“Kind of all over,” he says, adding that he split time between his native Houston, adopted L.A. and a legendary studio in New York City while working on his new album, Songs for the Canyon (via Concord Records in November 2023). “Now I think we might spend some time in Nashville. We’ll see. I’m excited to change up the scenery a little bit.”
Tall pines line the backstage parking lot he is temporarily taking refuge in while preparing for a show at the famed Troubadour in West Hollywood. “I just think my mind now has shifted to shows,” he shares. “I’m looking to be playing a lot more this year than I have in the past four years.”
Vincent will be in Denver for two solo sets at the Bluebird Theater on Friday, February 8, and Saturday, February 9.
But it was just a few years ago that he was flirting with the idea of leaving the music biz altogether. Then, at the start of the pandemic, he and his partner began an impromptu eight-month road trip during which they traveled through more than a dozen states; it inspired him to write what would eventually become the followup to his breakthrough 2019 self-released album, Songs From the Valley.
The unexpected break and traveling seemed to mend his melancholy mind. “For most of that time in the van on the road, I was under the impression that I would be done with music, at least for a while,” Vincent explains, adding that a handful of songs were fully finished by the time he settled back into life in Los Angeles. Once he returned, Vincent felt the urge to write the rest of the record.
“You think that you’re done with something, but you’re just not,” he reflects. “It came back around after a couple years and just wanting to write again. I had a lot to write about because I hadn’t tried in so long.”
John Vincent III takes time to stop and smell the roses...or any type of wildflower he comes across.
Courtesy Kaitlyn Renee
Songs for the Canyon is more of a “diary record,” as Vincent sees it, even though it was conceived during an industry-wide downtime that resulted in a bevy of “pandemic records.”
“We were road-tripping, it was the pandemic, and I was also processing emotions and things that I was going through at that time,” he says. “It’s kind of like who I was during that period of time. There are some road-trip songs. There are some love songs. There are some sad, introspective songs.”
Tunes such as “Highway Woman,” “That’s Just the Way It Is, Babe” and “Dandelion” hit the hardest and are the most indicative of the journey that ultimately ended with the album, according to Vincent. But one place and one time — California’s Laurel Canyon scene of the 1960s and ’70s, in particular — influenced him more than the road he traveled.
“I really always say Carole King was the biggest inspiration during this album, mainly her Tapestry album. I just love the quality of the recordings, her songwriting, both lyrically and how she pieces together the chords and the piano,” says Vincent, who is a piano player himself.
He also names King’s fellow Laurel Canyon luminaries Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as a guiding force behind Songs for the Canyon, while “Dandelion” is more of an ode to another one of his favorite bands, the Beatles. “I really wanted the album to have moments where it felt older,” Vincent explains. “I wanted it to be a mature album for me. I was a lot younger when I made Songs From the Valley, so I wanted this one to represent more of an adult album.”
After regularly sharing music independently and accumulating more than two million streams on Spotify since 2015, Vincent teamed up with producer Tom Elmhirst, known for working with Adele and David Bowie. Elmhirst brought him to New York City’s Greenwich Village to finish up Songs for the Canyon at Electric Lady Studios, aka the recording studio envisioned and founded by guitar god Jimi Hendrix.
“We were doing finishing touches on the album, as well as mixing it,” he explains. “But just being there and going to get lunch in New York, it was such a new experience for me. I was trying my best to soak it all in.”
He also soaked up the stories longtime employees shared with him about artists such as Patti Smith coming in to record. “Somebody there told me there was a knock on the front door, and they opened up the door and it was Patti, and she said something so sweet and nice to them, and they were very new at Electric Lady, like, ‘What an angelic welcoming.’ Something that you’d hear Patti Smith say, and you’re like, ‘What the hell? This is the most incredible day ever,’” Vincent recalls. “Just knowing that legends like that walk in and out so frequently is really cool.”
After such a soul-searching experience, it’s safe to say Vincent isn’t turning his back on the music industry anytime soon. He says he “fell in love” with Nashville during a recent visit and that he's excited to settle into Music City after he wraps up touring later this year.
“Hopefully I’ll meet some musician friends," he says, "and have a new little pocket of the country to work in."
John Vincent III, 8 p.m. Friday, February 8; 9 p.m. Saturday, February 9; Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue. Tickets are $170-$220.
