A little over a week ago, songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist Justin Golden sent shock waves through Richmond’s music community by announcing he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 of a rare form of cancer—at the age of 34. It’s a testament to Golden’s impact on that community that within a few hours, several benefit concerts were being planned, each aimed at raising money for his medical treatment.
Those fundraising efforts have coalesced as Golden Fest, a series of shows at multiple Richmond venues featuring a host of local artists, starting with a kickoff event at Gallery5 on Saturday, Feb. 22. Concerts at Final Gravity Brewing Company, the Camel and Gallery5 will follow in March, with house shows and additional near-future events in various planning stages.
“It’s been incredible to see so many people coming together and organizing on my behalf,” Golden says. “That was all happening without me really noticing, because I was focused on being in the hospital. Then looking on Instagram and seeing a whole series of shows and so many of my favorite artists come together to support me … It means so much to me. I’m truly moved by it.”
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Support from all sectors
The lineup for the kickoff includes some of Golden’s closest colleagues, including Americana outfit Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants and singer-songwriter Tyler Meacham. Meacham also designed the poster that’s been circulating to raise awareness of the kickoff. Golden performed in January at one of Meacham’s recently established Anyfolk singer-songwriter showcases, though her drive to step up is rooted much further back, in some of her earliest experiences establishing herself in Richmond’s music scene.
“One of the first times I ever sang with a band in this city was hopping up to sing ‘Hold On’ by the Alabama Shakes with Justin at Cary St. Cafe back in August 2018,” Meacham says. “I was totally new to everything in the scene, hadn’t even formed my own band yet, and just felt a sense of welcome—that there’s plenty of room at the table. Justin is such a light for the RVA music community. He’s always been rising and bringing people up with him.”
One corner of the community that he’s helped lift up—one that’s been working to lift him up in return—is Vocal Rest Records. The locally focused roots label shares Golden’s mission of bringing traditional musical forms into the future, and its founder, Trey Burnart Hall, has seen over the past week how Golden’s gift for bridging stylistic sectors has been reflected in the Golden Fest planning process.
“Justin is such a light for the RVA music community. He’s always been rising and bringing people up with him.” -Tyler Meacham
“He’s got his songwriter scene showing up, and also the trad music scene really has kind of coalesced and come together,” Hall notes. “I’ve had friends from fiddler’s conventions and all across the old time and bluegrass spectrum reaching out.”
“It feels good to feel appreciated in that way,” Golden says, “because I’ve been working hard on the community side of things.”
Making up for lost momentum
Hall says the April kickoff of the 2025 season of the Earth Folk Old Time Jam he helps organize will double as a fundraiser for Golden’s treatment and recovery. Hall and Golden are close collaborators; Golden worked with Vocal Rest on the release of the 2021 “Arm’s Length” EP, and he’s been teaming up with Vocal Rest house band Devil’s Coattails, in which Hall plays mandolin, on a new series of full-length albums that revisit under-appreciated country and blues gems. The first two volumes of “Golden Country” were released in 2024, but production for the third release in that series was put on hold—just one way in which the timing of Golden’s diagnosis has proven heartbreaking.
“All this momentum was building to something that that felt huge,” Hall notes.
Golden shared that same sentiment via social media when announcing his diagnosis. “This is particularly difficult for me to announce as I have been working for nearly 15 years to get to this point in my music career,” he wrote.
According to Golden’s manager, Freight Train Management founder Stacy Schnetzka, Golden was heading into a particularly busy stretch: A gig at a local public library kicking off Black History Month with a performance and a discussion on the history of Piedmont blues; a public radio live stream in Pensacola; shows in the Dakotas that were part of a concerted effort to break into the college market; Dominion Energy Riverrock in May. Just last year, Golden was named a showcase artist at the Americanafest music industry conference in Nashville.
“He’s just put the work in,” Schnetzka says. “He’s done all the work, and things were starting to come to fruition for him.”
“People don’t understand,” Golden explains. “Years of work and over a year of planning went into the schedule that I already had booked, and I was actively receiving offers even in the hospital for shows. Good shows. I was like, ‘I’m losing money left and right.’”
Schnetzka has been leading the way with coordinating donations for the raffle prizes that will be part of Golden Fest. The response has been swift and widespread. “The amount of support that’s come in from people wanting to donate in any way, shape or form, everything has been overwhelming,” she says.
Staying Golden
Golden’s GoFundMe has already passed the $60,000 mark, with the official goal set at $75,000. And while the type of cancer Golden is fighting is serious—according to the GoFundMe description, the condition normally presents in lifetime smokers 20 years older than him—Schnetzka says the singer and guitarist is in high spirits. Early chemotherapy has gone well and he’s eager to get back to planning performances. [Yet another testament to Golden’s character is that he maintained his positive outlook even when someone started a fake online account in his name to try to steal donations to his health fund; the account was quickly reported and removed].
One thing that hasn’t slowed since Golden’s diagnosis is his sense of humor. His appeals for financial support have included requests for fans and friends to send memes, which he reposts with a next-level knack for curation. It’s part of his personal brand; on his Instagram profile, he lists himself as “Musician/Meme Dealer.”
For Schnetzka, levity in the face of such a serious condition is an extension of Golden’s preternatural positivity. “He’s the true alchemist,” Schnetzka says. “He will take this and make the most beautiful thing come from it.”
Trey Burnart Hall has long known Golden to be a source of buoyancy and inspiration. “Justin enables everyone [from] the members of his band to the people in the crowd to really dream and feel joy and freedom in a way that’s really difficult to find,” Hall says. “He moves beyond hard-nosed, divided community markers. When you’re at Justin Golden show, it’s just so full of joy.”
For Tyler Meacham, this moment is about turning that energy around and directing back to its source. “These benefit shows are more than just responding to his diagnosis,” Meacham says. “They’re allowing us to give back to someone who has given this community so much.”
The Golden Fest kickoff concert will take place at Gallery5 on Saturday, Feb. 22. Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants, Tyler Meacham, Sun V Set, Moosetrap and Jonathan Brown will perform. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at gallery5arts.org.
To support Justin Golden’s GoFundMe directly, visit gofundme.com/f/help-justin-golden-beat-stage-4-cancer. On Friday, March 14, the Camel will host a Golden Fest event featuring The Trillions, Jake The Dog, Charm Offensive, Mead The Dear, Andrew Alli and Josh Small. For details, visit thecamel.org.
On Sunday, March 16, Gallery5 will host a Golden Fest event featuring Ceilí Galante. For details, visit gallery5arts.org. For more information on the Earth Folk Old Time Jam, visit earthfolkcollective.org.
