On a Hot Day Messin Around

Its a fun tune I picked up from Blind Boy Fullers "Baby You Gotta Change Your Mind".  I play it a little different but use the same chorus, "Baby if you think im crazy about you, you've got to change your mind"

You've Got To Change Your Mind

Sounds from Friday morning

Lonesome Vally (vocal) at U of m hospital mott stair well

Lost And Blue  at U of M hospital stairwell

Just A Jam Of An Idea

And There Was Metal

Beat It Solo

Bass Sex

free form jam 
Caleb Leads
Christian Rhythm
Jeremy Drums

01 Into Battle

Open mic at the Tap Room...Druuuuuunk lol
imm guitar and vocs

Hoodoo Man

The Same Thing

This Hell

Rise Of The Machine And Fall Of Man

Pallbearer

Oh What Drug

Fire From Above

A Ride With Thee

The Musical styles of Caleb Stratos are very diverse. He will play anything from soft relaxing classical music to intense heavy metal and then a groovy smooth blues song.  The primary style of guitar he tends to play most often are the old, what he calls "roots blues", Which he also incorporates his harmonica.  Genres tend to lean toward; the Delta sliding blues, and Piedmont blues styles, usually with just an acoustic guitar and vocals.  His influences on the styles are that of; Son House, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Fulton, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Sonny Terry, and Muddy Waters.  He lives his life with only one dream, to make something with his talent and rescue his family.          

Caleb was born in April of 1988 on the eleventh day and has been living a border line poverty life ever since. He says, "I may not make enough to always have food and new clothes but, I make enough to put a roof over my head. It's the love I get and my music that keeps me richer then anyone and always smiling."  Although growing up was a struggle at times, he believes that it's not all that bad if he can make someone smile and someone can do the same.
Music came to Caleb very early in life. From the day he was born he enjoyed listening to his father thumbing around on his acoustic guitars, which lead him to try and mimic his style of playing on his own. Because of his young age and tiny child hands, it was very difficult for any kid to play on a full size guitar and he ended up loosing his interest.  By the age of two he discovered and fell in love with the violin which he saw a solo performance on the television by someone unknown at some point in his early life.
Living poor his parents never could afford to get him an instrument of his own until several years later when he was offered to play violin in the 5th grade.  Grades five through twelve he played with the schools orchestras learning how to read and play music, this was very exciting for Caleb because he only dreamed that he would be able to.  As the 8 years went by he built strength, coordination and the calluses from the violin strings that would boost his ability to learn the guitar quite fast.
He started to  loose his interest in playing the violin in high school.  He says, "it's not that I lost interest in the instrument, it's just I didn't like the music scores that were selected by the instructor and I just got bored with it".
Senior year of high school came around and he started to show more and more of an interest in the guitar as he would frequently get yelled at in class for playing the violin like one.  As a matter of fact during his messing around he figured out how to play Ozzy Osbourne's crazy train and that was technically the first non orchestral song he's ever played.  For his birthday and early graduation gift, his father gave to him his first guitar.  Isabella, which was a 1984 Ibanez Roadstar 2 that was won off of some guy in a bet a long time ago.  Caleb and his new guitar became one immediately.  The guitar went with him everywhere and he would usually play it close to 7 to 9 hours a day.

At the time of his first guitar he was in a couple metal bands right away.  The bands he was in sounded good but never successfully got any gigs.  Music was his life though and he never gave up on it.  He usually will say, "music be my 1st language, then barely English.  I ain't that intelligent; reading, writing, and just communication has always been very difficult for me, if I can't make something out of myself with music, I won't have anything else that will."  At the start of his musical growth he had more then enough confidence and felt on top of the world.  It was a year or two after high school he was hit hard by the blues and changed the way he thought about some things.
It was the second year out of high school and this is when his band broke up, guitar stopped working, high school sweet heart and first girlfriend left him, both grandparents passed away from cancer and his closest uncle on his fathers side passed away in a car ascendant.  This left Caleb feeling very lost and alone.  Caleb is a big time family man, he says,"growing up poor all you got is family and friends to keep you wealthy". He believes it was his grandparents that were the glue to the families relationship and after they had passed away everyone kinda drifted off onto there own way. For the next couple of years he mostly stayed at home with his mom and siblings, shut up in his room and playing a powerless guitar to himself from almost morning to night.  In that time he had a couple remaining friends that he saw once in awhile and he came across an old cheap acoustic guitar his other uncle gave to him.
Caleb never really played much acoustic guitar before besides the couple times when his dad had them, now that he has its became his primary instrument.  It was a whole new world of music for Caleb when he started jamming on an acoustic guitar.  The kinds of music he was playing before didn't sound right to him on the acoustic so he started learning all kinds of new chords, scales and arpeggios, you name it.  He went almost mad crazy trying to improve his guitar knowledge because he believed he wasn't good enough and barley could play.  This mind set wasn't good for Caleb, it lowered his confidence and he developed a stage fright.  He spent a year or two in and out of guitar classes and Internet guitar sites trying to discover the sound and technique he was looking for.  During this period of learning he often found himself having to preform in front of the class often and that slowly helped restore his confidence.

Finally we have Caleb as he is today, a good hearted blues man trying to make something out of himself.  With only having enough to afford a place to live he couldn't continue his schooling and feels left to try and make a career on his own.  Just like the very early confident Caleb rocking out, he regained his confidence and finds it hard to keep his music to his self anymore.  You could usually see him at work or just walking around singing, dancing, clapping hands or even playing his harmonica. 
"I'll find a nice small hallway or a large stair well and ill whip out my phone and use it to record my songs, heck I can't go to a studio or buy the stuff myself (chuckles)". Some people would say the basic rough cellular recordings he dose makes his old style of guitar playing feel almost authentic to the 20s and 30s.  Never really being good at reading or writing, his lyrics are usually simple, easy to fallow and understand.  He could argue that a lot of his blues songs are basically prayers or him just talking with God, as a lot of the songs start out with him saying, "Oh Lord".  Living a basic minimal life with not many materials he has grown up to be a very free spirited, fun loving boy who can find joy in just about any situation.  Over all Caleb tends to come off as a pleasant, unique and unusual individual with nothing but good intentions for everyone.

Caleb J Stratos

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