Kai Strauss

Guitarist/singer Kai Strauss discovered his passion for the music of Albert King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and many others as a teenager in the 1980s through his parents’ record collection. Soon, countless nights at the local blues jams followed, and from the 1990s on you could find him on stages all over Europe. Today, after 25 years on the road you can’t actually label Strauss as Just another European and separate him out from American artists – he is too good for that. In fact, he’s among the few of musicians still jumping the authentic Blues with inspired fine blues guitar improvisation firmly grounded in that old Chicago-bred music that we all love.                                                                                                                              

On his latest album “Live In Concert” Kai Strauss vibrates with deep musical understanding and shows a real grounding in fundamentals and an instinctive urge to fit together the right notes and solos. – there is nothing here that is filled with uncalled-for, frenzied guitar lines. Nothing mechanical or out of place. His repertoire on this CD sounds as if it came from Theresa’s Lounge in Chicago 1967. 

As British blues guitar legend Otis Grand puts it „Clearly, Real Blues is embedded in Kai’s skull, and I think he finally did it and is steering himself fittingly. As BB King says on his greatest live recording: „We’re going to do our best to try and move you tonight – if you like the blues, I think we can.” Kai Strauss and his ace band will do the same here“

Strauss is a four times German Blues Awards winner and tours all year with his international group Kai Strauss & The Electric Blues All-Stars.

Kai Strauss es una figura del Blues en Europa; un personaje que no tiene nada que envidiar a los mejores guitarristas de Chicago o Texas » Gary Reinhard, WITR Radio/Bad Dog Blues -Rochester New York.

Nacido en 1970 en Lengerich, una ciudad de clase trabajadora en el noroeste de Alemania, Kai Strauss comenzó a tocar la guitarra eléctrica a la edad de 14 años, descubriendo a B.B. King, Buddy Guy y muchos otros.

En 1989 se unió al cantante-guitarrista Memo González (Dallas-Texas) para formar « The Bluescasters » con quien grabó 5 discos y realizó intensas giras por Europa y Estados Unidos.

En 2011 Kai decide comenzar una carrera en solitario y graba dos álbumes en el sello alemán « Continental Blue Heaven ». Su álbum Electric Blues gana el premio al Mejor Álbum de Blues en 2014 y su último álbum « I go by feel » es muy parecido a una reunión de grandes nombres internacionales con Mike Wheeler (Delmark-Chicago), el ex baterista de Luther Allison Tommie Harris (Alabama), Tony Vega (Houston), Sax Gordon (Boston) y el increíble armonicista holandés Big Pete van der Pluijm.

Esta grabación muestra que no sólo es uno de los diez mejores guitarristas de Blues de Europa, sino que también ha desarrollado extraordinarias habilidades de canto, composición y producción.