James Stroud


James Stroud is an American musician and record producer who works in pop, rock, R&B, soul, disco, and country music. He played with the Malaco Rhythm Section for Malaco Records. In the 1990s, he was the president of Giant Records and held several credits as a session drummer. He later worked for DreamWorks Records Nashville and in 2008 founded his own label, Stroudavarious Records.

Biography

Stroud began playing drums at local bar bands in Texas and Louisiana. Stroud worked with musicians such as Paul Davis in the 1960s. He and Davis also took on songwriting duties for Jackson, Mississippi-based Malaco Records. He played with and produced many acts throughout the 1960s and 1970s. While involved at Malaco, he worked with R&B artists, including Dorothy Moore, King Floyd, Frederick Knight, Jackie Moore, The Controllers, Fern Kinney, and Anita Ward. He co-produced and played on Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue", which was a major US and UK hit, going on to sell over four million copies.
He was also a session musician working with the band, Sparks which he provided guitar, drums and keyboards. He also started playing drums and synthesizer with Paul Davis, taking influences from rock and R&B artists. In the early-1980s, he began playing for Eddie Rabbitt. From there, Stroud had become a prolific session drummer in Nashville, Tennessee, backing Ronnie Milsap, K.T. Oslin and others. He was also a member of the Marshall Tucker Band.
In the late-1980s, Stroud founded The Writers' Group, a publishing company. He also took up producing, and in 1989 was named by the Academy of Country Music as Producer of the Year. When Warner Bros. Records founded the Giant Records branch, Stroud became president of the new label and produced several of its acts, including Carlene Carter, Dennis Robbins, Tracy Lawrence, Daryle Singletary, Daron Norwood and Clay Walker. At the same time, he produced acts not signed to the label. Between 1993 and 1994, twenty-one singles produced by Stroud reached the top of the country charts.
After Giant Records closed in 2000, Stroud moved to DreamWorks Records Nashville, where he worked as a producer for several artists including Darryl Worley. After the label closed down in 2005, Stroud joined Universal Music Group and served as co-CEO alongside Luke Lewis until 2007. In July 2008 he founded a new label, Stroudavarious Records, to which he signed Worley as the flagship artist.

Collaborations

With Alabama
  • The Touch
  • When It All Goes South
With Joan Baez
  • Play Me Backwards
With Glen Campbell
  • Walkin' in the Sun
  • Unconditional Love
With Joe Cocker
  • Civilized Man
With Mark Collie
  • Tennessee Plates
With Crystal Gayle
  • True Love
  • Straight to the Heart
With Patrick Hernandez
With High Inergy
  • High Inergy
With Nick Kamen
  • Nick Kamen
With Toby Keith
  • Shock'n Y'all
With Gladys Knight & the Pips
  • Visions
With Jean Knight
  • Mr. Big Stuff
With Nicolette Larson
  • ...Say When
With Tracy Lawrence
With Melissa Manchester
With Dean Martin
  • The Nashville Sessions
With Mac McAnally
With Neal McCoy
  • Where Forever Begin
With Tim McGraw
  • Tim McGraw
With Bill Medley
  • Still Hung Up for You
With Ronnie Milsap
With Jackie Moore
  • Sweet Charlie Babe
With Michael Martin Murphey
  • River of Time
With Anne Murray
  • Heart Over Mind
With Wayne Newton
  • Coming Home
With The Oak Ridge Boys
  • Seasons
  • Christmas Again
With Nigel Olsson
  • Nigel Olsson
  • Nigel
  • Changing Tides
With Eddie Rabbitt
With Lou Rawls
With Dennis Robbins
  • Man With a Plan
  • Born Ready
With Bruce Roberts
  • Cool Fool
With Kenny Rogers
  • I Prefer the Moonlight
  • If Only My Heart Had a Voice
With Dan Seals
With Paul Simon
  • There Goes Rhymin' Simon
With Tanya Tucker
With Dionne Warwick
With Carl Wilson
  • ''Carl Wilson''