The HepKats Blues Revue Blues Band from New Lenox, IL

The HepKats Blues Revue is available as a duo or trio performing 100 years of classic blues such as Son House, Robert Johnson, Blind Wille McTell, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, etc. With hundreds of songs in their inventory, the band performs acoustic sets, "hepped up" dance music, or a combination both. Lead singer and guitarist Karl Maurer is a former board member of the Blues Foundation, and also provides background on the songs and artists during the shows. The HepKats are Karl Maurer on guitar and vocals, Mitch Straeffer on bass, and Larry Beers on drums. All are long time Chicago residents with long involvement in local music. Maurer has led in the Overtones since the late 80's and is a former board member of the Blues Foundation in Memphis TN. While in the role he helped build the Blues Hall of Fame. He founded the HepKats 10 years ago with long time musical partner Mitch Straeffer. Their first shows were at the Gallery Cabaret and Phyllis' Musical Inn. Straeffer is a professional musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and bass instructor who has played in dozens of bands. Beers has performed with Nicholas Tremulas, Mucha Patza, and Sonya Dada. Both Straeffer and Beers are session musicians and widely recorded. For many years prior to COVID the HepKats performed classic blues songs for charities like Ronald McDonald House, Lurie Children's Hospital, Shriners Children's Hospital, Misericordia, and many more, bringing music to lift the spirits where it is needed the most. The band performs traditional arrangements of songs by Robert Johnson, Son House, Willie Brown, BB King, Kokomo Arnold, Bill Broonzy, Arthur Crudup, Mamie Smith, Blind Willie McTell and more. Each song is introduced with a bit of history about the song and the writer. The shutdowns have limited our appearances for kids and their families, so as things are opening back up, we're booking more live shows for the public, and we look forward to getting back to what we love, performing for sick kids and their families. The Blues are a uniquely American art form that first emerged in the South in the late 1800s. The primary influences of blues music were Gospel music, popular folk tunes and ballads of the English settlers, African influenced work songs, and field hollers, which were improvised songs to break the monotony of long hard days of labor under oppressive circumstances. The idea is that singing away your sorrows makes them easier to bear, which was communicated in emotional and intense lyrics accompanied by simple instruments like banjos, fifes, fiddles, and by the early 20th century, cheap guitars bought from the Sears catalog. Blues singers were well versed in many styles such as rag-time, show tunes, and ballads, and often performed for both black and white audiences. Early recordings of blues from the 20's, 30's and 40's influenced British bands like the Yardbirds, Cream, Rolling Stones, the Who, and Led Zeppelin, and inspired the guitarists of the British pop music "invasion" of the US in the 1960's. For more great information on blues, go to www.blues.org, the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN. While you are there, please consider supporting the HART Fund, which provides medical and health support to blues artists in need. We love this music and sharing its origins and influence on all forms of rock, pop, soul and world music since it burst from the Texas and the Mississippi Delta in the early 1900's. For more information about the HepKats, see Facebook or www.hepkatsmusic.com.