Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir paint outside the lines on their inspired and invigorating debut album Pictures In The Dark — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The first full-length release from the aptly named quintet fronted and formed by singer-songwriter and guitarist Wiley, the eight-song Pictures In The Dark confidently and capably employs a rich palette of rural and urban sounds and styles. Their sounds blends everything from rugged heartland rock and pristine pop to indie-folk, alt-country and even orchestral rock dusted with psychedelia — all without losing touch with the band’s earthy Americana roots and sincere, grounded songcraft. It’s the kind of beautifully balanced, elegantly effortless grace that only comes with effort, commitment, communication and trust — qualities that Wiley and his Choir mates have spent the past few years nurturing and honing.
“When the band started recording the singles we released in 2021, it almost felt like driving a car for the first time,” Wiley explains. “With this record, however, there was more comfort with one another, so I feel like we were able to push each other a little harder, and hopefully a little farther. We had a few years under our belt as a live band, so we also had the experience of our live show to draw from, which was very important. We wanted there to be moments in this record that people heard and immediately thought, ‘Wow, I want to see this live!’ ”
Ironically, the rough sketches that would become Pictures In The Dark were drafted at a time when no one could see them. After years of playing covers in taverns, the Virginia Choir — keyboardist Sean Mahon, bassist Joanna Smith, guitarist / mandolinist Lonnie Southall and drummer Brian ‘Piper’ Barbre — came together with Tyler, who was between tours with his band Melodime. Utilizing their impeccable chemistry to write and perform original songs, they booked a tour and played their first show in early March 2020.
The universe, of course had other plans. The pandemic kiboshed their tour, and all the momentum and excitement the band had built vanished before it could flourish. But there was a silver lining. Stuck in lockdown, Wiley had time to pen new songs for them to learn, play and eventually record. Four arduous years later, those songs are seeing the light of day on Pictures In The Dark.
The LP kicks off with The Ending Of The End, a single from summer 2023. “This is definitely one of the more snarkier songs I’ve ever written,” Wiley quips. “It’s all gallows humor, written about waiting for the end of the world. I wrote this song in the middle of 2020, and it was my way of recognizing the pickle we were in that year, and making peace with whatever was going to happen.” Like a shotgun blast of adrenaline, the high-speed .45 follows, displaying the band’s unmistakable rock ’n’ roll chops. While inspired by the story in Johnny Cash’s Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Wiley felt there was “a rub” between the dark lyrics and the upbeat music — so he updated it with music as frantic and dark as the words.
The gentle and tender side of Wiley and co. shines in the third track, Coffee, Wine, led by piano and Wiley’s gritty yet soothing vocals. The song came about after Wiley got hooked on George Jones’ He Stopped Loving Her Today, and tried his hand at a song with a plot twist. Next up, Flowers possesses a mellow, easy-on-the-ears energy, contrasting with the unimaginable grief of a miscarriage Wiley and his wife endured — an event that prompted an outpouring of floral offerings from friends. “Sitting on our couch, looking at all the flowers, it brought me back to memories of other times of grieving, and the song came out very quickly,” Wiley says.
After finishing the record, fiddle player and guitarist Eddie Dickerson departed the band, but he left behind his song Full-Handed, a tale of divorce written from a child’s perspective. Oh, Death follows, but don’t be confused — it’s not the traditional Appalachian plea popularized by Ralph Stanley. But yes, this upbeat, poppy groover is indeed about facing mortality amid the uncertainty of 2020. “I was thinking about what I wanted the rest of my life to look like, and this song came as a result,” Wiley says.
At a time when it’s easy to get lost in the instant gratification available in our ever-quickening information age, the band remind us to stop and sniff the daisies on the song Mission. Chock full of vivid imagery, it serves as a message that’s more pertinent than ever: Put down the phone and live in the moment. With a piano and fiddle intro that could be a lost track from The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., the song is an earworm from the jump, soaking into the psyche with its uplifting anti-machine / pro-human message.
The album closes with the spiritual and emotional uplift of the anthemic Moving On, offering hopeful sentiments to those forging through relentless trials of adversity. “This is a song of hope / Sung by a man defeated / A man grown tired of the joke,” Wiley sings in earnest, guiding the track with undiluted conviction.
He comes by his dedication honestly. Wiley’s first memories were looking at the covers of his parents’ albums, including classics by The Allman Brothers, Santana, Tom Petty, and other legends. He got his first guitar at age 10, was a full-time musician at 23, and by the time he hit 30, he’d played guitar and mandolin for artists like Stephen Kellogg and Sister Hazel, along with spearheading his own musical projects.
In keeping with the moniker The Virginia Choir, Wiley’s goal was to harness different musical elements from his home state and combine them into one sound: Rock from the cities, bluegrass and country from rural communities, and singer-songwriter sounds from the college towns. With influences from Bruce Springsteen to Wilco to Dawes and countless others, Wiley and co. have carved out their own unique sound on Pictures In The Dark (which was mixed by Doug Ross and mastered by Grammy winner Hans DeKline).
Check out Pictures In The Dark below and join Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir on their website, Instagram and Facebook.
