Alligator Records President Bruce Iglauer To Receive A2IM Lifetime Achievement Award
ALLIGATOR RECORDS PRESIDENT BRUCE IGLAUER TO RECEIVE THE LIBERA AWARDS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM A2IM
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) has announced that the third annual Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Bruce Iglauer, founder and president of Alligator Records, the award-winning 43-year-old Chicago-based national blues and roots rock label.
Following is the official announcement from A2IM:
A2IM Honors Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records Founder, with Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is proud to announce that the third annual Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award will honor Bruce Iglauer, Founder and CEO of Alligator Records, for both his work as a leader in the music industry as well as his humanitarian efforts. Iglauer will be honored with the award on June 19 at NYC's Highline Ballroom, and in what has now become a Libera Awards tradition, 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Tom Silverman, Founder of TommY BoY, will present the award.
Bruce Iglauer has always been a fierce supporter of Independent music. In 1971, he launched Alligator Records on his own, a label that would go on to become home to some of the world's foremost blues and roots rock talent. What began as the dream of a 23-year-old shipping clerk who wanted to record and release an album with his favorite band, Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, has today grown into "the leading record label for the blues" (New York Times). Alligator Records currently has a catalog of 300 critically lauded titles, over 130 produced or co-produced by Iglauer. Artists on the label have earned a total of three GRAMMY Awards, 40 GRAMMY nominations, over 100 Blues Music Awards and more than 70 Living Blues Awards.
A fixture on the Chicago blues scene, Bruce is known as a "do-everything-guy" (Chicago Tribune) and has spent his career championing blues and roots rock. Whether he's jumpstarting the careers of new talent or renewing the careers of legends, artists including Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Lonnie Brooks, Mavis Staples and Charlie Musselwhite, among many others, have found success with the label. Alligator Records' current roster includes Marcia Ball, Selwyn Birchwood, Tommy Castro, James Cotton, Jesse Dee, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, JJ Grey & Mofro, The Holmes Brothers, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Anders Osborne, Roomful of Blues, Curtis Salgado, The Siegel-Schwall Band, Jarekus Singleton and Joe Louis Walker.
In addition to supporting artists' musical ambitions, Bruce has always taken great pride in the deep relationships he has with the artists of Alligator. Over the years, Bruce has been known to open his home to musicians needing a place to live during times of personal trouble. He makes himself available to his artists day or night, working tirelessly to support struggling musicians. As part of his work outside the label, Bruce is the Founder and current Co-Director of the Blues Community Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting blues music education and assisting blues musicians and their families who are in need. Bruce was awarded the NARM 1996 Mickey Granberg Award for "sustained and unwavering commitment to independent music and the independent music community" and was named a Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago magazine in 2001. In 2011, Bruce was honored as a Chicagoan of the Year in the Arts by the Chicago Tribune for his contributions to the music community over the years. Bruce was also a founding member and 26-year board member of the first Independent music label organization National Association of Independent Record Distributors and Manufacturers (NAIRD), later the Association for Independent Music (AFIM), and is now on the Board and Executive Committee of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), representing the U.S. independent music industry.
Tom Silverman of TommY BoY Entertainment, the winner of the 2013 A2IM Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and a long-time friend of Bruce's, will present Bruce with the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. Tom is the founder of the independent record label TommY BoY. Silverman launched the careers of such early hip hop acts as De La Soul, Digital Underground, Queen Latifah, Naughty by Nature, House of Pain and Coolio. Silverman is a founding member of A2IM, and currently serves on the board of Merlin and SoundExchange.
In 2012 the inaugural winner of the A2IM Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award was Martin Mills of the Beggars Group. Nominations for the 2014 Libera Awards will be announced this Friday, April 25 and voting will open immediately to the A2IM independent music community.
About A2IM:
A2IM is a not-for-profit trade organization serving the Independent music community as a unified voice representing a sector that, according to Billboard magazine, comprises 34.6% of the music industry's market share in the United States (and almost 40% of SoundScan digital album sales). The organization represents the Independents' interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community.
The organization's board of directors is composed of the following: Concord Records President Glenn Barros; Daptone Records General Manager Cathy Bauer; Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Director of Marketing & Sales Richard James Burgess; Yep Roc Records Co-Owner Tor Hansen; Alligator Records Founder/CEO Bruce Iglauer; The Beggars Group Founder/CEO Martin Mills; Kill Rock Stars President Portia Sabin; Glassnote Records General Manager Chris Scully; Ole SVP Jim Selby; Dead Oceans/Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian Founder/Co-Owner Darius Van Arman; Razor & Tie COO Victor Zaraya.
For more information, or to become a member, please visit http://a2im.org/
For press information on A2IM, please contact Elizabeth Lutz (elutz@shorefire.com), Dani Frank (dfrank@shorefire.com), or Rebecca Shapiro (rshapiro@shorefire.com), at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171.
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