About John Trollmann

I love roots rock; that is, Americana, blues, gospel, folk, hillbilly, cowboy, all stitched together like your grandma's quilt; ballads and songs that have seeped into the American psyche for the past century and a half like blood into sand. I love songs that are cut from old remnants of America: frayed and tattered at the edges; songs about people hell bent and furious living in places far off and incomparable.

Armed with a duo of Santa Cruz small bodied acoustic guitars and a harp, my songwriting and guitar style is influenced by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and The Beatles; the guitar styles of Ramblin' Jack Elliot; the regional rock and blues songwriting of Peter Case and Dave Alvin; the alternative rock, pop, and roots songwriting of Jeff Tweedy (Wilco); and songs of Mike Beck that recall the big landscape country of California and the West.  

The West is an interesting place.  So is the music of Tom Waits.  There's a lot of stuff that gets discarded, thrown out the window at 65 mph, things that wind up in the ditch on the side of the road, things that make for cool songs;  ghost towns, old movies, dive bars, cans, bottles, etc.  It all just piles up.

About The John Trollmann Band

"You guys sound like Neil Diamond meets The Grateful Dead," said Chuck Herman, one of the dynamic duo, along with his brother Matt, round out The Midnight Screening.  I laughed.  Myself, I think we sound like Crazy Horse, Neil Young's band, all chunky chords and rhythm, a rootsy blend of country, blues, folk, pop, and rock.

We got together serendipitously.  In the summer of 2008, Gil Dabney was producing Ray's Last Stand, and asked the Rusty Picken's Band bass player Grant McCormick to lay down the bass tracks.  It wasn't until after the cd came out that I got the opportunity to play some live shows in the LA/OC area.  I was still playing solo shows with my acoustic Santa Cruz 000, but wanted to take a fatter sound on the road. With Gil on the Strat or the Thunderbird (the guitar, not the wine) and Grant on bass, we soon asked Christopher Bright to do the heavy lifting on drums.  

Discography

Ray's Last Stand CD (2008) (John Trollmann)