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Bio For Carolyn’s full bio, see the “Bio” page. You may also download a PDF here.
In 100 words:
Regarded as one of the city’s best singer/songwriters, Carolyn Striho made her name fronting the dynamic Detroit Energy Asylum and her work with punk priestess Patti Smith. Carolyn has a reputation for charismatic high-energy shows, poetic lyrics and evocative style. Wildly original, Striho’s music has been described as being written “from the silver edge of midnight” (All Music Guide). Carolyn’s album “Afterthought” was on the Grammy Awards First Ballot for Best Rock Album 2018. Carolyn also has 11 Detroit Music Awards with an Honorable Mention with Billboard Magazine. Her new book, “Detroit (Maiden Energy)” street princess poems & lyrics is now an Audiobook, released on Google Play, Apple Books and more in November 2020. “Detroit (Maiden Energy)” has garnered exciting reviews and was on Amazon’s best new sellers in late 2019. Carolyn’s toured Italy and England many times and Japan, Canada and the Midwest. Carolyn’s creative style of rock, jazz, indie folk, soulful punk, classical and gypsy cabaret have earned Carolyn a wide audience. Carolyn is recording a new album to be released in 2021 which includes her husband and guitarist, Scott Dailey, her band and special guests.
Press Clips
Downloadable PDF of press clips.
One of Striho’s most exquisite Detroit (Maiden Energy) pieces includes “Midnight Stars,” a haunting reflection of moving between life’s brightest and darkest moments while accepting the uncertainty of the road ahead. Striho beautifully recites, “Living in two when bright lights hurt/Bright sun blurts out a ribbon of resentment/I feel like I’ve got to run and get something to drink/Only not water/To shut down the sun that’s only good in the summer.” Lori Barnard Stratton, Current Magazine, Ann Arbor, Michigan 2020” https://www.ecurrent.com/music/carolyn-striho-new-audiobook/
“I truly adore this book…” Buchanan says. “It contains the heart and soul of a songwriter, a Detroiter through and through, who experienced the ebb and flow of life in this great city. Carolyn has seen a lot and been through a lot, but her spirit soars.” Buchanan describes Detroit (Maiden Energy) as “a poetic memoir set to music. It’s rock, it’s soul, it’s gypsy, Irish, Middle Eastern, French Canadian. It represents just about every cultural flourish imprinted upon this city. Every verse, whether it’s a song lyric or not, is musical.” Heather Buchanan, Aquarius Press Detroit – Publisher
Detroit (Maiden Energy): Street Princess Poems & Lyrics, published in October by Detroit-based Aquarius Press, is a collection of singer-guitarist-pianist-songwriter Striho’s original lyrics and haunting personal introspections, amassed over decades of challenging and captivating audiences here and overseas. Striho remains an aggressive, melodic, wildly sensual force of nature in concert!” Jim McFarlin, Hour Detroit and Metro Times
“In her song lyrics and poetry, Carolyn Striho opens up her heart and her head, blending emotion and psyche into a brave and provocative look into herself and the world around her. Whether it’s direct or abstract, you get engrossed in her words without even thinking about it, taking the trip willingly and coming out the other side all the better for it.” –Gary Graff, Billboard/New York Times Syndicate
“Carolyn Striho is the personification of Detroit Rock energy, charisma, beauty and talent. On stage, she is a force of nature, but this collection of her poems and lyrics allows us to experience this dynamic artist in a more intimate and personal way. Carolyn Striho is long overdue for a book just like this!” —Ann Delisi, Host, Ann Delisi Essential Music, NPR Radio – WDET-FM
“The triumph of Carolyn Striho’s CD Honesty as outstanding rock/pop recording at the 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.
“Winning Detroit Music Awards sends a clear message to Carolyn Striho that the music industry recognizes her creative genius & abilities..it was not the first time that she has been in the spotlight. She caught the ears of music fans in a big way fronting her band Detroit Energy Asylum & most of those musicians eventually became the core of the band Was Not Was, led by Don Was. We are that much richer for having a truly creative inspiration like Carolyn Striho. The recipient of several Detroit Music Awards including her 2010 win for Best Rock Album of the Year acknowledging her musical excellence for the album Honesty, the title song provides an accurate snapshot of Striho eclectic career with a languid slide guitar, turns very Punk like and at a couple of junctures slows down to a pretty Pop vocal. Sing It To Me,†has Latin overtones and features beautiful guitar playing by Scott Dailey, while Rayse Biggs blows a good trumpet and percussionist Ron Wolf is solid!” – Riveting Riffs Magazine, Toronto, Canada by Joe Montague
Not only is this girl bright, beautiful and talented but she has the soul of a person who has lived life to the fullest. She is one of the most decent and warm people on the planet. Some don’t realize that she “tore it up ” at the Detroit Jazz Fest shocking some folks because they thought she was a punk rocker a few years back. The girl can play any genre and she can’t fit into any small niches. She has it all. Terri Koggenhop, Detroit Music Awards and Detroit International Jazz Festival Coordinator from the Detroit Music Blog
“Carolyn is a poetic songwriter who plays piano (sometimes with the heel of her boot) and acoustic guitar (with her fingers) while singing in a style that might be jazzy, bluesy, torchy, fiery or any combination of the above…strutting and growling and singing a version of “Downtown” that would have made Petula Clark feel like a tourist, she’s worth tracking down!” Neal Rubin, 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. — MetroMix and Detroit Free Press
Word Attack is a true-to-form seven-track album from Detroit rocker-turned-chanteuse. The title track has some driving guitar and sugary-pissed vocals, while Always in my Heart is an acoustic gem typical of contemporary Striho. Plus, Enchante, a staple of the live show for some time, is excellent. – Brett Callwood – L.A. Times
“The eclectic, alternative sound, contains elements of Carolyn’s long history in the Detroit Punk, Alternative, Folk, and Avant Garde scene. Carolyn, a multiple Detroit Music Award recipient (among other notable awards) has toured with Patti Smith and performed with many great acts such as Iggy Pop, The Ramones, and Was (Not Was) and has performed at many famous venues worldwide. Carolyn’s performance seduces the audience and engages them with her genuine emotion bringing  all of us along for a wild ride.” – Gary McFarland, National Rock Review
“Striho is an unstoppable blonde music machine, taking the solo route and never looking back…the city’s finest songwriters coming together. “ Metro Times
“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.” 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 effing 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
“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 and Hour Detroit Magazine
“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.
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
