Traditional Acoustic Blues
Richmond, Virginia
Justin Golden's origins are deeply vested in the blues, with roots in the Mississippi Delta, Chicago and the Piedmont of Virginia. Picking up the guitar as a teenager, Justin did what came naturally and let the music flow through him. Fascinatingly, the Piedmont Blues style first came to him in a dream, which he later shared with the late harmonica great Phil Wiggins, who told him that he’d been unconsciously playing this deeply rooted style all along, and in fact he had written several songs in the Piedmont style before he had ever heard of the style. While perhaps not as well-known as the Mississippi Delta style, the Piedmont Blues has a deep history in Virginia, and is home to some of its greatest practitioners, including John Jackson and John Cephas. By far, the most distinctive feature of the Piedmont guitar style is its finger-picking method, in which the thumb lays down a rhythmic baseline against which one or two fingers pluck out the melody of the tune. Using this technique, the Piedmont guitarist makes a single instrument sound like several, setting up a complex dialogue of bass and treble parts.
Golden has carefully studied country blues, with influences ranging from Blind Boy Fuller to Taj Mahal to indie guitar. And as a traditional roots music stalwart, he’s passing the inspiration to youth by teaching them to play as well. His training as an archaeologist has taught him to view music through a historical lens. Studying historic cemetery sites throughout Virginia, he noted that old burial grounds could be lost within a generation, which made him realize that the historic memory of music should also be preserved. Since 2016, Justin has been an instructor of Piedmont Blues Guitar at Augusta Heritage Center's Blues and Swing Week at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia. While he is keenly versed in traditional styles, he has an extremely diverse musical palette and brings new ideas to traditional blues forms.
For his 2024 return to the Richmond Folk Festival, Justin is bringing his new Virginia supergroup Devil’s Coattails, featuring Trey Burnart Hall (mandolin, tenor banjo, electric guitar), Chris Gatens (upright bass, clawhammer banjo) and Drew Barnocky (drums and washboard). Golden has created a sound where country, blues and bluegrass converge. Together the group has just released Golden Country: Volume 1 to rave reviews. You don’t want to miss this set as one of Richmond’s favorite sons continues to traverse new musical ground.
Justin Golden is also performing solo on the Folklife Workshop Stage on Sunday at 1pm, sharing songs and musical origin stories.