Shreveport, Lousiana native Willie Jones will make his debut at the Grand Ole Opry tonight at 7 p.m. ET. He will be alongside other artists, including Waylon Payne, Rhonda Vincent, Don Schiltz, Jeannie Sealy, and Riders in the Sky. Jones and Waylon will perform a duet of “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” for a 2021 version of the Willie and Waylon classic.
He was recently mentioned on NPR during a conversation about country music confronting racism with Apple Music’s “Color Me Country” host and artist Rissi Palmer. According to her, Jones’s music is “one of [her] favorite things that has come out of Nashville in a really long time.” Read and listen to it here.
Jones’s music brings together the sounds of country, hip-hop, pop, and soul music to create songs that break down the barriers of genres. This talent expands into his mixture of topics that are usually lacking in country music like patriotism, but specifically in the eyes of a black man in the United States.
His 2021 single “American Dream” from his debut album Right Now, which dropped in January, speaks on this in the chorus:
“Proud to be a Black man
Livin’ in the land of the brave and the free
Yeah, I’m all-American
And that American dream ain’t cheap
We’ve come a long way
Still got a long way to go
When you’re livin’ as a Black man
It’s a different kinda ‘merican dream
It’s a different kinda ‘merican dream”
A song about continuing to grow and to not forget your past, but use it to define what you stand for, it came at a time when we all needed it to reflect on the differences in the lives we lead.
The album has accumulated over 27 million streams on Spotify alone with 13 million of them coming from his popular hit single from 2019 “Bachelorettes On Broadway.”
His special abilities and growing popularity has gotten him slated for the 2021 Stagecoach music festival in Indio, California, and definitely helped lead him to the Opry stage. Make sure to keep an eye on Jones, as we are certain he will be an artist to watch for years and years to come!
For tickets to tonight’s show and information on Willie Jones, visit the Grand Ole Opry.
Stream “Right Now” on Spotify and Apple Music.
Find more information on Willie Jones here.
Follow Wille Jones on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
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