Bob Stroger (born December 27, 1930) is an American electric blues bass guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has worked with many blues musicians, including Eddie King, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Eddy Clearwater, Sunnyland Slim, Louisiana Red, Buster Benton, Homesick James, Mississippi Heat, Snooky Pryor, Odie Payne, Fred Below, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, and Billy Davenport.
Robert T. Stroger (pronounced Stro-jer) was born December 27, 1930, on a farm between Hayti and Swift in the Missouri bootheel. He only took an interest in music after he moved to Chicago, especially when he lived on the West Side so close to the legendary Silvio’s that he could look out and see Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf through the windows. In 1949 he married the sister of guitarist Johnny Ferguson, who played in J.B. Hutto’s band. With further encouragement from Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Bob Anderson, he learned guitar with the strings tuned to provide bass accompaniment before buying a four-string electric bass.
He formed a family-based band, the Red Tops (the band members wore black berets with a red circle daubed on top). Willie Kent was drafted to boost their proficiency, and the combo was renamed Joe Russell and the Blues Hustlers (Stroger had adopted the stage name Joe Russell, but the name did not endure). He went on to play jazz with Rufus Forman, but it was his meeting with Eddie King which started his lengthy career playing blues. At times he also did factory work, ran a confectionery store and worked as an exterminator. In the 1950 census he described his job as “Make kitchen gadgets.” Having started playing the bass guitar, His first studio recording was on King's single "Love You Baby" (1965).
He backed King for fifteen years before King relocated, after which Stroger stopped playing for a couple of years. His interest was rekindled through Otis Rush’s drummer Jesse Green who found Stroger spot in Otis Rush’s band, which led to studio and club work and his first European tours. Rush helped Stroger hone his playing into a strong, solid blues groove. Sunnyland Slim was a regular employer, and he also played and recorded with Snooky Pryor, Pinetop Perkins, Wille “Big Eyes” Smith, Jimmy Rogers, Carey Bell, Eddie C. Campbell, the band Mississippi Heat, Bob Corritore and many others, in the U.S. and overseas.
At the urging of Sunnyland Slim he began singing and first recorded as a vocalist in 1993 on one track of a Mississippi Heat CD and then on a German CD credited to the Big Four Blues Band (with Steve Freund, Robert Covington and Sam Burckhardt). His first CD under his own name was “In the House: Live at Lucerne, Vol. 1,” from the 1998 Lucerne Blues Festival, released by Crosscut in 2002, followed by “Bob Is Back in Town” on Airway (2006), “Keepin’ Together” on Big Eye (with Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, 2014) and “That’s My Name” on Delmark (with a Brazilian band, the Headcutters, 2022).
He also appears on various festival CDs from Lucerne and elsewhere and has joined several all-star aggregations. He has recently toured in a Chicago Blues SuperSession package, beaming with pleasure at still being able to do what he loves onstage. Grateful for the help offered him along his path to success especially by Rush, Sunnyland, Jimmy Dawkins and Eddie Taylor, he has in turn passed his knowledge and advice along, providing instructions to young musicians at the Pinetop Perkins Foundation in Clarksdale, Mississippi, every year.
Bob Stroger is still actively touring at the age of 94, is reaping the rewards for his decades of laying the foundation for countless blues bands. No performer has ever been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame at an older age. He was also the 2024 recipient of the Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist – Bass, the fifth time he had earned the honor.
(Edited from High Res Audio & Wikipedia)
