After playing Patti Smith's Meltdown with Patti and her band & Steve Earle, London, U.K., I was invited to play in Rome & London in November 2006 for a tour. In 2008 - my new CD/EP is "Is This Me"? STS. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Am now recording a full-length album. Very fortunate to work with great friends - Patti Smith, Luis Resto, Jackson Smith, Scott Dailey, Jason Schaller, Mario Resto, Joey Mazzola (guitars), The Ragbirds, Eimas i(Lithuania), John Madison (viola), David McMurray (saxophone); Rayse Biggs (trumpet); Vinnie Dombrowski (drums) & vocalist Toko Shiiki/October Babies.
Discography
2006 C. Striho (recorded live at 54 Sound/England and Italy)
2006 Detroit Music Awards Compilation w/Hard Lessons, Howling Diablos
2005 Patti Smith, Steve Earle and Carolyn Striho, live in London
2001 Secrets and Space with David McMurray and Luis Resto
1997 Reminscing About the Future
1995 Dreams Can Be Your Friend
Carolyn Striho
Detroit, London, New York, Michigan, Rome, Osaka; Music: David Bowie, Patti Smith, Bela Bartok, Jimi Hendrix, Kirsty MacColl, Iggy; Was (Not Was), Marianne Faithfull, Helen Merrill, Monkees, "Rastaman Vibration", Sparks, Dead Kennedys, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Fela, Isley Brothers, Edward Satie, Lou Reed, Imogene Heap; Beth Orton; Jim Morrison; Lou Reed; RoxyMusic; Sly & Robbie; Grace Jones; Black Uhuru; Mark the Bird Fidrych; Johnny Cash; Mom's sunshine & Dad's courage.
Books: Catcher in the Rye; The Bell Jar; Geek Love; Garden of Eden; On the Road; Dance the Eagle to Sleep; Black Like Me; Tales of Beatnik Glory; Poetry: Blake, Rimbaud, Yeats, di Prima; the Wasteland (T.S); Babel; Baraka; Nin
Art: Jean Miro, Frida Khalo; Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock; Jean Michel Basquiat; Andy Warhol, Patty Izzo photography
Movies: Wizard of Oz, Apocalypse Now, Bladerunner, The Sound of Music, La Dolce Vita, La Belle de Jour, Last Tango in Paris, Moonstruck; The Omega Man; Marnie
Sounds Like
Electro-Acoustic high energy gypsy punk, dreamscape pop/rock/fok/jazz.
Ralph Valdez, WDET-FM Detroit: “The music that she’s been doing has always had a great Detroit feel to it. Now something more is happening, becoming this blend of hard Detroit sounds with more pop elements…”
All Music Guide/Internet: “Striho writes gorgeous, psychedelic pop songs that come from the silver edge of midnight, aching anthems of poetry and longing…”
Jim McFarlin, Metro Times: “Striho has been an irrepressible attraction on Detroit’s musical landscape, noted for her impassioned live sets. Striho is refusing to live in the past. She’s living for today, which makes her future look extraordinarily bright. After years of experimenting, and eclectic shows in Detroit, Toronto, and Osaka, Japan, Carolyn’s songs reveal the budding awareness of personal evolution."
Carolyn with the Patti Smith Group at Michigan Theatre, Aug 2007, Ann Arbor Michigan USA
Citizen of the world! Carolyn is a Detroit musician respected in the international music world as a songwriter, singer, poet, artist - with energy exploding on stages everywhere! Riveting live shows are blasting rock, pop, folk, anti-folk, cabaret & otherworldly poetry - Carolyn skirts the line between high-energy and dreamy electro-acoustic rock, her music vibrant & bewitching - bold, hypnotic, smart, modern. She's performing on a Steinway grand, heart & soul into a song. she's Carla Bley & Little Richard on a bright red keyboard, blending Venice and Paris eclectic clavinet polka gypsy punk with tribal dance and melodies; holding her acoustic guitar, playing a bass driven acoustic in no-holds barred political beauty, let's say - hey ho, let's go !
From the Metro Times, review of Is This Me?
by Bill Holdship 2/27/2008
It takes some courage to title a new song "Promised Land" in 2008. Carolyn Striho's "Promised Land" may be the one, however, that best expresses its message via its mood in no uncertain terms. It isn't at all reminiscent of Springsteen's hope-in-the-face-of-despair anthem in its tone, nor even the more cynical but still humorous (humor = hope) "Promised Land" by one Mr. Chuck Berry as covered by Elvis Presley and thousands of others over the years. Striho's "Promised Land" is dissonant electro-pop, with frightening stream-of-consciousness lyrics, appropriate for the zeitgeist following eight years of Bush. But it rocks nevertheless. And rock can also mean hope — even at this late date.
Is This Me? is exceptionally good. The internationally renowned Detroit artist's voice is, at turns, warm, rich, idiosyncratic and, at times, just plain (in a good way) eccentric. "Tiara" opens things on a violin-driven, downbeat, almost mournful but still melodically beautiful note. The appropriately titled "Ocean" is so Patti Smith influenced in its trippiness and mid-song chanting that it almost could be Patti Smith. And that's meant as a compliment — a big one. "Enchante" opens with a calliope-driven instrumental musical interlude before the lyrics kick in and it becomes a clash between the sounds of Barnum & Bailey and gypsys, tramps and thieves.
Good stuff. Four-and-a-half out of five, only because it leaves you wanting to hear more from this Motor City maven.
Special announcement: ROCKDIGI, Detroit's most underground recording studio is a proud sponsor of Pahfest: Motown 2008, July 14-20 at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan. Film score composers will have access to ROCKDIGI to record and mix. Pahnation rocks! -BC
