Every performance showcases Chicago’s finest and seasoned Blues Singers and Musicians. Each one is an established Chicago Blues Artist, and could easily carry a whole show on their own. However, by having them all together on the same stage it becomes a very special musical event. 

Inspired by the Classic Blues Reviews of the 1950s & 1960s, The Chicago Blues SuperSession utilizes the same rhythm section (guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums) and then rotates the front singers. By changing styles and different rhythms the audience can enjoy an exciting and diverse performance. It’s like a complete Blues Festival all in one show.

​The SuperSession has performed at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, The Chicago Blues Festival, Milwaukee’s Big Barbeque, the Big Bear Blues Festival, The Chicago History Museum and many other venues all over the Midwest.

CHICAGO BLUES SUPERSESSION:

BOB STROGER
BILLY FLYNN
OSCAR WILSON
DAVE KATZMAN
MELVIN SMITH
JOHN KATTKE
MELVIN “POOKIE” CARLISLE
AMY LOWE

Have Bass Will Travel…. I was born in South East Missouri in a small town Haiti, where I lived on a farm. I moved to Chicago in 1955. I lived in the back of a night club on the West Side, where Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters played. 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. I got married at an early age and I used to watch my brother-in-law play music. His name was Johnny Ferguson and he and JB Hutto had a band they called the Twisters. They were working on 39’th and State Street in Chicago and I would carry them to work every night and watch them. Then at home I would try to teach myself to play. My cousin Ralph Ramey said that we should start a band and we did just that. We got my brother (John Stroger), who played the drums, to learn the songs we knew and in four months we were making some noise. We went to a club and played two songs and the man said we had a job. It was one of the better clubs, where musicians like Memphis Slim worked. The owner wanted us to wear uniforms but we had no money to buy them, so we got black tams and put a red circle in the top and called the band the Red Tops and that was the way it started. We got so good that they wanted the band to travel, but Ralph’s wife did not wont him to travel. so my brother formed a band with Willie Kent and myself and called it Joe Russel and the Blues Hustlers. We played together for a while,but eventually I decided to move on, because i wanted to travel more and see the world and I found out you can make money doing this. I joined a jazz band and played with Rufus Forman for about 3 years, but we were doing very little work. Then I met Eddie King and we talked. I told him I was in a jazz band and we needed a guitar player that could play blues. He sead OK and joined our groop, and we started playing blues and RB and things took off. We called the band Eddie King and King Men, and we stayed together for 15 years. Then we split up for about 2 years and later we started the band up as Eddie King and Babee May and the Blues Machine and we stayed together until Eddie King moved out of town. I quit playing for 2 years becouse we were so close I did not want to play with anyone but Eddie. Then I met Jessie Grean when I was playing with Morris Pejo and he liked the way I played bass and one night Otis Rush need a bass player, so Jessie said come and work with him. The rest is history. I have been playing music for 39 years and I am still having fun.

Billy Flynn is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Brother John has played with Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, the Black Crowes, and acquired ringing endorsements from many other musicians of renown. For example: Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant had seen John play with Otis Rush at the Jazz Café in London. When Plant and Kattke met in person at the United Center in Chicago, Plant told Kattke: “You play a mean guitar!” George Benson came to the jam session that Kattke hosts at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. After hearing the opening set that John played with his band, Benson told him: “You’re fearless! I thought I was fearless! You’re fearless!

Omar Coleman as a rising star with iron-clad longevity in the national blues scene. Hailing from the West Side of Chicago, Coleman grew up entrenched in soul music and black music that defined the era in the mid-90s. Working as a barber by trade, Coleman recalls being bored at his shop on Michigan & Adams in Downtown Chicago and sauntering to the music shop down the street to pick up an instrument to pass the time. He landed on the harmonica thinking it would be easy to learn quickly and would fiddle around on it between cutting hair and usurping the shoeshine guy’s chair when he went to shine shoes in the back. With many clients being musicians, Coleman would learn about Chicago being heralded as ‘Home of the Blues’ and was tipped off to legends such as Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, and more. Another world opened up.

The crystalline voice that carries through Amy Lowe’s music compels attention. This is true whether Amy is performing at a club, concert venue, or major festival, or providing an educational program for students, school assembly, library program, or a private party, or performing for senior citizens virtually, or at an independent living facility.
Amy is a singer-songwriter with more than 30 years of experience in the music business. She wears a number of musical hats that include multi-award-winning singer – songwriter, storyteller, and teaching artist. Amy’s songs inspire diverse audiences of all ages. Whether performing original compositions, Americana Blues, World Roots, Adult Contemporary, or Children’s music, her timeless style will remind listeners of songs from the Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Etta James, and Lucinda Williams. She is a prolific songwriter with an extensive recording career and a vast catalog of original songs that fill the Music Libraries of Jewel-Eye-Music-BMI; Emphasis Entertainment; and Who’z the Boss. Her commitment to creating quality compositions for an assortment of clients include commissioned works for museums, theater groups, arts organizations, educational institutions, and individuals has brought her accolades along with many awards.

Playing locally and internationally since 1988, it is safe to say, Mike Scharf is a veteran of the Chicago Blues scene.

Mike has backed many of the premier talents in blues. He has recorded or shared the stage with artists such as Lefty Dizz, Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials, Sam Lay, Barkin Bill, John Edelmann, Tom Holland, Son Seals, Pinetop Perkins, Jools Holland, Mississippi Heat, Lynwood Slim, Johnny Sansone, Morry Sochat, Mud Morganfield, Mark Wydra, Keith Scott, Dave Weld, The Big Swing, Hubert Sumlin, Shawn Pittman, Johnny Adams, Dave Specter, John Primer, Nick Moss, Bill Lupkin, Jon McDonald, Rick Kreher, Little Mike and the Tornadoes, Studebaker John, Rockin Johnny and other Chicago Blues artists.

In addition to performing at top blues venues throughout the US, Mike regularly tours the globe; playing music in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, and India

Mike Has recorded for Blues Boulevard, Delmark, Johann’s Face and Parsiful Records