Search - Steven Strauss :: Ukebox

At fourteen, after unhappy attempts at guitar and piano lessons, Steven started sneaking his father's ukulele down from the shelf and teaching himself, with the help of a Mel Bay book, to accompany his own singing. At twenty he learned to play string bass while entertaining in The Apes of Wrath, a folky swing band in Berkeley. The ensuing twenty years included ongoing stints on upright bass with the djangoesque Hot Club of San Francisco, Don Neeley's Royal Society Six, blue balladeer Charles Brown and His Trio, folk musicians Eric and Suzy Thompson, and a ten year run playing bass and harmonizing across Europe and the States with punk-folk-rock icon Penelope Houston. He's played bass and ukulele with steel guitar master Bobby Black, and with the pop group,The Beautiful Losers. While traveling with Penelope Houston's band, Steven found himself playing the ukulele constantly, developing his unique approach to solo and combo technique on the instrument, that is now featured on his debut CD of ukulele instrumentals, UKEBOX.