When John-Robert left his Edinburg, VA, hometown (pop. 1,070) for LA in 2019, he did so with starry-eyed ambition - bypassing a Berklee scholarship to chase his own musical manifest destiny. Grammy-nominated producer Ricky Reed (Leon Bridges, Lizzo) signed him at age 19 to Nice Life/Warner, helping integrate John-Robert's lilting blend of traditional folk and Appalachian country into the modern pop landscape.
His debut single, "Adeline," has become an 11M streamer, and collaborations and co-signs from Alessia Cara and Camilla Cabello have cemented him as a deeply auspicious writer. Now, on Garden Snake, the artist hailed as "a small-town teen poised to become the next big singer-songwriter" explores the pull of his past, bursting with the grassroots musicality of his Shenandoah Valley birthplace and the homespun purity of his songwriting.
Ruminating on friendship, loneliness and identity, the self-produced Garden Snake is the soundtrack to a coming-of-age epic. From the back-porch breeze of "Come Pick Me Up" and colorful "Sweet Child" to the West Coast bedroom pop "Road Trip," wistful "Westward Bound" and red-clay shuffle "Good Days'll Come," the EP radiates John-Robert's spirit at the intersection of small-town USA and the internet age.
"Garden Snake is a time capsule," he says. "It was like trying to make a Virginia record in LA. I'm really proud of myself for seeing it through. It was character building, and it's something no one can take away from me."
