Paul Strother

Starting at 13, I played in orchestras through college where I studied with Robert Mellin and, very occasionally with Sam Hollingsworth (Pittsburgh Symphony). I met the rest of the Chicken Chokers during the winter of 1979-1980 and promptly forgot how to read music. In the 1990's, when the band dispersed, I fell into a series of local electric guitar/song-writing projects beginning with a thrash band called Third Wheel (the cops came into the Rat to tell us to turn down), then The Weeds followed by Twang (with Chip and Jim), and, currently my own band, mr talliman (with Bob Metzger ex guitarist for Leonard Cohen and Jean-Do Sifantus ex Pousette-Dart Band). On the folk side, I play bass with Spider John Koerner when he is in town (a gig I got through Chip), had a stint with Ruthie Dornfeld playing Hungarian folk music, played in the Primitive Characters, was in an early version of the Tarbox Ramblers in their pre-touring days, and have played with Michael Hurley. I was the original bassist with the Eilen Jewell Band before their current lineup and spent 2005 playing in the hill country blues band, Whoa!Man!Jesus! led by Wayne Rhodes. Locally, in addition to mr talliman, I play electric bass in a 60's band, The Reverberators, and acoustic bass in Jubilee Mule, an old time quartet featuring fiddler Andy Reiner. For my day job, I am Research Professor of Paleontology at Boston College.