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Bio

For Carolyn’s full bio, see the “Bio” page. You may also download a PDF here.

In 100 words:

While perhaps best known for fronting the Detroit Energy Asylum and for her work with punk priestess Patti Smith, Detroit musical icon Carolyn Striho continues to steadily evolve her craft, gaining respect in the international music community as a songwriter, singer, poet, artist, and musician. Nominated for over 30 Detroit Music Awards since 2006 and winning several, Carolyn is a creative force whose deeply-felt lyrics, mesmerizing stage presence, and evocative style translate into unforgettable live sets. Fusing pop, rock, jazz, classical, folk, punk and even cabaret, and backed by a talented band, her music refuses to be categorized.

Press Clips

Downloadable PDF of press clips

“The triumph of Carolyn Striho’s CD Honesty as outstanding rock/pop recording at the 2010 Detroit Music Awards a couple months back highlights the city’s current bumper crop of gifted female singer-songwriters. It is fitting that the award — one of three she won that night –went to Striho, whose roots in Motor City music run deep.” — Ben Edmonds – Detroit Free Press/MOJO Magazine U.K.

“Recent shows have seen Striho strumming electric and acoustic guitar, singing pretty love songs alternating with eerie circus-punk ditties, and playing keyboards – with her fingers, yes, but also with one heel of her black boot. She’s authentic, that’s for sure.   You can just imagine, then, when Striho flings her leg up onto the keyboard and whisper-sings a blend of Iggy Pop and Judy Garland – well, let’s just say you’re in for quite a ride!” – Liz Hill – Strut Magazine Detroit

“A singer-songwriter who can sing beautifully and write a hell of a good song, Striho … is capable of hypnotizing her listeners as if she’s some kinda siren raised on bars and factories and busted hearts. She’ll likely have them eating out of the palm of her hand by the middle of her set.” — Detroit Metro Times

“An energetic singer with a strong and free spirit, with a natural energy and interest in experimentation and improvisation, Carolyn was born in Detroit. and composes on piano and guitar, mixing jazz, soul and avant -garde compositions in her great writing”  – Italian Rome Newspaper – La Luna in la Minore from Donne In Musica, Roma Press (translated from Italian)

“Carolyn has taken her deeply felt reverence for Detroit rock tradition which gave her a musical life, and extended it by weaving its finest elements — direct emotional connection, unwavering energy, top-notch playing that doesn’t get in the way of a song, urgent commitment to getting something across by whatever means necessary — together with her own passionate voice, lyrically expansive and hook-laden songwriting style, and energy-first guitar playing and spit out an unnameable, unfettered monster all her own. Is it rock & roll? Yes, and it’s also bad-ass, sidewinding, erotic music that isn’t afraid to use a soft hand before cracking the whip!”
– Thom Jurek – All Music Guide/Internet

“The music that she’s been doing has always had a great Detroit feel to it. Now something more is happening, there’s more hooks, a blend of hard Detroit sounds with more pop elements…” – Ralph Valdez – WDET-FM radio and Concert of Colors USA

“Striho has been an irrepressible attraction on Detroit’s musical landscape, noted for her impassioned live sets. After years of experimenting, and eclectic shows in Detroit, Toronto and many shows in Osaka, Japan, Carolyn Striho has got it! Her songs reveal the awareness of personal evolution.” – Jim McFarlin – Metro Times

“The Carolyn Striho-Rayse Biggs Project show on the 2009 Detroit International Jazz Festival  – I’d seen Carolyn over the years, but until today, not this phase of her varied career.  Emcee and DJ John Penney said in speaking of the boundary-defying music the rock/punk singer/poet Striho and the jazz trumpeter Biggs make, he said, ‘Is there jazz in it? Yes.  Does it fit into a box? No.’ Particularly fine was ‘Wade in the Water’, which seemed to invite the rain to start coming down, and Carolyn’s bluesy vocals on ‘Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child” – Susan Whitall, The Detroit News.

“Carolyn made her name playing with  bands Detroit Energy Asylum, The Cubes & poet Patti Smith — but it’s as a solo performer that she has really found her niche. Within this city’s music community, Striho is regarded as one of our best songwriters, and her new album Honesty showcases that fact. Honest.” — Brett Callwood – MetroMix and Detroit Free Press

“Warm and intoxicating, here’s a singer who means it! Carolyn needn’t have bothered naming her new album Honesty. It should be apparent to anyone who listens to the lovingly constructed record there’s barely a note played or sung that Striho doesn’t mean! The best is ‘Sing It to Me’ — poetic & ambient.” — Detroit Metro Times

“Carolyn has collaborated with a slew of amazing musicians in the past, including punk legend Patti Smith, but she’s an amazing songwriter/singer/performer in her own right. Nothing exemplifies this more than her new video, ‘Sing it to Me,’ a sultry, Spanish-sounding single with a film noir vibe that is slightly reminiscent of Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ video (minus the controversy) … I’ve gotta say — it’s the best effin’ video of any local artist I’ve ever seen, no matter the scale of the artist’s fame.”  – Stacy Lukasavitz – freelance music blogger “that damn redhead,” Michigan USA