">Originally from Saint Louis, Missouri, John was influenced early on by that town's rhythm and blues and his Oklahoma mother’s singing. This funky start was drastically tempered by a nine-year stint in a Catholic seminary where silence and Gregorian chant were his daily bread. After leaving the brotherhood, and armed only with his vow of poverty, John moved to New England and pursued the path of an itinerant musician, playing in sundry bands and bad barrooms. It was during this time, he realized, that his audience could not understand Latin.

His music is memorable, poignant, hopeful, wise, and passionate.

Winner of both the 2003 Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest & the 2006 Rose Garden Performing Songwriting Competition,  

John lives in Jaffrey, NH with his wife, Jane and cats, Iko & Godzilla.

"Wise, witty and dark."  Charlie Hunter of Flying Under Radar

  Dick Pleasants, WUMB: "John's songs really connect."

"New Hampshire's John Schindler knows how to translate life into wise, oddly witty songs and his new Memory Train album collects many of the calm little gems he's been writing in recent years." Daniel Gewertz, The Boston Herald 

“ A true original.” WUMB’s Boston Folk Festival

 "I would close for that man again any time." Tom Rush

“…John's the best singer songwriter I've run into in the last 10 years or so."  Bob Franke

  For booking (603) 532-6096 or star.broom@gmail.com

">"Photos courtesy Boyd Estus,2004 & Phil Knudsen

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Dear Friend(s)

TRUE STORY:

We were kayaking back into Lobster Cove a few years back when my wife thought she saw a small seal in a pool. I laughed and pointed out that with my keen eagle eyesight that she was merely pointing to a piece of driftwood. A piece of driftwood which then barked and struggled to get back into the cove!

It was indeed a harbor seal that looked like it was in distress (probably from seeing the fat guy in a kayak). Without missing a beat, my wife promptly went back further up the cove to our shack and called the police. A good plan as they directed her to call Marine Animal Lifeline, while I contemplated the eventuality of giving CPR to a different species. Seal breath- yow!

They told us to not touch the seal or try to push it back in the water. Some 2 hours later to rescuers came with a dog carrier (I don’t know if they make seal carriers) came a scooped us out little friend and hurried it off to Westbrook.

This agency posted our seal on the website (closed now) and was listed as # 133. Apparently after weaning, some seals have a hard time in the wild where feeding on fish provide both nutrition and hydration. #133 was given a course of antibiotics and nourishment with the plan to be released later on Cape Elizabeth.

6 months later #133 was released with a half dozen other seals. It swam for a while and then returned to shore, apparently unable to fend for itself.

Not the end of the story: a luck would have it, the Como Zoo in St Paul were in need of a female harbor seal as a replacement mate to a male seal there. We had no idea #133 was a female!

“Ginger” now lives in Minnesota and a friend’s daughter visited the zoo and sent us a picture which you can see at my gig:




For Musi-cal gig schedule click here: 

Get my CDs here at CD Freedom.

 Get my CDS at CD Baby here:



For booking and scheduling information, call (603) 532-6096 or write
76 North Street, Jaffrey, NH 03452
 E-mail star.broom@gmail.com

"Someday I'll be a star."