Joe Sherohman (Bass)
Bassist Joe Sherohman, 53, shares his early roots in the Twin Cities blues scene with Big Walter. After seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, he bought himself a guitar with paper route money at age 13. Like many bassists, Joe wound up playing bass in his first band because he was "the new kid on the block." He taught himself to play by picking songs off the radio and played through a succession of garage bands through high school. After high school he went down to the union hall to find work and ran into a guitar player named Damon Lee, who later would be the one responsible for bringing Walter to Minneapolis for the first time.

Joe and Damon became close friends and played together on the road and at Papa Joes Supper Club in Minneapolis. In 1968 they joined Walters band in Kansas City for a short time. When Joe returned he wound up in the earliest incarnation of the Lamont Cranston Blues Band, where he remained until 1980. He quit music to raise a family and except for a brief stint with the Hoopsnakes, didnt play professionally until meeting Walter at Bayfront Blues Fest in 1997. By the following year, he joined the Groove Merchants.

Joe credits Big Walter for getting him back into playing music professionally again. Hes a big fan of the blues of Albert Collins and Albert King, and likes the New Orleans grooves of the Neville Brothers and Allen Toussaint as well.

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