Bob Stroger
(birthdate unknown)
After moving to Chicago as a teen in 1955, the great blues bassist, Bob Stroger, didn't even have to get out of bed in order to hear the music he would wind up spending the rest of his life playing. He lived in the back of a night club on the Windy City's west side. Not just any night club, either, this was one that happened to book some blues artists, along the lines of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. It probably makes sense that the bass is what he heard first, as it is always the sound of the electric bass which carries the furthest distance, disturbing the most people. Peeking in at the action at the club encouraged Stroger further. Despite the melancholy association of the blues, to Stroger "it looked like they were having a lot of fun and I made up my mind that what I wanted to do was play music," he wrote in a little autobiography on his own website. Stroger got an enthusiastic family band project going with harmonica blowing cousin, Ralph Ramey, and brother, John Stroger, a drummer. Throughout the ensuing decades, Stroger would work with Eddie King, Morris Pejo, Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim and a host of others.