John P. Strohm | |
---|---|
Born | |
Alma mater | Cumberland School of Law |
Occupation(s) | Musician, lawyer, music-industry executive |
Years active | 1980s–present |
Musical career | |
Genres | Indie rock |
Instrument(s) | Drums, guitar |
Formerly of | Blake Babies, Velo-Deluxe, The Lemonheads, Antenna |
John Strohm (or John P. Strohm, born March 23, 1967, in Bloomington, Indiana) is an American musician, singer, lawyer, and music-industry executive.
Strohm grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where his father was an English professor. [1]
Strohm began his musical career playing drums in Indiana's punk rock scene, then moved to Boston in 1985 and switched to guitar. [2] With Juliana Hatfield and Freda Love (then Freda Boner) he co-founded the indie rock trio Blake Babies in 1986.
In 1994 the band Velo-Deluxe, with Strohm as the frontman, released their only album, Superelastic, through Mammoth Records.
Strohm also played drums in The Lemonheads from 1987 to 1989 and guitar in 1993-1994 and 1996-1997. [3] He performed on the albums Creator , Come on Feel the Lemonheads , and Car Button Cloth . [2]
He led the indie rock band Antenna, [4] which released two albums and two EPs in the early 1990s. [2]
Strohm released his first solo record, Caledonia, in 1996, backed by the Hello Strangers. AllMusic described the record as "twangy country-rock" in the vein of Gram Parsons. [2]
His second solo album, Vestavia, was released in 1999. [5]
In 2007, Strohm released his third solo album, Everyday Life. [6]
Strohm's fourth solo album will be released in 2023. It was inspired by his friend, the late record producer and Polara frontman Ed Ackerson, who was a member of Antenna and produced Strohm's 1999 solo album Vestavia. The album's lead single, "Something To Look Forward To", was originally recorded in July 2019 at Ackerson's Flowers Studio and was the last collaboration between the two men before Ackerson's death. Strohm finished the track in 2022 with producer Paul Mahern. The album will also include a cover of Strohm's favorite Polara song, "A+B=Y" (originally from Polara's self-titled debut). [1]
From 2011 to 2017, Strohm worked for the Nashville law firm Loeb & Loeb LLP as senior counsel in their music industry practice. [7] He worked with bands including Alabama Shakes, Bon Iver, The Civil Wars, Sturgill Simpson, Dawes, and Julien Baker. [8]
In late 2017, he was named President of Rounder Records. [9]
After leaving Rounder in 2022, he joined the Nashville law firm Frost Brown Todd. [10]
Strohm attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for two years but dropped out to pursue music.
In 1998, he enrolled at University of Alabama at Birmingham to complete his B.A., majoring in history with a minor in music technology. [11]
He then earned a Juris Doctor degree from Samford University Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating magna cum laude in 2004 and serving as editor-in-chief of the Cumberland Law Review . [12]
Solo
With the Blake Babies
With Velo-Deluxe
With the Lemonheads
With Antenna
Juliana Hatfield is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls, and The Lemonheads. She also fronted her own band, The Juliana Hatfield Three, along with bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips, which was active in the mid-1990s and again in the mid-2010s. It was with the Juliana Hatfield Three that she produced her best-charting work, including the critically acclaimed albums Become What You Are (1993) and Whatever, My Love (2015) and the singles "My Sister" (1993) and "Spin the Bottle" (1994).
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member. After their initial punk-influenced releases and tours as an independent/college rock band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads' popularity with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It's a Shame about Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers. This was followed by a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", which eventually became one of the band's most successful singles. The Lemonheads were active until 1997 before going on hiatus, but reformed with a new lineup in 2005 and released The Lemonheads the following year. The band released its latest album, Varshons 2, in February 2019.
Blake Babies were an American college rock band formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts. The three primary members were John Strohm, Freda Love, and Juliana Hatfield. They recorded three albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed to record a new album in 1999, and again in 2016.
Evan Griffith Dando is an American musician and the frontman of the rock band the Lemonheads. He has also embarked on a solo career and collaborated on songs with various artists. In December 2015 Dando was inducted into the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame.
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrass, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord in 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mammoth Records was an independent record label founded in 1989 by Jay Faires in the Carrboro area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The majority of the acts on Mammoth were executive-produced by Faires and the label's general manager, Steve Balcom. The label was the first independent to produce two platinum records.
Polara is an American alternative rock band formed in 1994 by Ed Ackerson, a musician and producer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band was considered one of the most prominent and creative groups to emerge from Minneapolis in the 1990s. Billboard writer Deborah Russell called Ackerson and Polara the front of "the emergence of a new local scene" more interested in pop music and postpunk than the punk rock of bands like Hüsker Dü and The Replacements.
Ben Deily is an American musician and songwriter, most famous as one of the founders, writers and lead singers of the Boston-based alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Deily and Dando met while students at the Commonwealth School in Boston.
Michael Jason Isbell is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He is known for his solo career, his work with the band The 400 Unit, and as a member of Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007. Isbell has won four Grammy Awards.
Lick is the third album by The Lemonheads and the last to feature founding member Ben Deily. It was released in 1989 and was the group's last album before signing to major label Atlantic. A typo on the album itself erroneously states its release date as 1988. As with their first two albums, it was re-released as a CD in 1992, with two bonus tracks.
Creator is the second album by American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. It was issued twice, as an LP in 1988, and as a CD in 1992, which included three bonus live tracks, recorded at the radio station VPRO in The Netherlands. It is one of only three albums to feature the full original lineup of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz.
Antenna was an American indie rock band active from 1991 to 1994.
Earwig is the second album by the Blake Babies, released in 1989.
Ed Ackerson was an American musician and producer from Minneapolis. He produced or engineered dozens of records including works by prominent artists such as The Jayhawks, The Replacements, Motion City Soundtrack, Soul Asylum, Golden Smog, Dave Davies of The Kinks, Wesley Stace, Mason Jennings, Mark Mallman, John Strohm, Brian Setzer, Lizzo, Pete Yorn, The Wallflowers, Rhett Miller of The Old 97s, Jeremy Messersmith, and Juliana Hatfield. He owned a recording studio in Minneapolis, Flowers, and co-founded the Susstones record label. Ackerson led several notable Twin Cities pop/rock bands including Polara and The 27 Various, and released several solo records under his own name. He was also a prolific producer of albums by Twin Cities bands, and was regarded as one of the linchpins of the Minnesota music scene.
Polara is the self-titled first album by Minneapolis alternative rock band Polara.
C'est la Vie is the second album by Minneapolis alternative rock band Polara, and their first for Interscope Records.
Jetpack Blues is a 2002 album by Minneapolis alternative rock band Polara, their fourth full-length record, and first after breaking with Interscope Records and going independent. It was released on bandleader Ed Ackerson's Susstones Records label, and produced by Ackerson at his recording studio, Flowers, which he founded by reinvesting the money from the band's Interscope deal as well as an otherwise unsuccessful deal with Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures.
Beekeeping is a 2008 album by Minneapolis alternative rock band Polara, their fifth and final full-length release. It was released on bandleader Ed Ackerson's Susstones Records label and produced by Ackerson at his recording studio, Flowers.
Flowers Studio is a recording studio in Minneapolis founded by Ed Ackerson, leader of the alternative rock bands Polara and the 27 Various, and co-founder of the Susstones Records label. Many notable musicians have recorded at the studio, including the Jayhawks, The Replacements, Motion City Soundtrack, Brian Setzer, Golden Smog, Mark Mallman, Soul Asylum, the Old 97's Rhett Miller, Clay Aiken, the Wallflowers, Pete Yorn, Juliana Hatfield, Free Energy, Lizzo, Jeremy Messersmith, and Joseph Arthur.
Hideout is an album by the American indie rock band Antenna, released in 1993. It is the band's second album.