Check out was hours ago, but Ax and the Hatchetmen aren’t leaving. The indie rock six piece, fronted by Axel Ellis, hit the road this fall for the “Late Check Out Tour” — a coast to coast run bringing their sunburnt guitars and jangly tunes to the masses. What started in high school hallways outside Chicago has grown into a band with millions of listeners, diehard fans, and nearly a decade of life on the road.

John-Robert has been a notable performer since he was a child, it is simply what he was born to do. At only 13 years old, John-Robert was handpicked to perform on the Ellen show as a musical child prodigy. At 19, he left his hometown Edinburg, VA (pop. 1,070) in 2019 to move to LA and start his music career, bypassing a scholarship to Berklee. He was signed to Nice Life/Warner by Grammy-nominated producer Ricky Reed (Leon Bridges, Lizzo) and released a handful of singles and EPs over a few years, earning him co-signs from artists Alessia Cara and Camilla Cabello. But it was a live fireside performance of his 2023 song “Come Pick Me Up”  that catapulted John-Robert’s lilting blend of traditional folk and Appalachian country into the modern pop landscape. He toured extensively in 2023 and 2024 in the US and abroad supporting artists like Madi Diaz, Rayland Baxter, Leon Bridges, and even Liam Gallagher.    Virginia, and his family there, has always been a source of inspiration for the singer-songwriter. On making his 2023 EP Garden Snake he says, “It was like trying to make a Virginia record in LA.” A move back home to Virginia in early 2025 made perfect sense as he embarked on creating a new body of work. The move was a way to pull himself out of the professional and personal turmoil of LA, and reconnect with the people and places that made him who he is today – the banks of the North Fork Shenandoah River and rolling hillsides, the home-cooked meals and close-knit community. Newly independent, he released his EP Cross Stitch in 2025. He has spent the last few months on the road with JOSEPH, Ax and the Hatchetmen, Infinity Song and more. And this year, new music is already on the horizon.