Jonathan Paige Brown Jr. is about to go big at RVa Folk Fest.

You can say you heard it here first.

We caught JPB Jr. at the Virginia Day Party at AMERICANAFEST and he tore the venerable 5 Spot a new @hole. At that point there was only one or two songs of his out there you could even listen to if you’d heard of him. He towered. The voice is real. The charisma and stage presence are inarguable.

If you can watch the performance in the vid above and not get a) jealous and b) goose bumps, you best check yer pulse because this guy brings it and you might be dead.

And this weekend he’s bringing it to the Family Stage at the Richmond Folk Festival on Sunday at 12:15. If you’re in RVa, go. If you’re anywhere else (and not deer huntin’ like Old Hank, sorry, at least it’s on brand) get there and go.

I’m just kinda at a loss to describe the voice we heard at the 5 Spot a month or so ago now. He cites influences: Ray LaMontagne. Brad Paisley. Tyler Childers. He cracked Old Hank tfu when he told him he learned to sing by imitating Michael Bolton in the shower.

Adjectives fail. But maybe I’ll describe Jonathan’s voice this way.

Country music is, for whatever reason, having a titty twistin’ fight in the powder room. “You ain’t country enough!” “Oh yeah? That’s one too many truck songs”. One thing that makes all that crap sound as juvenile and pointless as it actually is, a thing that proves just how big a tent country music is, and why we love country music so damn much, is a VOICE.

Jonathan Paige Brown Jr. has one of those.

Dial in to the performance in the vid above and then stick around for the interview with Old Hank after. Jonathan talks growing up an army brat, playing linebacker and dancing ballet and still not getting girls. Belting Bolton in the shower. And wanting to come to Cville to play Durty Nelly’s!

Yes, please.