If you search for Jake Kohn reaction videos on YouTube, you will find one person after another watching this young singer-songwriter in disbelief. And it’s easy to understand why — it is hard to square his young, 17-year-old face with the raspy, deep baritone you hear.
However, that does not negate the power of his performance. This Sunday, he brings his distinctive voice to 123 Pleasant St. in Morgantown.
You can purchase tickets for his show at 123pleasantstreet.com.
Kohn came onto the scene when a YouTube video of his song “Frostbite,” recorded with radiowv, went viral — gaining nearly 2 million views. His TikTok has hundreds of thousands of followers, and his singles on Spotify have reached a vast number of listeners as well.
The Dominion Post spoke with Kohn about balancing his real life with the fame he has experienced online.
“I try to go my own way, but sometimes it gets tiring,” he said. “But after two years, I’m getting good at handling it.”
And handling it is a lot of what Kohn needs to do. His most recent single was a collaboration with Wyatt Flores called “Before I Do,” which is featured in the hit movie “Twisters.”
When asked about being a part of that movie, Kohn said, “It’s cool to be on that soundtrack, for sure. I got a call from my manager. You know … they were putting together that soundtrack, and Wyatt and I just got together to write that song for it, and we came up with that.”
He said writing the song was quick work.
“We wrote that song a few months ago in Nashville, and honestly, we wrote it rather quickly. It was probably done in a few hours.”
Kohn is proud of his Appalachian roots but appreciates that his songwriting has taken him to other places as well. “I’m from what’s considered Appalachia, but I’ve got to travel to a lot of cool places that I wouldn’t have gotten to travel through if I hadn’t started playing shows and recording videos. And that’s definitely given me new places to see and new experiences to write about.”
No matter where he goes, Kohn finds his influence from the music of Appalachia. “Obviously, Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson. And when I was really young, I was just listening to Chris Stapleton, a lot of that Kentucky music.”
At this point in his career, Kohn has released a few singles, but he promises an album is coming.
“There will be an album eventually! I know everybody’s always wondering, but you know, it’s probably coming this year.”
In the meantime, you can keep up with Kohn and his music at jakekohnmusic.net/.
