Chicago club work
Steve Bass was working with Eddy Clearwater as well as the Rockin’ Johnny Band when the latter group appeared at Reggies in Chicago in June 2012. Johnny Burgin led the band on guitar and vocals, with Rick Kreher on rhythm guitar and John Sefner on bass. Its performances drew on Chicago blues while also including swing, soul, and original material.
Grim Reaper
Bass plays drums on the Rockin’ Johnny Band’s 2012 Delmark album Grim Reaper. The lineup includes Burgin, Kreher, Sefner, and harmonica player Big D, with horns added to two tracks. The fifteen-song program includes Burgin’s title song and ‘Window to Your Soul,’ alongside interpretations of ‘I Was Fooled,’ ‘My Baby’s a Good ’Un,’ and ‘Everybody Needs Somebody.’
Delmark’s contemporary newsletter highlighted Bass’s energetic drumming on ‘Don’t Mess with Me Baby’ and his partnership with Sefner on the slower ‘Somebody Loan Me a Dime.’ Those contrasting performances place the same rhythm section behind different tempos and moods. The album also features a treatment of ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’’ and the horn-supported ‘It’s Expensive to Be Broke.’
Backing Willie Buck
On Cell Phone Man, also released in 2012, Bass and Sefner accompany Willie Buck with Burgin and Kreher on guitars, Barrelhouse Chuck on piano, and Bharath Rajakumar on harmonica. Delmark brought together the Rockin’ Johnny Band and Buck for a sixteen-song album grounded in the older Chicago ensemble style.
A rhythm-section partnership
The two 2012 releases pair Bass with Sefner while changing the singer and parts of the surrounding band. Grim Reaper features Burgin’s guitar-led material and Big D’s harmonica; Cell Phone Man adds Chuck’s piano and centers Buck’s vocals. Bass’s drumming belongs to both settings, linking the Rockin’ Johnny Band’s own recording work with its accompaniment of another Chicago singer.
Working with Liz Mandeville
Bass also recorded with singer, guitarist and songwriter Liz Mandeville on Playing with Fire, released in 2019. The album includes his drumming and a vocal contribution on “How Many Times (Do You Get to Break My Heart).” His presence on that song extends beyond the drum kit to the voices supporting Mandeville.
Other selections place him in different instrumental settings. “He Loves My Biscuits” includes bassist Andre Howard, while sessions with Dutch guitarist Peter Struijk use a smaller ensemble with Steve Hart on bass and Dizzy Bolinski on harmonica. These credits add another bandleader and a different set of collaborators to his work with Clearwater, Burgin and Buck.
Returning to Buck’s stage
Bass was announced for two of the June 2025 release shows supporting Willie Buck and Bob Corritore’s Oh Yeah! At Rockford’s Nordlof Center, the advertised group included Billy Flynn, Jimi “Primetime” Smith and Bob Stroger. The following night’s Rosa’s Lounge lineup paired Bass with Harlan Terson on bass alongside Corritore, Flynn and Smith.
Those appearances continued an association with Buck that was already on record in 2012. They were live engagements supporting the later album; they do not give Bass a recording credit on Oh Yeah!, whose studio performances used other drummers. His work with Buck includes both the Cell Phone Man session and these later Chicago-area concert lineups.