John Vincent III Brings Indie-Folk Music Home

John Vincent III’s heartfelt indie-folk music traces back to summers spent in his grandparents’ home on the border of Copley and Norton, leaping into the family’s backyard pond, watching the lightning bugs in the summer, skateboarding around town. “Just good old Midwestern fun,” he remembers.

The musician, to this day, keeps Ohio close to heart. Now living in Nashville, Vincent previously lived in Los Angeles and in Houston with his family during his teen years. His earliest musical experiences came earlier on, from his grandparents.

“My grandma on my dad’s side was a great piano player. She taught me,” Vincent says, “and my grandpa on my mom’s side was a crooner singer, like Frank Sinatra vibes. He was always doing his little karaoke machine in the living room.”

Those early years in music planted a seed for the current songwriter. In the past decade, Vincent has churned out gentle, rootsy folk songs on 2016’s High Ridge & Stones, 2019’s Songs From the Valley and 2023’s Songs for the Canyon. The albums have earned success with hundreds of millions of online streams, a headlining nationwide tour and on a tour supporting chart-topping folk-pop act Noah Kahan.

Next, he’ll perform at the Agora on Friday, Dec. 19, co-headlining a show with Cincinnati musician Michael Marcagi. The following day, Dec. 20, the two will perform at Andrew J. Brady Music Center in Cincinnati, honoring both of the artists’ hometowns in one weekend.

At the Ohio concerts, you can expect to hear some new music from Vincent, from an in-the-works album set to release next year.

“Michael’s a really nice guy, and we’re both from Ohio. Ohio has a really rich history of music, and it just seemed like a really fun idea,” Vincent says. “My whole extended family can come, his family can come. We’re doing it for freaking Ohio.”