He was born in
Lengerich, Westphalia, Germany, and grew up in
Osnabrück. As a teenager in the 1980s, he developed a passion for the work of
Albert King,
Buddy Guy,
Jimmie Vaughan and
Stevie Ray Vaughan, through listening to his parents' record collection.
Electric Blues contained the track "Home in My Heart", written by
Winfield Scott and
Otis Blackwell, and originally recorded by
Solomon Burke. His next album,
I Go By Feel was issued on Continental Blue Heaven in 2015.
Getting Personal, which was released in January 2017, saw guest musician
Big Daddy Wilson (vocals) feature on one of the tracks. By this time,
Bruce Iglauer founder of
Alligator Records stated, on hearing the work of Strauss, "Excellent playing, with a lot of maturity and emotions". The magazine,
Blues Matters!, in its number 108 issue in 2019 noted, "This is high energy top quality electric blues as it should be, from the heart and with punches of feelings and emotions. Hard to believe this man is a blues player from Germany and not from Chicago or Memphis". Most of the tracks were written, or co-written by Strauss, although it included a version of "Down on Bended Knee", as originally recorded by
Johnny Copeland from
Copeland Special (1981). Unusually, the horn section on
In My Prime was recorded in the United States, with the bulk of the other recording taking place in Germany in July 2020. Strauss had concerts in 2023, which included a date in January at the Stadstheater Blues Festival alongside Giles Robson, Sugar Queen, Big Bo and
Little Steven, and a short joint tour with Tony Vega throughout March. ==Discography==