Call Jon Tyler Wiley by his name.

One of our favorite finds over the summer was stumbling upon the eclectic Jon Tyler Wiley at AMERICANAFEST (they like you to capitalize it). We saw him play a solo set at the Virginia Day Party hosted by Stacie Schnetzka (Freight Train Mgmt) and Evan Hunsberger, and snagged him for an interview as well. Then he showed up a week later at Durty Nelly’s for Pop-Up in the Pick-Up with Koda Kerl—where they played among other good bits—a tasty cover of Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name. JTW’s smoking acoustic solo on his Martin 000 and Koda’s really sad and soulful singing blew Old Hank’s dirty hat right off’n his bald head (you may have caught a snip of it on our IG’s, not the bald head, the playing).

And then we finally caught him back in the fold with his full band, His Virginia Choir, again at Durty Nelly’s, this past Friday. They were celebrating the release of their new song Calls Me By My Name. Glide Magazine throws sky high praise at it, calling it “Sweeping and powerful…bringing to mind Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers.” That’s gotta feel good.

Click on the vid above to get a slice of that performance and the entire VA Day interview at the 5 Spot in Nashville.

Wiley is what you’d call a character, possessing a frenetic style of charisma to put it fuckin’ mildly. On stage he sings with his whole body — arms, hands, face, hair and torso. He has more the demeanor of some lovable knucklehead in the crowd who is really enjoying the show, rather than a haughty artist on stage.

In conversation, he bounces like a Superball from thought to thought—so much so that he had old Hank trying to keep up then asking around for some Adderall.

Raised in Fredericksburg and trained in music at DuQuesne University in Pittsburgh, Wiley is the deep and wide kinda musician that can and did play all the instruments on Calls Me By My Name himself. He cut his teeth playing in bands such as Sister Hazel, Melodime, Stephen Kellogg, and Ron Holloway. He has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the Kennedy Center.

But at his soul, JTW is a Guitar Player, whether the 000 supporting himself in solo or the Strat fronting the band.

His Virginia Choir is Sean Mahon (keyboards), Brian “Piper” Barbre (drums), Josh Pittman (bass), and Lonnie Southall (guitar, mandolin, vocals) — no keys at DN that night. These boys do what they do very well, son.

He’s the type of musician only Virginia raises. And we just love him to death. Go see the man, solo or with his band, any time you can.