When John-Robert left his Edinburg, Virginia, hometown (pop. 1,070) for Los Angeles in 2019, he did so with starry-eyed ambition – a teenage songsmith bypassing a Berklee College of Music scholarship to chase his own musical manifest destiny. It quickly materialized: Grammy-nominated producer Ricky Reed (Leon Bridges, Lizzo) signed him at age 19 to Nice Life/Warner Records, helping integrate John-Robert’s lilting blend of traditional folk and Appalachian country into the modern pop landscape.
