John Sauter is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

from

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Ce ...

. He has played in Mitch Ryder's band

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and with

Ted Nugent Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock an ...

Life and career

John Sauter grew up in Decatur, Illinois, and began playing bass guitar at age 14. He moved to Chicago, and was soon playing with many

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

musicians such as

Otis Spann Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Miss ...

, and

Sam Lay Samuel Julian Lay (March 20, 1935January 29, 2022) was an American drummer and vocalist who performed from the late 1950s as a blues and R&B musician alongside Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Butterfield, and many others. He was inducted into ...

, and rock & roll legends

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

and

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

, as well as

Corky Siegel Mark Paul "Corky" Siegel (born October 24, 1943) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. He plays harmonica and piano. He plays and writes blues and blues-rock music, and has also worked extensively on combining blues and cl ...

and the

Siegel–Schwall Band The Siegel–Schwall Band was an American electric blues band from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1964 by Corky Siegel (piano, electric piano, harmonica, vocals) and Jim Schwall (guitar, mandolin, vocals). They played many live shows, ...

. He moved to Detroit and began playing with

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

, along with drummer

Muruga Booker Steven Bookvich known as Muruga Booker (born December 27, 1942) is an American drummer, composer, inventor, artist, recording artist, and an autonomous Eastern Orthodox priest. Biography Booker was born in Detroit, Michigan, on December 27, 1 ...

, where they were billed as Hooker and Booker. He also began playing at that time with

, an association that lasted many years. In 1971, he became a member of Mitch Ryder's band Detroit. While in the band, he recruited his friend

Steve Hunter Stephen John Hunter (born June 14, 1948) is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long as ...

to be the guitarist, and they toured with the band and recorded the self-titled album ''Detroit'', which was produced by

Bob Ezrin Robert Alan Ezrin (born March 25, 1949) is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezrin' ...

. Sauter joined the newly reformed band

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

with

Rusty Day Russell Edward "Rusty Day" Davidson (December 29, 1945 – June 3, 1982) was a lead vocalist, best known for his work with Cactus (American band), Cactus, the Amboy Dukes, and Steve Gaines. Career with the Amboy Dukes Day joined the Amboy Dukes ...

in 1976, and played with them for a while. After that project ended, Sauter and Day eventually formed a band called The Pelicans, which featured Sauter on bass, Rusty Day (vocals, harmonica), K.J. Knight (drums, vocals), Steve Dansby (guitar) and Jody Blair (rhythm guitar). In 1977, he recorded Weekend Warriors with guitarist Ted Nugent, and they toured together for many years. To celebrate John Lee Hooker's 100th birthday anniversary in 2017, Sauter joined Muruga Booker,

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

inductee guitarist J.C. "Billy" Davis,

P-Funk Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...

guitarist Tony "Strat" Thomas, and singer

Misty Love Misty Love is an Americans, American, multi-platinum award-winning Rock music, rock, and rhythm and blues, Rhythm & Blues singing, singer, who is best known for her association with Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, and Ben Harper. Biography Misty Love w ...

to form the ''Booker Blues All-Stars'', and released a CD called ''Booker Plays Hooker''. Sauter pioneered the use of a tremolo/vibrato system and a bottleneck slide while playing bass.

Discography

*Detroit- ''Detroit'' (1971) *Various Artists - ''Michigan Rocks'' (1977) *Ted Nugent - '' Weekend Warriors'' (1978) *Ted Nugent - '' Out of Control'' (1993) *Ted Nugent - ''Original Album Classics'' (2008) *Booker, Dansby, Sauter & Love - ''The Hand I Was Dealt'' (2011) * Booker Blues All Stars - ''Booker Plays Hooker'' (2017)

References

Awards

John Sauter has received a

Platinum Record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

for ''Weekend Warriors'' with Ted Nugent.

External links

John Sauter at allmusicJohn Sauter at Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sauter, John Living people 1951 births Cactus (American band) members American rock musicians American rock bass guitarists People from Decatur, Illinois Musicians from Decatur, Illinois Guitarists from Illinois Guitarists from Michigan American male bass guitarists