A.J. Fullerton

A.J. Fullerton is the kind of blues artist who makes the tradition feel both ancient and freshly cut. Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and raised in Montrose, Colorado, he learned finger-style and slide guitar from his father, and you can hear that lineage in everything he plays: a touch that is patient, conversational, and unmistakably hand-built. He has since landed in Nashville, but his sound still carries the wide-open feel of the high country he came up in.

His newest single, "St. June," is a perfect entry point. It was written at dusk in the Colorado wilderness as the sun sank low over the pines, and it sounds like it. The track rides the resonant growl of a baritone guitar, an instrument built for Fullerton by Denver luthier Matt McGibney from modern pieces and parts dating back to the 1960s, and that low, earthy rumble gives his commanding vocal room to sit right at the front. It is the lead single from his forthcoming EP, BARETONE, arriving via Gitcha Records, and it confirms a writer who treats place and mood as instruments in their own right.

To understand the warmth underneath all of it, spend time with Fullerton & Friel, a record that leans into the communal heart of the blues. "Nobody's Business What I Do" struts with old-school defiance, "Bye Bye Baby" and "Lonesome Valley" reach back toward gospel and country-blues roots, and his unhurried reading of "You Are My Sunshine" turns a familiar standard into something genuinely tender. On "Missing You," a remastered cut featuring Sarah Hoffenberg and Sarah Slaton, his slide work breathes around the harmonies rather than crowding them, a generosity that defines how he plays with others.

That generosity has shaped a real trajectory. His influences run from Mississippi John Hurt, Ry Cooder, and Taj Mahal to modern voices like Luther Dickinson and Blake Mills, and he has folded all of it into a catalog that keeps climbing. The Forgiver & The Runaway debuted at number one on the iTunes Blues Charts, and his 2024 album Closer reached the upper rungs of the Billboard Blues charts. Along the way he has gathered an armful of Colorado Blues Society Members' Choice Awards across categories like Best Guitarist, Best Slide Guitar, and Best Songwriter, the sort of hometown recognition that tends to mean the most.

He is also a builder of other people's records. As a producer he helmed Memphis artist Tony Holiday's Motel Mississippi, which charted on the Billboard Blues list, and he has shared stages with Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Jimmie Vaughan, and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. That range, from solo finger-picker to bandleader to studio hand, is exactly what makes him worth following: he is fluent in the deep roots of this music and restless enough to keep bending them toward something new. Start with "St. June," then let the baritone lead you backward through everything that built it.