John Troutman is Curator of Music and Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, and is the museum's chair of the Division of Culture & the Arts. In addition to developing exhibits, programs, and other public-facing content, he specializes in stewarding, researching, and expanding the museum's collections that document the history of the blues, country music, Hawaiian music, Cajun music, rhythm & blues, and rock & roll. His curatorial work, research and publications have been recognized by a number of organizations and outlets. In 2025 he was awarded the Smithsonian Institution's Secretary's Research Prize for his work in editing music researcher and folklorist Robert "Mack" McCormick's manuscript, Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey, which also was recognized as a New York Times' Critics Pick and led to Troutman co-curating an exhibit on McCormick's archive. He also co-produced a six-LP box set from McCormick's field recordings, now housed at and released on Smithsonian Folkways. For this project, Troutman received two 2024 GRAMMY nominations for "Best Album Notes" and "Best Historical Album," and won Living Blues Magazine's Critics Poll for the 2023 Producer of the Year/Historical Reissue. Finally, he won the Popular Culture Association's Ray and Pat Browne Best Edited Reference/ Primary Source Work Award for co-editing the exhibition catalog, Entertainment Nation.
His work prior to joining the Smithsonian Institution's staff also gained widespread recognition. His book Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934, won the Western History Association's biennial 2011 W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for a first book on any aspect of the American West. His book Kīkā Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music, won five book awards, including the Organization of American Historians' Lawrence W. Levine Award for the "Best Book in American Cultural History," the IASPM-US Woody Guthrie Award for the "most outstanding book on popular music," and the American Musicological Society's Music in American Culture Award. Troutman's essays have been featured in several anthologies, magazines, and journals.
Troutman served as a consultant on American Epic, a Robert Redford/ Jack White/ T-Bone Burnett executive-produced PBS/BBC documentary on American music, and is featured in the prize-winning Rezolution Pictures documentary, Rumble: the Indians Who Rocked the World. He has been interviewed for features by The Washington Post, NPR's All Things Considered, The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, and more.
Troutman was raised in Dothan, Alabama. He studied anthropology at Emory University, and earned a master's degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. He earned his PhD in history from the University of Texas at Austin. A semi-professional musician on pedal steel and guitar, he contributed steel guitar to the album Grand Isle, by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, which was nominated for a 2012 GRAMMY Award for "Best Regional Roots Music Album." He has performed on stage with numerous musical luminaries including CC Adcock, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Dr. John, Willie Nelson's Band, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Ani DiFranco, and Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine).
