Chad Wesley

Chad Wesley was born in 1986 in Fairhope, Alabama, and raised in the Johnsontown community near Forest, Mississippi. He learned guitar at eight by copying Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf from his father's radio. At eleven, Stevie Ray Vaughan's Carnegie Hall concert changed his direction, and by fifteen he was playing professionally, commuting to Jackson for open mics and the George Street Grocery blues jam.

He sang lead for the country band Santa Fe, the rock band Full Moon Circus and the fusion group The Goldy LockS, opening for Ted Nugent in 2010. He then formed the Chad Wesley Band, which played roughly 150 to 200 shows a year from 2010 to 2015. He has worked every side of the business: roadie, sound engineer, photographer, videographer, songwriter and producer.

His debut LP came out in 2016. He signed with Old Trace Records and Malaco Music Group, which released Bluezy in 2018; Malaco calls him "a Soul-Rock force like no other." Soul Rock followed independently in 2022. He sold out Duling Hall in Jackson in December 2018 and has played the Coliseum and the city's major clubs.

Honors include Jackson Music Awards Singer/Songwriter of the Year (2018 and 2020), the 2018 Josie Music Awards Blues/R&B/Soul Entertainer of the Year and two Jackson Free Press awards. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy and a board advisor for its Memphis Chapter, owns Protege Sound Lab, and mentors young Mississippi artists. In 2025 he appeared on MPB's Live at Natchez Sound. His single Slow Down is on the Jacktown USA compilation, and he has a chapter in the Jacktown USA book.