Biography

Since it’s inception, Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir has claimed to be a country band that doesn’t play country music. One look at a live show makes that immediately palpable: electric guitars and fiddles winding in and out of one another under a screaming B3 organ with story telling lyrics of love and pain, all wrapped up in a high energy performance. Upon further inspection, you will find syncopated and polyrhythmic drums that recall the influence of world music and alternative rock; eccentric bass grooves lend a new wave influence; noisy textures and outside tonal passages hint more at modern jazz than honky tonk. After Wiley (Melodime, Stephen Kellogg, Kevin MaC) wrote and recorded his debut solo album, performing all of the instruments himself, he assembled a band of his close friends to bring the music to life. The band the Virginia Choir is made up of a seasoned musicians who have performed with Keller Williams, Curtis Grimes, and The Dirty River Boys, as well as jazz ensembles and pit orchestras around the Northern Virginia area. The diverse band, made up of Eddie Dickerson (fiddle, guitar), Thomas Johnson (keyboards), and husband-and-wife rhythm section Brian ‘Piper’ Barbre (drums) and Joanna Smith (bass), is becoming known for energetic live performances and masterful musicianship. The band's debut EP will arrive in the spring 2021. Wiley’s full length solo album, “The Longing” will debut in the summer of 2021.