A teenager in the smartphone era clicks on a low-resolution video of Muddy Waters performing Hoochie Coochie Man, and his life changes course. This deep dive follows Jontavious Willis, born in 1996 in Greenville, Georgia, from singing gospel with his grandfather at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church to becoming a Grammy-nominated performer celebrated as a torchbearer for traditional country blues.

We look at how he taught himself Delta, Piedmont, and Texas blues styles by ear, along with fingerpicking, flatpicking, slide guitar, harmonica, and five-string banjo, while studying sociology and anthropology at Columbus State University. We cover the 2015 invitation to perform with Taj Mahal, the self-produced 2017 debut Blue Metamorphosis, and the 2019 album Spectacular Class, produced by Keb' Mo' with Taj Mahal as executive producer, which debuted a ...