Doors 4pm, Music 9:15pm

StratCat Willie & the Strays

StratCat Willie Hayes is an old-school bluesman who has been writing and playing for over sixty years. Some of his earliest influences included T-Bone Walker, Mike Bloomfield, B.B. King, Johnny Winter, and Duke Robillard. In 1995, after several years of gigging in local clubs and fronting many cover bands, his affinity for and love of the blues led him to form a band that would allow him to focus exclusively on the blues.“ Blues Plate Special” was a harmonica driven blues band that covered everyone from Little Charlie & the Nightcats to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, as well as writing and recording original songs. With Blues Plate Special, he worked hard to keep the blues alive in the Southern Tier of New York, recording three studio albums along with one live album. In 2019, in an effort to explore other styles of the blues, he pulled several players together that had been with him for many of those fifty-plus years to form “StratCat Willie & the Strays”. In 2020, armed with thirteen original tunes, he took the Strays into the studio. The result was “On The Prowl”, which debuted on SiriusXM BLUESVILLE’s “Rack of Blues” and remained on the Roots Music Report charts for six consecutive months, finishing #52 on the RMR “Top 200 Contemporary Blues Album Chart for 2021”.Following up on that success, late in 2021 StratCat Willie brought the same players together to record “On A Hot Tin Roof”. Comprised of twelve new original tunes written entirely during the pandemic, the music not only reflects the darkness of the times, it also reflects the “Good News of the Blues” and the joy of classic swing/jump blues by tapping into the rich sound of a backing horn section and soulful background vocals. This album also enjoyed widespread popularity and earned a slot on BLUESVILLE’S “Rack of Blues”. In the Fall of 2022, just as they were ready to dive into their next studio project, one of the Strays died unexpectedly. Following that, there were some other unexpected personnel changes, as well as the ravages of time. So, n late 2023, StratCat Willie pulled together the Strays that he was gigging with most, and recorded his third studio album, “Don’t Slow Down!”. The result is a hard driving, guitar-centric project that addresses the challenges raised by those losses and the relentless passage of time. Over his fifty plus year career, StratCat Willie has shared the stage with many musicians across the United States. From New Orleans, where he has jammed with legends like Walter “Wolfman” Washington, to San Francisco, Memphis, Nashville, and Boston,he is always looking to meet and play with different folks. StratCat Willie not only enjoys the spontaneity of a good blues jam, he revels in the opportunity to bring new players together and “make a statement”. Continuing the influences of the old masters with his swinging, upbeat style, he always pays tribute to and recognizes those great African-American men and women who gave us this amazing art form.

https://stratcatwillie.com/