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.

• Josef Kuhn, AKA nickname jos, spends his time writing, playing, and producing alongside artists like Samia, Annie Di’Russo, The Greeting Committee, Kristiane, and Hannah Cole. He has perfected the imprint he makes on each song he touches and has carved out a sound all his own. A lifelong pianist and drummer since his childhood in Richmond, VA, Kuhn found himself growing disillusioned with his performance studies at college in Nashville, instead leaning into a growing interest in songwriting and recording. At the encouragement of friends, Kuhn uploaded the first songs he’d written in 2019 to a remarkable response, seeing his initial promise quickly place his talent in growing demand. Kuhn recently found himself clearing room for his newfound energy to bloom, taking time off from touring to pour into relationships that nourished him and finding every excuse to clear time in his relentless schedule to write and record his debut album Buckshot (released fall ‘25). He set to building a niche using many of the same tactics he’d employed as a producer for other artists – visiting the territory of whatever piqued his curiosity, distilling the alchemy of its sound, and dispensing with the rest. What’s more, nickname jos has the ante on songs that achingly romanticizehalcyon days – at 24, Kuhn is still in them, and his songs make a habit of insisting upon preserving their purity. The scope – and joy – of Kuhn’s songs is no accident. “I've just been trying to find a way to write big picture songs,” he tells me. “Songs that I can hug, you know? That I can always have.”