Kai Strauss

Last updated
Kai Strauss
Born (1970-05-15) 15 May 1970 (age 53)
Lengerich, Westphalia, Germany
Genres Electric blues
Occupation(s)Singer, guitarist, songwriter
Instrument(s)Guitar, vocals
Years active1990s–present
Website Official website

Kai Strauss (born 15 May 1970) is a German electric blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. [1] He is a multiple winner of the German Blues Award and regularly tours with his band, Kai Strauss & The Electric Blues All Stars. [2] Strauss has been involved in the release of seven albums since 2014.

Contents

Life and career

He was born in Lengerich, Westphalia, Germany, [3] and grew up in Osnabrück. As a teenager in the 1980s, he developed a passion for the work of Albert King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Stevie Ray Vaughan, through listening to his parents' record collection. [4] Strauss later fuelled his desire by participating in various local blues jam nights. [2] From the mid 1990s, Strauss formed the Bluecasters, who performed all over Europe with the Texan harmonicist Memo Gonzalez. [2] By 2010, Strauss performed under his own name and, in 2014, released his debut album, Electric Blues. The recording featured Keith Dunn (harmonica, vocals), Sugar Ray Norcia (vocals) and Darrell Nulisch (harmonica, vocals), whilst Strauss played guitar and sang plus undertook production duties. [5] Electric Blues contained the track "Home in My Heart", written by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke. [6]

His next album, I Go By Feel was issued on Continental Blue Heaven in 2015. [7] Tommie Harris sang vocals on two of the album's numbers, "Luther's Blues" and "Soul Fixin' Man". [8] Getting Personal, which was released in January 2017, saw guest musician Big Daddy Wilson (vocals) feature on one of the tracks. [9] By this time, Bruce Iglauer founder of Alligator Records stated, on hearing the work of Strauss, "Excellent playing, with a lot of maturity and emotions". [2]

In 2018, Strauss was involved in the issuing of two albums. Alabama Hambone was credited to Tommie Harris With The R&B Caravan Feat. Kai Strauss. Whilst The Blues Is Handmade was a compilation album issued by Continental Blue Heaven. [7] His next album, credited to Kai Strauss & The Electric Blues Allstars, was the live recording, Live In Concert. One reviewer noted "His repertoire on this CD sounds as if it came from Theresa's Lounge in Chicago, 1967". Otis Grand opined "Clearly, real blues is embedded in Kai’s skull, and I think he finally did it and is steering himself fittingly". [4] The magazine, Blues Matters! , in its number 108 issue in 2019 noted, "This is high energy top quality electric blues as it should be, from the heart and with punches of feelings and emotions. Hard to believe this man is a blues player from Germany and not from Chicago or Memphis". [2]

In 2022, and by now entering his sixth decade, Strauss issued In My Prime. [2] Most of the tracks were written, or co-written by Strauss, although it included a version of "Down on Bended Knee", as originally recorded by Johnny Copeland from Copeland Special (1981). Unusually, the horn section on In My Prime was recorded in the United States, with the bulk of the other recording taking place in Germany in July 2020. [10] [11]

Strauss had concerts in 2023, which included a date in January at the Stadstheater Blues Festival alongside Giles Robson, Sugar Queen, Big Bo and Little Steven, and a short joint tour with Tony Vega throughout March. [12]

Discography

Albums

YearTitleRecord labelAdditional credits
2014Electric BluesContinental Record Services
2015I Go By FeelContinental Blue Heaven
2017Getting PersonalContinental Blue Heaven
2018Alabama HamboneStyx RecordsTommie Harris With The R&B Caravan Feat. Kai Strauss
2018The Blues Is Handmade (compilation album)Continental Blue Heaven
2019Live in Concert (live album)Continental Blue HeavenKai Strauss & The Electric Blues All Stars
2020In My PrimeContinental Blue Heaven

[7] [1]

Related Research Articles

Don Francis Bowman "Sugarcane" Harris was an American blues and rock and roll violinist and guitarist. He is considered a pioneer in the amplification of the violin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Brown (guitarist)</span> Musical artist

Mel Brown was an American-born blues guitarist and singer. He is best remembered for his decade long backing of Bobby Bland, although in his own right, Brown recorded over a dozen albums between 1967 and 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cotton</span> American blues singer-songwriter (1935–2017)

James Henry Cotton was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Mississippi Allstars</span> American southern rock and blues band

North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson. Their most recent album Set Sail was released in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George "Harmonica" Smith</span> American electric blues harmonica player (1924-1983)

George "Harmonica" Smith was an American electric blues harmonica player. Apart from his solo recordings, Smith is best known for his work backing both Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.

<i>Bo Diddley</i> (1958 album) 1958 compilation album by Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley is the debut album by American rock and roll musician Bo Diddley. It collects several of his most influential and enduring songs, which were released as singles between 1955 and 1958. Chess Records issued the album in 1958. In 2012, it was ranked number 216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list alongside his second album, Go Bo Diddley (1959). The ranking of the album pair dropped to number 455 in the 2020 update of the list.

<i>Fleetwood Mac in Chicago</i> 1969 studio album by Fleetwood Mac

Blues Jam in Chicago is a studio recording by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac, originally released in two single-LP volumes by Blue Horizon in December 1969. It was the result of a recording session in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and a number of famous Chicago blues artists from whom they drew inspiration. The album has also been released, with slightly different track listings, under the titles Blues Jam at Chess Volumes One and Two and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, the latter by Sire Records in 1976.

<i>USA Union</i> 1970 studio album by John Mayall

USA Union is a 1970 album by blues musician John Mayall, featuring Harvey Mandel on guitar, Larry Taylor on bass and Don "Sugarcane" Harris on violin. The album was recorded on July 27 & 28th, 1970 at Larrabee Studios in LA and released by Polydor later in the same year John Mayall - Discography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otis Taylor (musician)</span> American blues musician (born 1948)

Otis Taylor is an American blues musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist whose talents include the guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. In 2001, he was awarded a fellowship to the Sundance Film Composers Laboratory.

<i>Copeland Special</i> 1981 studio album by Johnny Copeland

Copeland Special is an album by the American musician Johnny Copeland. It was in 1981 on Rounder Records in the United States, Demon Records in the United Kingdom, and Black & Blue Records in France. It was recorded and mixed at Blank Tapes, 37 West 20th Street, NYC, and produced by Dan Doyle. The album won a W. C. Handy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harpdog Brown</span> Canadian blues singer (1962–2022)

Harpdog Brown was a Canadian singer and harmonica player who had been active in Canada's blues scene since 1982. His distinguished musical career was so honoured by the Maple Blues Awards in 2014, for harmonica player of the year, then again in 2015 and for the third time in a row in 2016. He was also nominated for best male vocals and album of the year in 2016. The Maple Blues Awards are Canada's equivalent of The Blues Music Award formerly the W. C. Handy Awards that take place yearly in Memphis, Tennessee. In that same year, he was also honoured with a lifetime membership to the Hamilton Blues Society.

Grady Champion is an American electric blues harmonicist, singer, guitarist and songwriter. He has released ten albums to date. His influences include Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Koko Taylor. His "rough, raspy vocals", complement his "authentic Mississippi juke joint blues and... modern ultra produced dance party soul and R&B".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Sansone</span> American singer

John "Johnny" Sansone, also known as Jumpin' Johnny Sansone, is an American electric blues singer, songwriter, harmonicist, accordionist, guitarist and piano player. He was nominated for seven music awards in 2012, including a Blues Music Award which he won. To date, he has been involved in the release of twelve original albums.

<i>Roll with the Punches</i> (album) 2017 studio album by Van Morrison

Roll with the Punches is the 37th studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on 22 September 2017 by Caroline Records. It features Jeff Beck on guitar, and charted in the Top 10 in five countries, and the Top 40 in a further six, including the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster Mike Welch</span> American blues guitarist and singer

Monster Mike Welch is an American electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was nominated for a Blues Music Award in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

<i>Up and Rolling</i> 2019 studio album by North Mississippi Allstars

Up and Rolling is the tenth studio album by American band North Mississippi Allstars. It was released on October 4, 2019, through New West Records, making it their first album for the label.

Big Daddy Wilson is an American electric and soul blues singer and songwriter. Most of his solo recordings have been released by the German record label, Ruf Records. To date, Wilson has appeared on more than a dozen albums.

Cleo Page was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, whose recorded work was released on several singles and an album in his lifetime, with a compilation album issued in 2022. Details of his life are sketchy, and he has been a subject of conjecture among blues historians.

References

  1. 1 2 "Kai Strauss". Discogs.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "English | Kai Strauss". Kaistrauss.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "Kai Strauss". Musicbrainz.org. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Kai Strauss & The Electric Blues Allstars". Bluesheaven.dk. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Electric Blues - Kai Strauss | Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  6. ↑ "Kai Strauss feat. Boyd Small". Secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 "Kai Strauss Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  8. ↑ "Kai Strauss Featuring Special Guests: Mike Wheeler, Tommie Harris, Tony Vega, Sax Gordon, Big Pete - I Go By Feel". Discogs.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  9. ↑ "Getting Personal - Kai Strauss | Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  10. ↑ "Kai Strauss - In My Prime". Discogs.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  11. ↑ Szalony, Greg "Bluesdog" (1 May 2021). "Kai Strauss – In My Prime | Album Review". Bluesblastmagazine.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  12. ↑ "KAI STRAUSS". Kingbeemusic.nl. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.