Emerging from Florida and later Nashville, Tennessee (where he moved in the 1970s), John Anderson was a singer/songwriter closely akin to the famed Bakersfield, California sound. The Bakersfield style launched the careers of Marle Haggard, and Buck Owens, among others, and played a pivotal role in the development of Anderson's own music.
Anderson, along with his contemporaries Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle, gained popularity by bringing a contemporary sound to a traditional style of country music. As such, these artists were tagged "the New Traditionalists."