Will Jones grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Carroll County and was born into a family band called the Cana Ramblers. With his father being part of a regional bluegrass band, he was always playing music.

When Will was six, his dad got him a brightly colored kids' tape recorder for Christmas. He didn't have any tapes to play with, so he took one of his dad's cassettes to put in his new recorder. It was a tape of bluegrass banjo great, J.D. Crowe, singing "Crying Holy."

Will shared, "For whatever reason, my awkward, weird little nerdy self at six years old decided to learn to sing that song. The next morning, I went downstairs and woke my dad up in the recliner and said, 'Hey, you know, I learned this song.' And that's kind of what kicked it off."

The next thing you know, Will's dad put a guitar in his hands, and after that, there was no slowing him down. Will is a triplet with two sisters and two older sisters. One learned to play the mandolin, the other learned to play the bass, and with Will playing the guitar, they accidentally ended up forming a family bluegrass band.

Will grew up traveling and playing festivals. They made some records. And as any musician can attest, there isn't any better schooling to be had for learning music than bluegrass music. Ti became the training ground for the artist that Will Jones is today.

By the time Will was in high school, his older sisters had gone off to college, making it more challenging for him to maintain the family band. About that time, Will had his first trip to Nashville. The Don Kelly band was playing at one of the bars.

He recalled, "I wasn't old enough to go in there, but I could peek my head around, and I think Guthrie Trap or somebody was playing telly, and I'm a guitar nerd as a bluegrass flat picker. I'm just such a guitar nerd. It's such a big part of who I am. I heard that in person for the first time and was like, 'I've got to figure out how to do that.' So, I ended up buying a cheap Mexican-made Telecaster guitar and started really honing in on people like Pat Flynn and you know all these pioneers, Danny Gatton and, of course, Vince and Albert Lee and all these pioneers of country electric guitar play and chicken picking."

Thus, Will's transition from bluegrass to mainstream, albeit still traditional-sounding country music, began. Early on, he formed a regional band, and they played country cover songs all over the East Coast. But he got tired of singing other people's songs and wanted to sing his own.

He stated, "I had written some songs that I knew weren't where they needed to be. And the best songwriters in the world live in Nashville. There was a week of realization that hit me at once, and I said, 'I've got to move to Nashville.'"

In 2019, Will packed his truck and moved into a spare bedroom of a friend. He dived into the fabric of Nashville's songwriting community, participating in every writer's round that he could. He was a roofer during the week and played shows every weekend.

Eventually, Will got a publishing deal with Universal. In 2022, he recorded his first solo cut, "Sedona," a ballad about lost love that he wrote alongside Davis Corley and Lee Starr.

The trio also teamed up for another heartbreak, yet upbeat story-song, "Whiskeysippi," written on the backdrop of the muddy Mississippi. The lyrics are clever - Now I'm stuck in Whiskeysippi/ Where the Delta has no dawn/Whiskeysippi's where love left me/Prayin' it comes back and takes me home. Tanya Tucker is also a big fan of the song.

When they wrote it, they thought, "Let's just go ahead and lean into this and just make it feel like the Delta and just take everybody into this really cool place and have fun with it."

Another twangy tune for anyone who has been heartbroken and hungover at the same time is "Hungover Broken Heart." Evidently, many can relate to the drinking song as it is a fan favorite, especially at the live shows.  

Will's most popular song to date is "When It Rains," a serious song about missing that special someone. Anyone from the country who remembers the smell of asphalt after a warm summer shower will appreciate the sentiment of the song.

You can clearly hear Will's bluegrass influence in the song "Devil's Den," where "My Country's Showing" is more mainstream, taking listeners to the modern country sound that he has been pursuing. He stated, "The heart of my sound remains rooted in my bluegrass beginnings. To me, it's all just country damn music."

Will's latest single, "Lonesome Dove," is another story-song that hooks you as you want to find out what happens to the two lonely souls who inadvertently meet in a bar. The idea came from his favorite Western, the movie "Lonesome Dove," as in "What would Gus McCrae say to Lorrie Darlin'?"

Will explained, "It's kind of a reassurance song -- anyone can come out and you ain't always looking for love, you ain't always looking for this big moment to happen, but even if it's just for one song, you can still have a dance and you ain't got to be a lonesome dove."

He admits he is lucky enough to write with songwriters he used to admire from a distance. But Will is poised for a breakout because the music he writes and the songs he sings are not rooted in gimmicks, but in grit, growth, and deep respect for the heritage that raised him.

Since moving to Nashville, he's built a reputation as a triple-threat — masterful on guitar, magnetic on stage, and emotionally resonant as a writer. His career has already taken him to stages alongside artists like Jon Pardi, Ashley McBryde, Josh Turner, Tracy Lawrence, and Gavin Adcock, as well as bluegrass royalty including Ralph Stanley, Chris Thile, Sierra Hull, and Ben Haggard.

When Will visited Nashville for the first time years ago, he was able to see Josh Turner play at the Ryman Auditorium. Earlier this year, in a full-circle moment, he was fortunate to open for the icon when he made his own Ryman debut.

But beyond the spotlight, it's Will's roles as husband and father that ground his songwriting in real life. "Those are the things that give the songs meaning," he stated. In an era chasing viral fame and shortcuts, Will Jones is playing the long game.