Tonaka ★

Born and raised among the endless cornfields and red-dirt roads of Platte, South Dakota, 24-year-old Tonaka (born Jay Valone) doesn't have to fake the drawl, that lonesome country twang is 100% home-grown. Raised on tractor grease, 90s country cassettes, and late night porch pickin', Tonaka blends gritty Midwest Heartland realism with a sharp, modern outlaw edge.

After spending his teenage years hauling hay by day and playing dive bars along Route 44 by night, he traded farm keys for a beat up acoustic guitar and an unfiltered story to tell. With a voice as raw as a Great Plains winter and a songwriting instinct well beyond his years, Tonaka is proving that authentic country music isn't manufactured on Music Row, it’s grown in the soil.