This year to date, I’ve covered over a hundred shows in San Angelo, spanning genres from punk to rock to hillbilly bluegrass, with only two groups that I would call a ‘musical surprise’.

They are Robbie and the Robots, who have won that distinction for their break-the-mold songwriting and fun performances, and Jabarvy, who are fun-times-two, albeit hard to define, musically.

That’s not to say that acts like Brandon Rhyder, Wade Bowen and Kevin Fowler don’t deserve mention, but rather I expected them to be very good. They were! But they didn’t surprise me.

This week a new entry gets added to that rather exclusive club and it is the name of Jeff Strahan. And where Jeff is different from the other two on “The Kneubuhl List,” is that his music is clearly definable as straight-up blues —up and down the pentatonic scale and all—with some Texas attitude.

Jeff is an extremely accomplished guitarist and keyboard player, who sometime plays both simultaneously, leaving the audience wondering, ‘how can he do that?’ But knowing his history, one understands that his gift didn’t come naturally, but rather through decades (yes, decades!) of playing in every bar and juke-joint in Texas and much of the surrounding region.

Alas, his name is still relatively unknown because all that footwork in the 1970s and 1980s was done under the name of two different bands.

Then finally in the late 1980s, family pressure persuaded Jeff to take a better paying day-job. After a little bit of brushing-up with the books, he became a successful trial-lawyer for the next 10 years, until he saved enough money to return to what he loved doing most.

Today, it’s just The Jeff Strahan Band, a trio with old Lamesa, Texas school buddy, Jay Hallaway playing bass and very recently, Kyle Ortiz on drums.

But beside Jeff’s musical prowess, his originals are thought-provoking and saturated with imagery:

 "Some take refuse in the arms of their church. Lookin’ to Jesus, to ease what hurts. I don’t have any doubt, That it works real good. I just don’t think I can act Like they all think I should

I need a piano, A little blues guitar, Some little corner, of some little bar. I found my salvation in the arms of the night in a smoke filled room with a neon light." -A Smoke Filled Room

Other notable tunes off Strahan’s latest CD, Red Dirt Blues (Squaw Peaks Records, 2006), include “Love Me Right Now”, “Unchain My Heart” and “Superman”, a love song that is his personal favorite. Jeff Strahan has produced two previous albums in Along For The Ride, (2005) and A Little North Of The Border, 2002.

But Strahan’s crowning achievement came last year when he and his band finished in the semi-finals of the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Nashville.

“We think Jeff is going to do even better this year,” said Strahan’s agent, Lois Lane. (Yes, I did say Lois Lane.)

If you like music, checking out Jeff Strahan is a worthy investigation. If you like the blues, it’s a must.