Cover photo © 2026 Laura Carbone

It’s been a long road for “Boogie” Long. He’s been burned by the music business. He’s had people try to change his look and sound. He’s had records shelved, locking up some of his best songs. He had a major health condition undiagnosed. Despite it all, he’s undeterred and ready to break through. His new album Courage in the Chaos is a blues rock lightning bolt. His singing and lead guitar playing are head-turning. One can hear traces of early Eric Gales, the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, and more, but Long is honestly his own thing. He has a commanding voice that has echoes of Chris Stapleton, Warren Haynes, and Don Barnes. His music falls under the blues banner because of the subject matter, his emotional singing, and scorching guitar chops. One can also hear creole, country, metal, gospel, Mexican, soul, southern rock, funk, and other influences throughout his work. It all adds up to a sound that proves he’s a bad mamma jamma.

Jonathon Long was a musical prodigy. By age six, he was carrying his little guitar into churches, nursing homes, and even prisons. “Music is a universal language. It can make a mad person calm or a calm person crazy.” He played in blues jams with Louisiana elders like Kenny Neal and Larry Garner. At 11, he had his first paying gig. He started touring with Henry Turner, Jr. and Luther Kent around age 14. He learned space and restraint during his long apprenticeship with Kent’s big band. Unlike some child stars, Long is happy he started young and sees more that was gained than lost from the experience.

“I don’t think it hurt me. I had to grow up pretty fast. All those lessons that you learn when you’re young and then playing with and being around all those people is all the seasoning that makes you the person you are today. It’s all part of growing. It doesn’t matter when you start, as long as you pay attention to the lessons that the elders are trying to teach you. When I was 14, I used to try to smoke cigarettes at Swamp Mama’s nightclub in downtown Baton Rouge and Howard ‘Sundance’ Dunston would grab ‘em out my mouth and say, ‘Gimme that cigarette’ and start smoking it himself. Ronnie Houston, when I was touring with Henry Turner, he used to tell me, ‘You see that brown stuff you spittin’ up? It’s that emphysema’. They cared about me. They wanted to see me grow into something, grow into my own. I think it was just God’s plan. I took to it at a young age. While everyone else was getting picked for the football team, chasing girls, and playing Pokemon, I was playing eight hours a day of guitar, trying to do something,” Long remembered.

There have been high points and support that have made the journey enjoyable. Long was one of the youngest inductees into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He was given his own day by the City of Baton Rouge in 2013. He also bested over 4,000 contestants when he was named the 2011 Guitar Center “King of the Blues”. That award is presented annually to the best unsigned blues guitarist in America, from which he gained meaningful notoriety.

“I knew then that I had a special thing with guitar. The B.B. tour helped me mentally. B.B. gave me permission to take the torch. That’s a nod from the King. On the second night, he called me up stage and said, ‘Boy, you really can play. I stole some of your licks’. I said, ‘No problem Mr. King, I stole all of your licks’. It’s stuff like that I’ll never forget.”

Long was only 18 years old when touring with The King of the Blues. He has shared the stage and/or opened for many “A List” blues stars such as Gregg Allman, Robert Cray, Joe Bonamassa, Gov’t Mule, ZZ Top, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, The Meters, and many others. It was recently leaked that he has some type of collaboration that will be released later this year with the legendary guitarist Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple). These interactions haven’t all been gems. The time he played with Dr. John went hilariously wrong.

“I’m wild and out there. I try to stick out and be different. I played with Dr. John one time when I was 18. I got hired to play guitar on a gig and I showboated too much, so that was the only gig I ever played with him. I was playing behind my head and all kinds of funny stuff and he was like ‘Whoa, what in the world’. It was a good time. I got the story to tell, it’s funny.”

Three of his early albums placed on the Billboard Blues Album chart. His new record stands at least shoulder to shoulder with those efforts, in terms of quality and success. It recently debuted in the top 15 of the Billboard Blues chart, the highest of his career. The album is a little less country, a little less jam-bandy, and a little more punch-you-right-in-the-kisser rock ‘n roll and blues. Chaos has several highlights, including the singles “A Fool Can See” and “Baby I’m Through”. “Hell or High Water” is a good one to crank up and put the pedal to the metal. Long’s southern rock roots shine through on a faithful cover of The Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See”. He turns the blues guitar pyrotechnics loose on the live, head-turning “Catfish Blues” (which originally appeared on his Jonathan “Boogie” Long & the Blues Revolution album in 2013). Early critical, radio, and retail response to the record has been strong.

“It’s been amazing. The response has literally blown me away. We’re getting copies sold all over the country, including places I haven’t been in years. It’s really cool to see people wanting new music and supporting indie artists. I’m excited to see what happens. I just want to put out positive music that blesses people and makes them think about stuff constructively, instead of negativity or demeaning women. Mainstream music has gotten so out of hand. I want to write good clean music in a positive light.”

Growing up in a seriously religious family was sometimes an issue for the future rock star, but it provided a strong musical base.

“I was kicked out of my first church band because I wanted to play blues for a living. My gospel background really came from my parents and my grandparents and they always supported me no matter what. My brother and sister grew up in the real fire and brimstone gospel house. By the time I came around, they were more lenient. I went on the road at 14 years old. My brother and sister couldn’t even listen to Petra, which was a Christian rock band. I grew up listening to gospel. I listened to more black gospel than I did AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses kind of stuff. I know more about The Clark Sisters than I do about Slash, for sure.”

Long’s guitar-playing prowess will always make him stand out above the standard blues fare, he flat-out tears up the pea patch. While he discusses and acknowledges B.B. King and others from early blues eras, his main influences are not obvious ones.

“My approach to guitar is more like a singer’s approach. I approach my licks from a singing or melody standpoint than just playing what you learn as a guitar player. I’ve soaked in a little bit from everybody. I go back and listen to Sean Costello, rest in peace, and Michael Burks, rest in peace. Those two guys were two of the greatest guys who ever did it. I go back and listen to all their stuff all the time. Jason Isbell is my favorite songwriter. If I was going to date somebody and if they listen to a Jason Isbell record all the way through and didn’t cry at least once, I don’t want to be with that person. You don’t have a soul (laughs). It’s the most touching music. I just like deep songs. Sometimes I write simpler stuff, but I like stuff that makes you think.”

Sometimes through his career, the thoughts came too fast and furious and that was counterproductive. He’s recently had a medical breakthrough that is being treated.

“I’m ADHD. I just got diagnosed actually. It’s a focus-thing, it’s hard to focus. I’m always thinking about music or new ideas, so I don’t listen a lot anymore. I listen to more fusion, black gospel, a lot of R & B like Frankie Beverly and Maze, a lot of the old Stevie Wonder stuff. The Aquarium Rescue Unit, Col. Bruce Hampton, is actually my favorite band in history. I cannot get over how amazing that band was. Jimmy Herring is my second favorite guitar player that ever lived. I’m all over the place. I ain’t a neurological specialist, I’m a blues singer!”

When it comes to singing, his main influence was one of his early mentors, the late, great, underappreciated blues belter Luther Kent. “When he got on-stage, he’s one of the best blues singers that ever lived, period, ever. He’s one of the best people I ever heard in my life, such a big voice,” Long gushed.

Long is booked into several notable festivals and some Florida dates this spring and summer with his own band and with another blues group Desoto Tiger’s Testimony (which includes Damon Fowler and Jason Ricci), but he does not have yet have the robust tour schedule that one might expect, having released such a strong album.

“Right now, I’m using Chris Roberts on bass and Brian Brignac on drums, he plays drums with Sonny Landreth as well. So, I’m doing a trio unless the budget will allow us to use a four-piece, because I have a keyboard player as well and he likes to go on the road. I’m doing (New Orleans) Jazz Fest and Baton Rouge Blues Fest for sure. We’re working on some other dates. It’s crazy right now. We’re trying to shake something loose and make it happen. The place that I’m most comfortable in my own skin on this planet is on stage in front of somebody. So, my plan is to get back on the road. I haven’t been on the road enough in my life, that’s why people don’t know who I am.”

Even though he seems to be an old soul, Long has also embraced the digital world. He has been playing on TikTok and getting great response, making new fans. He went from 800 to 24,000 followers in one year. He continues to hustle and persist despite management and label setbacks earlier in his career.

“It just put me in a dark place because they didn’t understand me. I don’t blame nobody for what happened. I held animosity for a long time, but I’m letting it go. I have to, to move forward. I don’t need to ride anybody’s else’s coat tails, man, I don’t. My talent can stand on its own. I was caught in the middle of a gamble that didn’t work for them. I don’t hold any grudges. All that went down during COVID. I learned, I grew, I’m ready to move forward. That’s what this record is, a rebranding. I used to wear all black and look sad. Now I’m white and colorful and smiling. We’re trying to come back stronger than ever. I’m trying to get people to pay attention in the industry. The fans have always loved me. All I’ve ever done is showed up to the gig and rocked out.”

Long has a gift that he’s intent on not wasting, an infectious personality, and passion for the music. One gets the feeling that you can’t stop the Boogie.

“I know in my heart of hearts that there’s nothing else for me on this planet that I’m supposed to be doing other than this. I know it deep within. That’s the reason I can’t give up. I have to push through. My first record deal, the guy died before the record came out. My second record deal was the whole crap show. Jim Odom, my producer, in the middle of this project had open heart surgery, five bypass surgery. That’s another reason I know I’m on the right path. If the Devil’s working against me, that means there’s a bigger picture. I just gotta keep on fightin’ against him buddy, I’ll give him the ole one-two, that’s all I can do.”