That’s My Name by Bob Stroger and a band called the Headcutters is a first-rate example of a nearly forgotten artform. They play lo-fi, post war, Chicago blues with authority. Stroger’s vocals have a relaxed, unhurried, self-assured quality that has been all but neglected in the modern blues world. The band’s accompaniment of Stroger is nothing short of sublime. If these two musical entities sound like they fit like a very comfortable pair of old shoes, there is a very good reason.

Through the years veteran Chicago blues man Bob Stroger has played bass on records and in concert with an embarrassing amount of Chicago blues greats. To list his duties as a side man reads like an official who’s who of Chicago blues legends. Suffice it to say at 92 years old he has been there and done that.

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Back in December of 2012, Chico Blues of Chico Blues Records renown and Sao Paulo, told me about a band on his label from Brazil, The Headcutters. He thought they would make a good interview subject and that their music would be something that would be a good fit for me and our readers. I told my friend what I tell everybody, ‘Let me hear the music first. If I like it, then we can talk.’ Chico mailed me their 2010 CD, Back to 50’s. As per usual, Chico was right.

I told Chico that he can give my contact info to the band’s representative and we can set something up. I heard almost immediately from a gentleman named Joe Marhofer. He was the band’s vocalist and harp player. He was young dedicated, enthusiastic, very earnest and quite knowledgeable about his craft. We hit it off immediately.

It wasn’t long before he told me of his band’s plans to try and obtain a cultural visa and grant from the Brazilian government to allow and facilitate a trip to the historical home of the blues, the United States.

After folks were able to read my interview in BLUES JUNCTION with Joe, which was, I am very happy to recall, very well received, I began pitching the band to promoters with a view to book enough dates to make their trip here to the states worthwhile.

This finally happened at the end of September and early October of 2014.

Here in Southern California the only person to step up to the plate was blues promoter Art Martel. Even back then, I had known Art for some time and as it turned out he was the perfect fit for this task. He is a hard charging promoter, who wears his enthusiasm on his sleeve and knows a good thing when he hears it. He was able to string together a handful of shows in the greater Los Angeles area for The Headcutters.

The band then headed to Chicago for a couple of dates before taking a train down to perform at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas.

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Starting back in 2009, Bob Stroger hooked up with these four unlikely, if not like-minded, individuals from a fishing village on the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern Brazil. The Headcutters first played with Stroger that year at the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. They played with Stroger at this festival for the next ten years before the event was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. From 2009 to 2019, The Headcutters would become the most consistent and, perhaps, most prolific collaborators in Stroger's very long career. The culmination of this inter-generational, inter-continental kindred spirits has made a modern-day, old-school work of art with That’s My Name.

They had played straight head, gut bucket, traditional blues with “Smiling” Bob Stroger over 100 times in concert before they stepped into the studio In November, 2019, to record That’s My Name.

The Headcutters are guitarist Ricardo Maca, Arthur “Catuto” Garcia on bass, and drummer Leandro “Cavera” Barbeta, as well as the aforementioned Joe Marhofer. These four have been together for over twenty years. Guests on That’s My Name are Luciano Leases on piano and B3, as well as Braion Johnny handling saxophone duties.

That’s My Name is a thirteen-song program which includes five Stroger originals and covers that include tunes by Eddie Taylor, Big Bill Broonzy and two numbers by Little Junior Parker and others.

That’s My Name is the first time Stroger has recorded an album under his own name   on Chicago’s preeminent traditional blues label, Delmark Records.  He has finally arrived, yet when he got here, Stroger found this group of musicians from 5,360 miles away who sound like they have been here the whole time.

-  David Mac