The Windswept
The Double Reamed
The House Broken
The Sticky
The Cage Free
The Hairy
The Double Reamed
The Dirty
The Dirty
The Humanely Raised
The Burrowing
The Outnumbered
The Sticky
The Oily
The Scaly
The Scratchy
The Scaly
The Dirty
The Roly-Poly
The Slimy
The Punctual
The Humanely Raised
The Sticky
The Oily
The Scrambled
The Humanely Raised
The Squishy
The Incredibly Hot
The Cage Free
The Hot Buttered
The Incredibly Hot
The Hot Buttered
The Itchy
The Bulbous
The Frisky
The Slimy
The Roly-Poly
The Sticky
The Pea-Brained
The Sad Genius
The Herniated
The Burrowing
The So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed
The Scratchy
The Inappropriate
The Hairy
The Disturbing
The Herniated
The Sad Genius
The Squishy

John Troy

Events

Here’s a list of upcoming events where you can experience John Troy’s classic and unique sound at upcoming shows. We’re thrilled to see you there. Let’s rock!

Mondays
Live Music @ The Ugly MugJohn Troy appearing at the Open Mic
5-8PMThe Ugly Mug
Wednesdays
After Hours Presents: The 11th Act Open MicJohn Troy joins other musicians, poets, performance artists & comedians!! Open Mic with host Bryan Callahan from 6:30-9PM every Wednesday
6:30-9PM11th Hour Coffee
Fridays
Open Mic FridaysCome in and watch John Troy play!
7-10PMThe Corralitos Cultural Center

About John Troy

John Troy was born 30 January 1950 in beautiful downtown Burbank CA. In 1952 his family relocated to Oceanside CA where he grew up surfing, swimming, playing football and, to his parents’ chagrin, getting swept up in the 60’s counter culture.

He started playing guitar while attending University Of The Pacific in Stockton CA. There he met Jon Pousette-Dart, a singer/songwriter from Suffern NY. They started playing together and performing around campus. After a time they both dropped out, each to follow his own path.

Troy’s decision to leave college was triggered by the death of Jimi Hendrix. He said at the time, “If Jimi Hendrix can die, the least I can do is drop out of school.” It makes sense if you don’t think about it.

As it turned out, the two young musicians’ paths were to merge again. In the spring of 1971 John was playing rhythm guitar and singing lead vocal in a dance band in San Francisco while Jon Pousette-Dart was plying his solo trade in the northeast. Opening for John Hammond at the Chicken Box in Nantucket, Pousette-Dart was seen by Boston’s premier impresario Don Law who offered to represent him. PD accepted.

Pousette-Dart moved to Cambridge MA, called Troy, and asked him to join him on the condition that he switch from guitar to bass. Troy agreed.

Troy arrived in Cambridge on 2 November 1971. He and Pousette-Dart were joined by John Curtis the following year. With the addition of a succession of drummers (Alison Cook, Bob Weiner, Jeff Teague, Michael Dawe, Jean-Dominique Sifantus) they became known as the Pousette-Dart Band.

The band recorded five albums for Capitol Records and toured nationally. Its biggest hit was Amnesia. In its wisdom, the record label dropped the band in 1980.

John picked up work where he could find it. He played some gigs with Livingston Taylor and went on a couple short tours with Jonathan Edwards. Then he heard that Natalie Cole was auditioning bass players.

Determined to get the gig with Natalie, John flew to Los Angeles and auditioned. He got the gig. Moving in with a friend in Hollywood, he played with Miss Cole regularly at the Hilton in Las Vegas, Harrah’s in Reno and Lake Tahoe, and went on one national tour, the highlight of which was a show with Lou Rawls at Carnegie Hall.

Yes, John Troy played Carnegie Hall. No, he can’t believe it, either.

One day, while working a two-week engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton, Troy received a phone call from John Hall. Hall had been the creative force behind the band Orleans. He had written their two biggest hits, Still The One and Dance With Me. He asked Troy if he’d like to join the band he was putting together to do a short tour with Bonnie Raitt . Troy thought about it for five seconds and said yes.

Bonnie didn’t have a record deal at the time because her label, in its wisdom, had dropped her, so Hall invited her to come out from her home in Los Angeles to tour the northeast where she had a strong base after having attended Radcliffe and working joints in and around Cambridge. Troy had known her since coming East in 1971 so there was a real family feel about this new tour.

The tour was a success and an auspicious beginning for the new group, the John Hall Band. Again, Troy was touring nationally with a band, this time under the EMI/America label (drummer Eric Parker and keyboardist Bob Leinbach rounded out the quartet). And again, it knocked out audiences coast to coast but was, again, unnoticed by its own label. It had one minor hit, Crazy (Keep On Fallin’). One can find it on YouTube along with their other MTV Classics Sure Fooled Me and I Want You To Love Me.

The label, in its wisdom, dropped the band.

Soon John was touring in Europe with blues wizard Danny Adler and then again with woulda-coulda-shoulda- been-a-rock-star Andy Pratt. Living in New York at the time, he was hired by film composer Mason Daring to play on the soundtrack and sing the theme song for the 1985 20th Century Fox romcom Key Exchange. The movie went nowhere.

Meanwhile, John’s bandmate from the John Hall Band, Eric Parker, picked up a gig with Joe Cocker. Joe’s bass player left, so Eric said to Joe, “Hold on. I have a bass player for you.” That was fine with Joe; it meant he didn’t have to audition people. Eric called John and said, “Do you want to play with Joe?” John said, “Joe who?”

For the next two years, from 1985 to 1987, Joe Cocker kept John on the road in the USA, Europe, and Australia.

Then, with the arrival of his first son, John had to keep things closer to home. He played with local Boston favorites The Pencils (w/John Curtis and Jean-Dominique Sifantus).

John and his wife…the first one…got a divorce which freed him up some and, with Eric Parker, formed the Low Sun Dogs, a quartet in NYC rounded out with guitarist Gary Sieger and pianist Will Barrow.

The Low Sun Dogs did three gigs: one at Le Bar Bat in NYC, another at The Bitter End in NYC, and another at the Old Vienna Coffee House in Westborough MA. Then, wouldn’t you know it, John had a son with another wife…the second one…and couldn’t get away from Boston enough to keep the band going. That put paid to the LSD. All that remains of that effort is five songs which can be found on John’s YouTube channel.

During this period he became the go-to bass player for producer Crit Harmon who kept him busy playing on fledgling singer/songwriters’ debut albums including those of Mary Gauthier (Dixie Kitchen) and Martin Sexton (Black Sheep). They don’t return his calls.

John joined forces with guitar phenom David Brown. They performed in and around the North Shore of Boston and recorded the album Sidemen which can be found on John’s YouTube channel. They were joined by drummer extraordinaire Dave Mattacks and proceeded to wow audiences with their songs and musicianship. Their album Troy, Mattacks and Brown Live At Captain Carlo’s is a good representation of what they could do and which can also be found on John’s YouTube channel.

One day around this time, John was paying bills, thinking about how to increase his income, and had an idea: how about solo/acoustic performance? He could sing, he knew songs, he had some originals…he had an acoustic guitar somewhere, pretty sure, and he knew some chords. He could learn more chords as he went along. Why not?

Excited, he went to the basement to look for his old acoustic guitar, long abandoned since he switched to bass, languishing for decades in all the corners, closets and cellars of all the apartments and houses he had lived in. He rummaged. There it was! He moved boxes, clutter, the detritus of years, liberated the guitar case and brought it upstairs to the living room. He laid the case on the sofa and opened it. Hello, old friend! Poor thing; its neck warped, its strings rusted…he felt a pang of guilt. He took it out, sat down next to the case, and began to tune the strings.

His wife…the second one…walked through the room. “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna perform solo/acoustic, honey!”

“Oh. Jimmy needs a bath before dinner.”

“Okay!”

For the next several months John practiced, put together the 30-plus songs he would need to play three sets at any joint, bought gear, and put out feelers for work.

He eventually landed a spot when Tom Bianchi, an enterprising bass player who regularly put on showcases featuring local talent, agreed to give Troy a chance. On the appointed night at the Skellig in Boston, smoke started filling the room in the middle of John’s set. Everyone had to evacuate the building. Standing out on the sidewalk, watching firemen file into the place, John took it as a good sign. He was hot, baby.

Before very long he was performing regularly around Boston and southern New Hampshire as a solo artist. Playing in restaurants and bars, he longed to perform in a concert setting. He called his old friend Jim Roach, a well established concert promoter in New Hampshire. Troy had known Roach since his days as the manager of the now long defunct Jonathan Swift’s in Cambridge. Troy told him that he was working as a solo artist now, and that he was available to open for any show Roach might produce. Roach said he would keep John in mind.

Meanwhile, John’s sister Alice, back in California, was having more and more trouble handling their parents who were succumbing to the depredations of advanced age. It was getting to be more than she could handle. After consulting his wife…the second one…he decided to move back out to California and help his sister with their parents.

He began the process of putting his house up for sale while looking for a place in Southern California. Meanwhile, he had written enough songs to fill an album so he and Crit Harmon began work on that. He continued working in joints. He called Jim Roach and reminded him that he was ready, willing and able to be an opener for one of his shows. Roach said he’d keep him in mind.

It began to occur to John that Jim regarded him as a bass player and that it might be difficult to think of him as anything else. It was understandable: for 30 years, to the world John Troy was a bass player. And now he was announcing, “Look, everybody! I’m a singer/songwriter!” Yeah, well, we’ll believe it when we see it.

John and Crit completed recording John’s debut album of original songs, Just When I Thought I Was Done. John sang and played bass and acoustic guitar. He also hired a great lineup to round it out:

He called Roach. Roach said, “For sure. I’ll keep you in mind.”

The album was added to the rotation at WUMB, the premier folk station in New England.

Troy called Roach and told him. Roach said, “That’s great, John! I’ll keep you in mind.”

Troy was flying back & forth to California, hemorrhaging money. He found a house in Orange County. A double-wide. It would have to do. He found a buyer. A closing date was set. The shit was getting real. Jim Roach called. “Hello?”

“John!”

“Hi, Jim. How you doing?”

“Fine. Are you available this Saturday?”

Troy looked at his calendar. Just two days away. It was open. “Yeah, I’m open.”

“Thank God. My opener for Don McLean just canceled. Everyone else is booked. You want to do it?”

Gulp. “Sure!”

Clearly, Jim was nervous. He knew John as a seasoned musician, as a bass player, a background singer, but he hadn’t heard him perform as a solo act. All he had was John’s word that he could do it. He was taking a leap of faith, sticking his neck out, for sure.

It turned out to be a pivotal event. In John’s words:

On the appointed night I threw my guitar and a box of my new cd’s in the car and drove up to the Lebanon Opera House, an 800-seater in Lebanon NH. It was sold out. Yikes.

McLean had a full band. They were sound checking when I arrived. I waited out in the house. When they were done, the curtains were drawn closed. I was to perform in front of the curtains. A folding chair was placed just in front of where the curtains came together, along with a mic stand and a direct input box for my guitar. They had to open the doors. There was no time for a sound check for me.

I went backstage and tried to remain calm. McLean’s band was eating dinner. I wasn’t hungry.

Continues…

After waiting for what seemed like a year it was time to go. I stood in the dimness behind the curtains next to the band’s gear while a voice announced upcoming events. Jim came up to me. “How you feeling, Johnny?”

“Good!”

“Great! Just don’t fuck this up, okay?”

“Okay.”

Well, I went out there and killed ‘em. Killed ‘em. I finished my set, stood next to my chair, and bowed. As the applause poured down over me I felt tears well. I parted the curtains, returned to the dark stage and wiped my eyes as Jim rushed up to me. “Holy shit, John! That was great!”

“Thanks, Jim.”

“I mean I can’t believe it! We’re gonna have to do this again!”

“I’m moving to California.”

“What? When?”

“In two weeks.”

“Why?”

Because. Just…because.

So with his songs in daily rotation on the area’s preeminent folk radio station and a promise of continued work with one of New England’s top promoters, John loaded a 24-foot truck with his family’s possessions, hitched a car carrier behind, piled into the cab with his wife…the second one…their son, their two dogs, their goldfish, and drove across the country to Laguna Hills, California. They arrived on 6 July 2006. John was 56 years old.

Over the next 12 years John established himself as one of the busiest solo performers in South Orange County while also playing bass in several area bands. In that time, he was able to play in an actual concert setting just three times: twice at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano opening for Dan Hicks and then Paula Poundstone, and once at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica opening for his friend Chris Smither .

He recorded another album of original songs called Donkeys And Kings produced by Richard Bredice.

He hosted his own radio show, John Troy’s Crunchy Groove Sack, on KX FM in Laguna Beach.

The rest of the time it was restaurants, bars and festivals. He began hearing about house concerts, wherein homeowners would host concerts in their homes. It sounded crazy but, apparently, it was a thing. He knew that his old friend Freebo, Bonnie Raitt’s original bass player, was making hay in that network, so he called him.

Freebo thought it was a great idea for John to break into the house concert network, telling him that his voice, his songs, and his stories should be heard. He urged him to register for the 12th Annual FAR-West Music Conference at Marriott City Center, Oakland, CA October 15-18, 2015. This John did.

Upon entering the lobby of the Marriott, John was unsettled to discover a scene reminiscent of the bluegrass festivals he had occasionally played with the Pousette- Dart String Band (pre-drums) so many years before where, amidst grass and trees, one would observe musicians, guitars and banjos strapped on or violins in hand, wandering from group to group of players jamming happily away. The main difference here was the setting: instead of the woodsy environment of some state park in Pennsylvania, it was the posh lobby of a major city Marriott.

Open instrument cases lined the walls, noisy knots of musicians sawed, strummed and sang, creating a not-unpleasant musical cacophony. To an old road warrior like Troy, for whom a lobby had always been a transit area between street and room, something to be walked through, it was a bit of a shock.

The four-day event was packed with scheduled workshops, forums, and in the main function room, performances which had to be applied for and approved by committee.

John went to a few talks on how to get gigs. The only performative opportunity for him and other first timers was to play in actual hotel rooms hosted by other musicians. He played in six rooms. One was hosted by Freebo himself.

There was no one but the two men in Freebo’s room when the time to start arrived. Freebo told John to begin. John looked at him. “What, just play to you?”

“Yeah, man! We have a performer and an audience. That’s a concert.”

Well, ok then. John sang songs for Freebo for half an hour. Freebo reiterated his opinion that John owed it to the world to perform in a concert setting.

John played five other rooms, a couple of which were full of listeners, but it was the one with Freebo that stayed with him.

On the last morning of the event there was a full conference breakfast in a big function room. Freebo told John to meet him there. John waited by the entrance. When Freebo arrived they maneuvered their way through the room and as they did John noticed heads turning. “Whoa,” he thought. “Freebo’s a big shot.” It appeared that Freebo was regarded as an elder statesman in the house concert network. John felt even more grateful.

When John returned to Orange County he reflected on what he had learned; that how, with diligence, he could assemble a promo package and, in time, land a house concert. He found that the popular house concerts in Southern California had waiting lists months, years long for performers.

Meanwhile, he had an average of 4 to 8 bar gigs every week. His dream of playing house concerts would have to wait.


One morning in January 2018 John awoke with a noticeably sore back. He figured he’d thrown it out the night before while pulling his amp out of his car or some such thing. He babied it as best he could and waited for it to get better. It got worse. Two weeks later he saw his doctor who referred him to the first of many specialists who were unable to tell him what was wrong.

By the time he flew back East in July to do a John Hall Band reunion gig in Woodstock NY he was having trouble walking and could barely carry his bass case. He had to play seated.

John’s condition continued to deteriorate. He needed help loading and unloading his car. He was walking with a cane. On 28 September he played his last gig with, funnily enough, a Joe Cocker tribute band headed by frontman Jason Feddy.

Three days later he was finally diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood that attacks the bones, especially the spine. It’s incurable and, without treatment, fatal. He began chemotherapy immediately.

It was touch and go for the next three months. By January 2019 John began to show signs of improvement but he was much debilitated. Wheelchair bound, he was bathed, dressed and fed by his wife…the third one…but the most notable change was his height. His spine had collapsed, pancaked, and where he had been 5’11” he was now 5’4”. An earlier diagnosis would have prevented it, but now he was slightly stooped and permanently disabled.

About his new reality John was sanguine: “I get great parking!” and “Now that I’m this much smaller, my dick looks that much bigger!”

He had lost 50 pounds but now his appetite returned and he started walking around the mobile estates (a lofty euphemism for “trailer park”).

He began practicing, getting his callouses back, singing, getting his high range back, and, in September, a year after his diagnosis, he started working again.

None of his friends at gigs knew him until he walked right up to them and said, “Hey, it’s me, John Troy.” This was followed invariably by the shock of recognition. Fun!

Things at home got noisy and, in December 2019, his wife…the third one…left.

In March, the lockdown hit.

Now with no gigs available, John began a weekly Facebook live stream called Taco Troysdays. The virtual tip jar provided grocery and gas money. He uploaded his performances to his YouTube channel. At this writing there are over 50 of them along with other songs and tomfoolery.

Alone now in his double-wide…well, not completely alone; he had the company of his cat Bootsy, named for bassist Bootsy Collins , another black cat…he announced that he was moving back to Cambridge. When his son, Will, learned of that, he said that he’d prefer it if John was near him. So John moved to Santa Cruz CA.

Leaving the musical network he had established over fifteen years in Orange County, John was now in a new town where he knew no one. Back to square one, he began researching the local music scene, compiling a list of venues that would most likely hire him. But something wasn’t right…

He was depressed. Yes, it was a drag to have to start over again, to go with his hat in his hand to club managers who were too young (as if that’s an excuse) to know who Joe Cocker or Natalie Cole were, but that wasn’t it. This was something different, deeper.

John struggled with it, puzzled over it, for several weeks. Every time he called some manager and left a message he’d hang up absolutely enervated. And then, when they didn’t call back…which is typical…his lassitude and indifference would deepen. Where was his drive? Why was he so tired?

Then, one morning, while still in bed, he had a vision.

In his vision, John was loading into The Cliff, a restaurant/bar in Laguna Beach, and he was 56 years old. He loaded in, set up his gear, and played three sets. Then, done, he struck his gear and loaded out to his car…and he was 68 years old. He had aged 12 years in the span of one gig.

He now realized why he was so depressed. It wasn’t just that he had to start all over again. It was that he had start all over again hustling to get work that he didn’t want to do.

He didn’t want to play in restaurants and bars anymore. He didn’t want to provide background music for people who are eating, drinking, talking, laughing, yelling at the game. He didn’t want to pour his heart into a song only to have some idiot come up and request Mustang Sally. He didn’t want to hear some well intentioned soul who, surprisingly, recognized talent, come up and say, “Wow, you’re great! What are you doing here?”

Good question.

An old musician’s adage goes like this: There are two kinds of gigs; the kind where people pay to see you, and the kind where they don’t.

For the first 25 years of his career, John had played the first kind. For the second 25 years he had played the second kind. The first kind is better.

What to do? He remembered opening for Don McLean. He remembered opening for Chris Smither et al. He remembered Freebo. He remembered the joy of playing for just one person who is listening.

Concerts! House concerts! That’s what he would do. He would rather drive 200 miles to play for ten people who are listening than drive ten miles to play for 200 people who are not.

What would it be like? How hard would it be? Was he too old? Could he do it?

We shall see.

Media

A curated selection of performances featuring John Troy.
Listen, and enjoy the show!

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John Troy

John Troy plays a Taylor 310-CE acoustic guitar and a Warwick 5-string Streamer Stage 1 electric bass.

"It was a pleasure to have John Troy as our opening act for the SOLD OUT Don McLean concert at the Lebanon Opera House. Within minutes, John had the crowd in the palm of his hand, which is not easy to do with a room full of fans waiting to hear "American Pie". I watched the crowd during John's performance as he brought them through a range of emotions. Rarely does an opening act make as big an impression on an audience. John moved them to laugh, smile and touched more than a heart or two. They also raced out to buy his CD and to talk with John. John Troy is a true professional musician. I highly recommend him!"

 - Jim Roach, JJR Productions

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"It was a pleasure to have John Troy as our opening act for the SOLD OUT Don McLean concert at the Lebanon Opera House. Within minutes, John had the crowd in the palm of his hand, which is not easy to do with a room full of fans waiting to hear "American Pie". I watched the crowd during John's performance as he brought them through a range of emotions. Rarely does an opening act make as big an impression on an audience. John moved them to laugh, smile and touched more than a heart or two. They also raced out to buy his CD and to talk with John. John Troy is a true professional musician. I highly recommend him!"

 - Jim Roach, JJR Productions

This will close in 0 seconds