"You sound like Bob Dylan," people often tell John Allen James, "except you can sing!" That makes no sense to him, either, "but everyone means it kindly, so I have learned not to argue."


John never intended to sound like anyone else. Unlike most musicians, who cut their teeth on songs of others, he wrote and recorded two albums of his own music before he learned his first cover song.


The muscular poet does mean to write songs with heart and brains. One critic described his 2016 album Harder Roads as "timeless, enduring, yet also current and relevant." American Songwriter Magazine chose John and his song "Light of Day" for its Daily Discovery feature.


John played all the instruments except for drums and did all the production on his first two albums before enlisting the help of studio musicians for his 2018 release, Fire Sky. The songs begin with John and his acoustic guitar, "ripping myslf open and writing the devils down," and fans see that intimacy in live shows. John plays solo, where "I stand in front of strangers and set my soul to sound."


John has made a living for much of his adult life writing and speaking into microphones as a broadcast journalist. Once an Emmy-nominated TV news and sports anchor, he still anchors news part time for a Tampa radio station.