John Lawry

Infobox Musical artist
Name = John Lawry

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Background = solo_singer
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Born = birth date and age|1950|06|15
Japan
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Origin = Flint/Millington, Michigan
United States
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Genre = Christian
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Associated_acts = Petra_band
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John Lawry (born June 15, 1950) is a Christian musician, composer, producer, and songwriter. He is most remembered for being the keyboardist of Christian rock band Petra during their most prolific years.

Biography

According to his personal testimony as recorded on Petra's "Captured In Time and Space" live album, John was born in Japan and was subsequently adopted by an American family from Michigan. Some sources cite John as having grown up in Flint, Michigan, others cite Millington, Michigan, but both cities are in the same general area of the state.

Lawry showed musical skills from an early age. When he was 9, he learned to play the accordion. When he grew up he went to Millington High School and was involved in the school band. He graduated in 1969 and continued working in music. Lawry contributed to several projects during the following years.

In 1982, he joined the Joe English Band and recorded three albums with them. He also recorded with the band "Forerunner". In 1984 he joined Petra recording a total of nine albums with the band. During this period, the band won 3 Grammys and several other awards.

John's first appearance with Petra was on their "Beat the System" album in 1984. While Petra had stocked a resident keyboardist (John Slick) for some time, Lawry's entrance into the band brought a new, more "modern" sound that would stay with the band for the entirety of Lawry's tenure.

In 1986, Lawry played a keyboard solo on Greg X. Volz (former Petra lead singer) first solo effort. He also released a solo album called "Media Alert" in 1990.

Lawry left Petra in 1994 to dedicate to a career producing and recording. He was replaced by his keyboard technician, Jim Cooper. He also released another solo album in 1997 titled "Excursions".

In 2005, Lawry joined the stage again with Petra during one of the band's final presentations that was released as the "Petra Farewell" CD and DVD.

Lawry married his wife, Stefanie, and has two sons, Jeremy and Nick. Stefanie's voice was sampled for "Jesus Loves You".

Equipment

On the band's first live record, "Captured In Time and Space", John took the stage with an impressive array of keyboards, organized into two stacks.

tage Left (top to bottom)

*Yamaha DX7
*Moog Memorymoog
*Korg CX3 tonewheel organ

tage Right (top to bottom)

*Roland Juno-106
*possibly a Korg DW-6000
*Fairlight CMI (used for his signature "Jesus Loves You" solo)

External links

* [http://www.thepetrazone.net/ The Petra Zone]
* [http://www.petraband.ca/ PetraBand.ca (Canada)]