Description

StratCat Willie Hayes is an old-school bluesman who has been writing and playing for over fifty years.Some of his earliest influences includedT-Bone Walker, MikeBloomfield ,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 to 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 allowed him to focus on songwriting, while covering groups ranging from Little Charlie & the Nightcats to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.With Blues Plate Special, he worked hard to keep the blues alive in theSouthernTier 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 “StratCatWillie & 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 ofBlues” and remained on the Roots Music Report charts for six consecutive months, finishing #52on theRMR“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.Over his fifty plus year career, StratCat Willie has shared the stage with many musicians across theUnited States, fromNew Orleans, where he has jammed with legends like Walter “Wolfman” Washington, to San Francisco, Memphis, and Nashville, 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, his swinging, upbeat style has been described as “always a party"and“uniquely his”, while always paying tribute to and recognizing the African-American men and women who gave us this amazing art form.