Living Blues #299 (November/December 2025)

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Bob Stroger

The Bottom Man Is on Top

By Justin O’Brien

At age 94 bassist Bob Stroger may be the oldest active performer in the blues—and active is the key word. Stroger’s schedule would wear out a man half his age. But Bob is loving it. He is Chicago’s first-call bass player and likes being a busy man. His career spans almost the entirety of postwar Chicago blues and we sit down with him for a stroll through the many years he has lived holding down its bottom. 

Wilson Meadows

Still Singing

By Christopher Klug

Soul singer Wilson Meadows first recorded with the vocal group the Zircons in 1962 for Federal. Over the next 60 years he recorded a string of hits and has been a star on the southern soul circuit for decades.

Jai Malano

What I Do Is Soulful Singing

By Roger Wood

Austin-based vocalist Jai Malano has been making a name for herself blending and bending musical roots genres to create her own distinctive style.

Let It Roll!

Jimmie Rodgers – Victor Records, Camden, New Jersey, November 30, 1927

By Jas Obrecht

America’s Blue Yodeler had an extraordinary impact on the history of American music in a remarkably short career. Meridian, Mississippi’s Rodgers recorded 111 songs over a six-year career that was cut short by tuberculosis when he was 33. We take a look at his second recording date for Victor, which included his biggest hit, Blue Yodel (T for Texas).

Record Reviews:

• New Releases: Jimi “Primetime” Smith, Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues, and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
• Reissues: Clifton Chenier, Freddie King, and Blues, Blues Christmas 

Editorial 

Blues New

Breaking Out with A.J. Haynes

Book Reviews

Obituaries

Radio Charts 

Cover photo by Peter Hurley: Bob Stroger working with the Chicago Blues Camo, Rosa’s Lounge, June 2022.