John Mehler (born August 27, 1948, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

) is a drummer for

Love Song A love song is a song about love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. Love songs can be found in a variety of different music genres. They can come in various formats, from sad and emotion ...

, Spirit of Creation, Noah and other bands.

Biography

Mehler graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1969 and soon thereafter moved to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

with two musician friends, Chuck Fraher and Jay Truax, to form Spirit of Creation. While Mehler was a member of Spirit of Creation the group opened for some of the more popular groups of the day including

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

, Spirit and the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

. In the summer of 1970 he joined

Chuck Girard Chuck Girard (born on August 27, 1943) is an American musician, considered a pioneer of Contemporary Christian music. He moved to Santa Rosa, California in his early teens, becoming a band member of the Castells and later the surf-rock band The ...

and Tommy Coomes in Love Song, one of the pioneers of

Contemporary Christian Music Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...

(CCM). Mehler has worked with artists as far ranging as

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey ...

and

Phil Keaggy Philip Tyler Keaggy (born March 23, 1951) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. H ...

. Mehler's

solo album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century ...

''Bow and Arrow'' was a pioneering work in the Contemporary Christian Music scene. The album is currently hard to find and is out of print. CCM magazine says,

"John Mehler's musical contributions have graced the "fine print" of more Christian albums than just about anyone I can think of. As a member of Love Song (one of ccm's foundational bands), his distinct style as a drummer was to have as dramatic an influence on the sound of many early Christian bands as Ringo Starr did on the British bands that followed in the wake of the Beatles. As a session player on countless records, John brings to the drums a unique musicality thoroughly individual yet always complementary to the sound of the artists he's accompanying."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mehler, John Love Song (band) members Living people 1948 births Musicians from Long Beach, California Musicians from Salt Lake City 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male musicians Drummers from California Drummers from Utah