John Robert releases his new single “Other Side”, his first new music since the 2023 Garden Snake EP and his first release as an independent artist. Steeped in Appalachian folk tradition, the song was written in remembrance of his grandmother as a gift to his mother. Using an alternative guitar tuning, he leans into a warm, woody tone colored by quiet melancholy, ending with an organ that drifts in and out like a memory returning. He says the song grew from long distance updates while his grandmother was in hospice and from imagining the weight his mother carried through that loss. Their final conversation, he recalls with fondness, ended with a shared belief that there should be no stigma around adults climbing trees.
After six years in Los Angeles, John Robert returned in early 2025 to his hometown of Edinburg Virginia, a place he describes as one where people “want more for me than they want from me.” Surrounded by familiar faces, the rhythm of the Shenandoah River and the quiet of home, he began shaping new music that feels like a scrapbook of long held memories, each page connected to moments that shaped him. “Other Side” reflects that shift with honesty and gentleness, offering listeners a window into family, loss and the love that lingers long after someone is gone.
The official video for “Other Side” anchors that feeling even further as he digitized decades of family home videos, letting the images of his childhood, his loved ones and the world that raised him speak for themselves. It marks the start of a deeply personal new chapter for John Robert, carried by sincerity, simplicity and a return to the place where his music began.