John P. Strohm – Everyday Life
It could happen. Should anybody ever ask me to define “roots pop,” I won’t say a word. I’ll just walk over to the stereo and pop in John P. Strohm’s 1999 release Vestavia. At least that was the plan until Strohm’s Everyday Life arrived; I now have exhibits 1a and 1b.
Both discs feature a sound that’s a bit too rustic for power pop but a little too polished for roots rock. File Strohm somewhere near Gary Louris and Rhett Miller, except with a background in indie pop (Blake Babies, Velo-Deluxe, Antenna) instead of country rock. Strohm’s writing is smart without being flashy for flash’s sake.
“Can’t face middle age on the minimum wage/Work for The Man, and he’s half my age,” he sings on “Waiting For The World To End”, his protagonist passing time by sweeping the floors in a video store. (Maybe the same guy who walked through the drive-thru on Vestavia. Just a thought.) His characters tend to be much more comfortable with stretches of highway than with the prospect of settling down; call them the not-so-young and the restless. Thus when he sings “Everyday life seems a little bit more like everyday life” on the title track, it could be a blessing or a curse.
Incidentally, both of those songs have the kind of honey-roasted hooks that nestle in your brain for weeks at a time, with Strohm getting expert support from Silos pair Drew Glackin and Konrad Meissner among others. But the best musical moment here is “The Long So Long”, which sounds like a mash-up of almost any three Band songs, bolstered with a nifty bridge and drizzled with Strohm’s semi-gloss. You know, roots pop.