A Gruhn employee since 1978, John specializes in repairing acoustic instruments. He's also an accomplished musician.Born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, he hit the road in the 1970s playing banjo with a novelty group called the Homestead Act, which became Patsy & Elmo (of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" fame). John and his wife-to-be Lynn left the group before "Grandma," and they became the leading bluegrass artists on the island of Maui in Hawaii, where they were married in 1974. Since returning to the mainland, John has played with such bluegrass greats as Bill Monroe, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Mac Wiseman, Vassar Clements, Joe Stuart and Clyde Moody.
These days John provides the indispensable jug beat for the Nashville Jug Band (on Rounder Records), and he's the founding mandocellist with the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and the Butch Baldassari Trio. When no one's looking, he's likely to be playing a fiddle.