Welcome to Steve Stransky's Music website. The purpose of this web is to make some of the music i have recorded over the last 30 years, available to my family and friends.  

On the left are links to the different Eras, Bands or Genre's of my music that are available online here.  You can navigate from one recording project to another.

All these songs are free to download or listen to, several from the Strange Syrkas album are copyrighted, but i retain all copyright and publishing rights, so i say it's OK!  You can use MS Windows Media Player to Rip them or whatever you are comfortable with.

I have just secured some additional storage space from my Internet Service Provider, www.selectology.com, so  i have peppered thirty three  more songs through out the website for a total of about 60 songs you can check out for FREE.  you will see a "new!" next to the description of the one's i've just added, but the songs aren't new, rather, they have been newly added.  I hope you enjoy them.

  My musical journey started in summer, 1956, my step dad was in the Navy and we were stationed for a year, in Tennessee.  The first time i realized i wanted to be a singer, was in a Tennessee Baptist Revival church, the choir was so powerful, i had an epiphany.  A year later we were living back in the Oakland/Alameda Bay Area and i remember my older sister getting a 45rpm record player.  The first record to knock me out was Elvis' EP HEARTBREAK HOTEL (US) RCA EPA 821, Released: May 1956.  She bought every Elvis 45 she could and i memorized them all.  I would sing along with Sis's records until she was ready to throw me out the window.

In 1961, my parents realized that all this energy should be harnessed, so they entered me in (Alameda's) Haight school's 5th grade elementary band.   I'd also been listening to my sisters Fats Domino and Coasters 45's and loved the sax, so sax became the  first musical instrument i would learn.

In 1963, we moved again, to Chula Vista Ca. and right about then my sister started playing rock records by her new favorite band, The Beatles!  I was smitten and begged my Mother for a guitar.  She was supportive and went to a weekend swap meet at the National City Drive In, found me a $3.00 Stella acoustic and the next phase of my journey began. 

Subsequently, i would beg for a harmonica, then lessons, which were for sax, but included some piano as well, then drums and more.  Eventually, i became a fairly well rounded all around musician and vocalist.

Bands were the next big phase.   i was playing Alto, in the 7th grade, at Hilltop Jr. high, when i caught the notice of some of the older guys who had started up a group and needed someone to play sax on Honky Tonk.  I was willing, but hesitant, as i expressed my desire to be a singer, with instruments taking a secondary role.  I played briefly in a group called The Ordeals, but  being the kid in the band was tough, so i left, but i did meet Chris Drake who would later form a band with me called "The Kyds" which placed high in a CV Battle of the Bands and so Chris Drake and I got our faces on the cover of the CV Star... but first, the Ordeals had me frustrated, so in the 9th grade, i started my own band, with some local friends, we called "The Leaves of Grass" .  We did really well right off the bat, were hired for "Gym dances" and school functions.  We morphed into "The Kyds" when a manager tried to spiff us up, but then back into The Leaves of Grass after that. We participated in many "Battle of the Bands" culminating with a top ten placement in the "big event", the San Diego Community Concourse: Battle of the Bands!  

In 1969, my years at Hilltop High were complete and i began to play for money, or "become a professional musician"  That just started to work out, when i got my Draft Notice!  Well, i had a 2 year hiatus from playing before i finally landed up in the Seattle, Wa. area.  The first paying gig i could find was playing harmonica, mandolin, acoustic guitar and washboard,  with a Bluegrass band, called Whisky Ridge, who played at Pioneer Square's "Inside Passage Tavern" and made enough money to squeak by until i could make some good contacts, and start a band of my own, which we called "Stumblin' Gold"  This was a super fun band , doing Bob Seeger, The Eagles, Steve Miller and Beatles covers... and eventually even writing some of our own material.  We played constantly, until 1977, when i left to go on the road with a Tacoma, WA  road band called "Canon".  I shared the vocal chores with Emi Canyn, and doubled on sax and whatever was needed.

I played constantly, for the next 10 years, in road bands, refining my voice, learning to mimic the singers in the tunes we covered, getting better on my instruments and seeing the world.  Canon only lasted about a year and i gravitated to a Seattle band called Dillinger.  I was to make some lifelong friends in Dillinger, including Steve Erickson, Bruce Malmberg and Joe Brown.  After Dillinger, Bruce and I started a new band called the "Bad Bees"  The Bee's were a super high energy band, that rocked hard, and had a blast everywhere we traveled to.

The Bad Bees ran out of steam about a year and a half later, so i joined up with Steve Erickson again, in a new group we decided to call "Tight Shoes". 

    The "Shoes" probably worked more often and stayed on the road more, than any band I'd ever played with.  Towards the end of our 5 year run, we were averaging about 40 weeks a year on the road.

   I finally retired from the road after  "Tight Shoes".  I was in my mid 30's and too old to play that many weeks a year on the road.  So, i got a job managing a music store and started to play around Seattle, on weekends with the bass player from  "Tight Shoes",  Hugo Taylor.  He and his buddy Vlad were terrific players and really dug the oldies, so we called it "GET BACK" and played lots of Beatles and  Classic Rock.  That band lasted about 5 years and was a whole new level of fun.

      Later, i played with Rudy and the Tubeshakers where i met a couple of the players that, with Hugo, would comprise my "Original Music" project, which i called "Strange Syrkas".   I had been writing music and recording demo's for some time and a local Seattle record company signed me, to put out my material.  The first of my music C&M put out was a compilation of Seattle area groups, that had been featured on Public Access TV's favorite music show, "Swine before Pearls".   We had been on the show twice, so my song "Diametrically Opposed" was included on the compilation and it was getting pretty good airplay on Seattle College radio stations and promoted several top notch bookings for Strange Syrkas, including Seattle's prestigious club, The Backstage and further TV spots.   Sadly C&M records went broke and everything ground to a halt a year later, as grunge music was picking up steam and singer-songwriter fare was waning.

     So, I was playing in an acoustic blues duo, with Bob Nelson, we called The Phantoms, when a phone call from my old pal Steve Erickson convinced us to form an electric version of The Phantoms.  We've been together 7 years now and have recorded and played a whole lot of good music.  The fun continues... 

I'm singing the lead and usually the harmonies too, on all these songs.  All the instruments are being played live, no sequencers, although a few songs have a drum machine, instead of a real drummer, for effect.  Sax sections are me, overdubbing, as are the stacked vocal harmony parts.  So now, why don't you click on a link, on your left and hear some of my music?  I hope you enjoy it!

I really hope you have your computer hooked up to a nice set of speakers, or headphones!  One last thing, i have noticed the software i use to turn cd recordings into mp3's sometimes does weird things to the mix, or solo's, or?   i will be perpetually improving things as i notice them.

thanks for visiting,

steve "sarge" stransky

wwsax@comcast.net