the station, pour something cold, and let the Kay Old Kraftsman do the rest. The blues is not dead. It just moved to Greenville, Georgia.

Discography