News

FIVE ALLIGATOR RECORDS ARTISTS RECEIVE SIX 

BLUES BLAST AWARD NOMINATIONS

On Tuesday, June 5, 2018, Blues Blast magazine announced the nominees for the 2018 Blues Blast Awards. Five Alligator Records recording artists received a total of six Blues Blast Award nominations. The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling received two nods: Best Blues Band and Traditional Album Of The Year (for The High Cost Of Low Living). Rick Estrin & The Nightcats (the current 2018 Blues Music Award-winning Band Of The Year) also received a nomination for Best Blues Band. Tinsley Ellis and the duo of Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager each received nominations for Album Of The Year: Ellis in the Rock Blues Album category for Winning Hand, Salgado & Hager in the Acoustic Blues Album category for Rough Cut.

Fan voting to determine the winners begins July 1, 2018 and continues until August 31, 2018 at BluesBlastMagazine.com. Voting is open to anyone who signs up for a free Blues Blast Magazine email subscription. The Blues Blast Music Awards are presented by Blues Blast magazine. The 2018 Blues Blast Awards ceremonies will be held on September 29th, at Tebala Event Center in Rockford, Illinois.

Grammy-nominated Chicago blues legend Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater died of heart failure on Friday, June 1, in his hometown of Skokie, Illinois. He was 83.

Born Edward Harrington on January 10, 1935 in Macon, Mississippi, Clearwater (as he came to be known) was internationally lauded for his blues-rocking guitar playing, his original songs and his flamboyant showmanship. He was inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2016, and also won two Blues Music Awards including Contemporary Male Blues Artist Of The Year in 2001.

Clearwater was equally comfortable playing the deepest, most intense blues or his own brand of rocking, good-time party music – a style he called “rock-a-blues,” mixing blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel. Between his slashing guitar work and his room-filling vocals, Clearwater was among the very finest practitioners of the West Side style of Chicago blues. DownBeat called him “a forceful six-stringer...He lays down gritty West Side shuffles and belly-grinding slow blues that highlight his raw chops, soulful vocals, and earthy, humorous lyrics." Blues Revue said he played “joyous rave-ups. He testifies with stunning soul fervor and powerful guitar. He is one of the blues’ finest songwriters.”

Clearwater's musical talent became clear early on. From his Mississippi birthplace, He and his family moved to Birmingham, AL in 1948 when he was 13. With music from blues to gospel to country & western surrounding him from an early age, Clearwater taught himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with various gospel groups, including the legendary Five Blind Boys of Alabama. After moving to Chicago in 1950, he stayed with an uncle and took a job as a dishwasher, saving as much as he could from his $37 a week salary. His first music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. Through his uncle’s contacts, Clearwater met many of Chicago’s blues stars. He fell deeper under the spell of the blues, and befriended Magic Sam, who would become one of Clearwater’s closest friends and teachers.

By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars regularly. After hearing Chuck Berry in 1957, Clearwater added a rock and roll element to his already searing blues style, creating a unique signature sound. He recorded his first single, Hill Billy Blues, for his uncle’s Atomic H label in 1958 under the name Clear Waters (his manager at the time, drummer Jump Jackson, came up with the name as a play on Muddy Waters). The name Clear Waters morphed into Eddy Clearwater. He worked the Chicago club circuit steadily throughout the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. He found huge success in the 1970s among the city's college crowd, who responded to his individual brand of blues, his rock and roll spirit and his high energy stage show.

Clearwater's first full-length LP, 1980’s The Chief, was the initial release on Chicago’s Rooster Blues label, launching him onto the national and international blues scene. Over the decades he recorded over 15 solo albums and never stopped touring, with fans from Chicago to Japan to Poland. His 2003 album on Bullseye Blues, Rock ‘N’ Roll City, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. He released West Side Strut on Alligator in 2008 to both international popular and critical acclaim. His most recent CD was the self-released Soul Funky in 2014.

Clearwater is survived by his wife, Renee Greenman Harrington Clearwater, children Heather Greenman, Alyssa Jacquelyn, David Knopf, Randy Greenman, Jason Harrington and Edgar Harrington and grandchildren Gabriella Knopf and Graham Knopf.

Services will be held on Tuesday, June 5 at 11:00am at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, IL 60077.

Produced by Will Kimbrough with guests including John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, J.D. Wilkes, Steve Cropper and others.

Shemekia Copeland is a powerhouse, a superstar…she can do no wrong.
--Rolling Stone

America's Child is a groundbreaking, genre-bending work of beauty. Shemekia is one of the great singers of our time. This record introduces listeners to another side of her, and I predict it will result in many new fans. Her voice on these songs is nothing short of magic.
--Mary Gauthier

Shemekia Copeland is the real deal. America's Child goes deep and Shemekia‘s voice -- a national treasure -- carries the songs effortlessly, whether topical, personal, spiritual, political or just plain raucous fun. Shemekia rears back her head and what comes out is humanity made vocal.
--Will Kimbrough

Shemekia Copeland is one of the great blues voices of our time.  No one comes close to the sheer firepower that Copeland conjures at will.
--Chicago Tribune

Award-winning vocalist Shemekia Copeland will release her potent new Alligator Records album, America's Child, on Friday, August 3, 2018. Produced by Americana Instrumentalist Of The Year winner Will Kimbrough (who also plays guitar on the album) and recorded in Nashville, America's Child is a courageous and fiery statement of purpose, a major step forward for the singer whose musical consciousness continues to expand as her star continues to rise.

America's Child is by far Copeland's most compelling work yet, with music swelling beyond blues and into spirited Americana, with elements of rock, soul, and country. Her instantly recognizable voice—capable of being sultry, assertive and roaring—delivers every song with unparalleled honesty and passion. The three-time Grammy nominee’s wide-open vision of contemporary Americana roots and soul music showcases the evolution of a passionate artist with an up-to-the-minute musical and lyrical approach. From America's Child's anthemic opening track, Ain’t Got Time For Hate, to the closing lullaby, the traditional Go To Sleepy Little Baby, Shemekia sings with passion and insight about the chaos and uncertainty in the world while still finding joy all around her.

With guests including John Prine, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Gauthier, Emmylou Harris, Steve Cropper, J.D. Wilkes, Al Perkins and members of the Time Jumpers, America’s Child bursts with Copeland’s bravado and embraces with her tenderness. Gauthier and songwriter/executive producer John Hahn wrote two striking songs for the project. Smoked Ham And Peaches is a search for truth and tranquility in America, featuring Giddens on African banjo. Americans celebrates our collective diversity in all its forms and colors. American music legend Prine joins Shemekia for a stirring duet on his own Great Rain. Guitar great Cropper adds his scorching playing to the ballad Promised Myself, written by Shemekia's father, the late bluesman Johnny Clyde Copeland. And her version of I'm Not Like Everybody Else transforms the Kinks song into a blues-fueled declaration of independence.

Upon the birth of her son Johnny Lee Copeland-Schultz in 2016, Shemekia, with fresh eyes, began to take an even deeper look at the state of the world. Of the new album, she says, “After having a child, I started thinking about the world I brought him into, how it actually is and how I wished it was and all the things he will have to go through. And to live in this world today, you have to have a strong foundation like I did to make it through. So that’s what 'America’s child' means to me. I’m truly grateful to all the artists that joined me on this record – it wasn’t about the genre for anyone, it was about the music and mutual love and respect.”

When Shemekia broke on the scene at age 18 in 1998 with her groundbreaking Alligator Records debut CD, Turn The Heat Up, she instantly became a blues and R&B force to be reckoned with. News outlets from The New York Times to CNN praised Copeland's talent, larger-than-life personality, and true star power. With each subsequent release, Copeland's music has continued to grow. From her debut through 2005's The Soul Truth, Shemekia earned eight Blues Music Awards, a host of Living Blues Awards (including the prestigious 2010 Blues Artist Of The Year) and more accolades from fans, critics and fellow musicians. 2000’s Wicked received a Grammy nomination. Two highly successful releases on Telarc (including 2012's Grammy-nominated 33 1/3) cemented her reputation as a singer who, according to NPR's All Things Considered, "embodies the blues with her powerful vocal chops and fearless look at social issues."

Copeland returned to Alligator Records in 2015 with the Grammy-nominated Outskirts Of Love. She won the 2017 Living Blues Readers’ Award for Blues Artist Of The Year (Female), the same distinction she won the year before. She also took home the 2016 Blues Music Award (BMA) for Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of  The Year. Outskirts Of Love won the BMA for Best Blues Album Of The Year. MOJO said Copeland was "spectacular, stirring, sanctified and sassy."

Shemekia Copeland has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world and has appeared on national television, NPR, and in newspapers, films and magazines. She's sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, James Cotton and many others. She opened for The Rolling Stones and entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Jeff Beck calls her “amazing.” Santana says, “She’s incandescent…a diamond.” In 2012, she performed with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Gary Clark, Jr. and others at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama.

Now, with America's Child, Shemekia Copeland is standing on the cusp of her greatest success. Her intensely empowering, American music is as insightful as it is fun. Upon release of the album, she'll tour nationwide, including a showcase performance at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville in September.

NPR Music says, "She brings a perfect balance of authority and understatement to each song." No Depression adds, "When Shemekia Copeland opens her mouth, everybody pays attention. She pierces your soul. This is how you do it, and nobody does it better than Shemekia Copeland."

Deceptively loose but always tight…the raspy chuckle in Bishop’s singing and the sharp sting of his guitar are forceful and fresh, enduring and fun.
–Fresh Air, NPR

Raw and simple and utterly endearing.
--RELIX

Elvin Bishop has always been big fun and is the ringmaster in his own blues circus. With Willy Jordan and Bob Welsh, Bishop whomps out tough, muscular and rollicking boogie-infused blues.
--No Depression

Legendary guitarist, singer and songwriter Elvin Bishop and his Big Fun Trio -- Bob Welsh on piano and guitar and Willy Jordan on cajón (a hand-played Peruvian drumbox) and vocals -- are set to release their new Alligator Records album, Something Smells Funky 'Round Here, on Friday, July 13. The album is a follow up to the group's 2017 Grammy-nominated self-titled debut.

Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here was produced by Bishop and recording engineer Steve Savage and recorded at Bishop’s Hog Heaven Studio in Lagunitas, California. Bishop wrote or co-wrote five songs (including two by the entire trio). The album mixes rousing new originals, reinventions of three Bishop classics and some unexpected, soul-shaking covers. The potent title track – a tongue-in-cheek State Of The Union address as only Elvin can deliver -- kicks the album off with Bishop aiming his lyrical truths at those in power. The humorous but piercingly direct lyrics take aim at the current political scene while Bishop’s deep blues guitar playing drives the point home. Lookin’ Good finds Bishop autobiographically gazing in the rearview mirror with sharp, wry lyrics accompanied by Welsh’s perfect blues piano. Jordan sings lead on four songs, including blistering reinventions of Jackie Wilson’s Higher And Higher and Ann Peebles’ I Can’t Stand The Rain. Welsh, whose guitar or piano playing highlight every song, pounds the ivories on his own Bob’s Boogie. “This album fell together easily,” says Bishop. “Everything I visualized about the songs – from Bob’s playing to Willy’s singing, came true. Bob and Willy are great musicians.”

Ever since Rock & Roll and Blues Hall Of Famer Elvin Bishop first hit the scene with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band back in 1965, he’s blazed his own musical trail. Whether he was playing raw, eye-popping blues, or penning the evergreen radio hit Fooled Around And Fell In Love, or touring the world for decades delivering his original, good-time countrified blues, Bishop has always inspired his fans with his rowdy guitar playing and witty, slice-of-life songs. Rolling Stone calls Bishop “a legendary guitarist” whose playing is “impeccable and spirited…a distinguished American player.”

Elvin Bishop formed The Big Fun Trio in late 2015 with his friends Bob Welsh and Willy Jordan PERIOD After playing just a handful of live dates, the group’s instantly crowd-pleasing music and undeniable chemistry took the blues world by storm. With the release of their self-titled CD in 2017, media and fan response was immediate and overwhelming. DownBeat celebrated Bishop’s “verbal hijinks, outstanding guitar work and country boy friendliness.” OffBeat said The Big Fun Trio was “intricate, funky and uplifting,” declaring them, “consistently great.” With its top-shelf musicianship and front-porch vibe, the album earned a Grammy Award nomination, and won Blues Music Awards for Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year (for the title track) from The Blues Foundation.

The Big Fun Trio quickly discovered the more they played live, the more fun they had making music together. So a follow-up recording was an easy decision. The new album, Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here, finds the group fearlessly laying it all on the line. According to Elvin, “With a trio there’s no place to hide­—you’ve got to be pourin’ everything you got right out front. You need to be totally into it all the time. It’s really cool to see how people react to the goin’-for-it feel of the music.”

According to San Francisco Bay native Jordan, who has decades of experience playing drums with artists including John Lee Hooker, Joe Louis Walker and Angela Strehli, playing in the Big Fun Trio is “crazy different. It’s rootsy but also new. We all stayed simple to stay strong.” Welsh, originally from Covington, Louisiana, has performed and toured with Bishop, Rusty Zinn, Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Boy Arnold, James Cotton and others. Welsh says he too loves playing in the Trio. “Playing this music is fun and fresh and new to us. It keeps us on our toes. We’re always surprising each other. We have to be fearless.”

With Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here, Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio are clearly having a very good time. Having spent almost three years performing, these three tremendously talented musicians continue to inspire each other to new heights. As Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio take their music back on the road, fans will once again have a chance to experience the big fun first hand. According to Living Blues, “Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio has wonderful chemistry and are a joy to hear.”

 

Fifth Anniversary Class Also Includes Los Lobos And Ray Charles

“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth.”

–Rolling Stone

 Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist -- and official 2018 Texas State Musician -- Marcia Ball will be inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall Of Fame on October 25, 2018. This will be the fifth anniversary class of Hall Of Fame inductees, which also includes Los Lobos and Ray Charles. Previous inductees include Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Asleep At The Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Townes Van Zandt and others.

The ceremony will be hosted by Chris Isaak and will take place in Austin, Texas at ACL Live At The Moody Theater. Guests announced so far include Dan Auerbach, Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson. Musical highlights and inductions from the ceremony will air nationally on PBS in a special New Year's Eve broadcast of Austin City Limits.

According to Ball, this is among the biggest honors of her 50-year career. "Austin City Limits put Austin on the map all over the country. Whenever we are touring, when I say where we are from, the immediate response from our fans is, 'Austin City Limits.' People in outlying towns would drive to major cities, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Atlanta, because they had seen us on the show. In the years when my broadcasts were current, I could have filled a 90 minute tape with the words, 'I never heard of you before, but I saw you on Austin City Limits.' ACL opened the door into millions of homes for us and other regional bands. Some of my most memorable musical moments have been as a performer or in the audience at an Austin City Limits show.  I was always honored to be asked to play ACL and I am thrilled and grateful to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame."

Currently celebrating 50 years as a professional musician, Ball has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. Her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.”

With 2018 release, Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs, including nine originals. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball, “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962 and falling under the spell of Professor Longhair's piano playing convinced Ball to seek out a career in music. She led a couple of early psychedelic country rock bands before pursuing her solo career from her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.

After her 1978 Capitol Records debut, Circuit Queen, and a series of successful albums on Rounder Records, Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, the first of her six releases for the label, four of which have been Grammy nominated. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. According to The Houston Chronicle, “Marcia Ball’s brand of blues lifts the spirit. She’s as perfect an artist as could be."

 

Rick Estrin & The Nightcats Win Band Of The Year

Estrin Also Wins Song Of The Year And Traditional Male Artist Of The Year

Curtis Salgado Wins Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year

 On Thursday, May 10, 2018, The Blues Foundation announced the winners of the 39th Annual Blues Music Awards, the blues world's highest honors. Alligator Records artists Rick Estrin, his band Rick Estrin & The Nightcats and soul singer Curtis Salgado all won awards.The ceremony was held in Memphis at the Cook Convention Center.

Internationally beloved blues masters Rick Estrin & The Nightcats took home one of the evening's biggest prizes, the highly coveted Band Of The Year award. Estrin also won the statues for Song Of The Year (for The Blues Ain't Goin' Nowhere, from the band's latest CD, Groovin' In Greaseland) and for Traditional Blues Male Artist Of The Year.

Soul and blues vocalist Curtis Salgado received the award for Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year, a distinction he has won five previous times. His latest album is the critically acclaimed Rough Cut, an acoustic tour-de-force with guitarist Alan Hager.

“When I first started out, I couldn't find a singer I liked and I couldn't find a drummer I liked, so I decided to do both.”     –Lindsay Beaver

Alligator Records has signed blues-rocking, soul-singing drummer/bandleader, Lindsay Beaver. Her as-yet-untitled label debut is set for release in October, 2018. Beaver is a true force of nature. Her influences range from Little Richard to The Ramones, from Billie Holiday to Amy Winehouse. But her sound and style are hers alone.

Beaver, hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and now residing in Austin, Texas, possesses an old soul at the young age of 33. She is a classically trained vocalist and a jazz trained drummer with a deep love and knowledge of roots music, from blues to jazz to R&B ballads to raucous punk rock. Live, her voice and drums are front and center as she bares her soul, singing her signature mix of originals and covers of songs by artists as diverse as Little Willie John and The Detroit Cobras.

"Signing with Alligator is a true stamp of approval for any roots music artist," says Beaver, who has been releasing her own recordings and performing professionally for 15 years, first as a singer and then as a band-leading vocalist and drummer. "It's like a dream come true."

Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer is thrilled to bring her into the fold. "I’m very excited to welcome Lindsay Beaver to the Alligator Records family. She’s a great young talent. Her songs evoke the spirit of 1950s and '60s R&B and blues, but her singing and playing infuse them with a raw, rocking punk energy. Her music is full of unvarnished emotion and power. She’s like the love child of Amy Winehouse and Little Richard."

As a young girl, Beaver sang. A lot. But only when she was alone. Growing up in a working-class neighborhood, she became enamored with music at an an early age. At 11, she discovered Tupac Shakur and fell in love with hip hop, which led her on a path back to soul, blues and jazz. At 14 she heard Jimi Hendrix and then, in her words, "everything changed." She got a guitar and learned to play. Convinced to sing in public by her high school friends, she entered the school's talent show, performing in front of an audience for the very first time.

After high school she received a scholarship to train as a classical soprano. At the same time, she put together a small jazz band. "We rehearsed at my house," she recalls, "but my drummer didn't want to keep bringing his drums over. So my dad scraped together enough money to buy a drum set to keep in the house. Not for me, for our drummer. But I sat down at that set and as soon as I did, I got it." She started playing at the Sunday night blues jam at the local bar. The veteran house band took her under their wing, introducing her to hundreds of blues songs and artists.

Wanting to broaden her horizons, Beaver headed to Toronto to study jazz drumming, taking her already impressive drum skills to a whole new level. "I got in," she recalls, "because I was the only applicant who could play a shuffle." She started another band -- the acclaimed 24th Street Wailers -- and began making a name for herself in Toronto and across Canada. She befriended guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, who recognized her talent and suggested she relocate to Austin, Texas, which she did in 2014. She formed a new band featuring her own soulful vocals and dynamic drumming and the fiery talents of guitarist Brad Stivers.

Over the course of her career, Beaver self-released five albums with the 24th Street Wailers and has toured throughout Canada, the United States and large swaths of Europe. The new Alligator release will be the first under her own name. "I like music with drive and passion," she says. "I write what I know and I sing what I know. At my shows, I want people to have fun and to be moved. I want everyone to be inspired to dance and I want at least some people to be moved to tears. And I definitely want every person to go home saying, 'I'm never going to forget this.'"

“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth.”

–Rolling Stone

Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball will appear on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday on April 28. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, released her dynamic new Alligator Records album, Shine Bright, on Friday, April 20. Weekend Edition Saturday, hosted by Scott Simon, is heard on NPR member stations across the United States, and around the globe on NPR Worldwide.

Currently celebrating 50 years as a professional musician, Ball has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. Her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.”

With Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs, including nine originals. They range from the title track’s rousing appeal for public and private acts of courage to the humorous advice of Life Of The Party, and from the upbeat call to action of Pots And Pans (a song inspired by renowned Texas political writer and humorist Molly Ivins) to the poignantly optimistic World Full Of Love. Throughout the album, the intensity of Ball’s conviction never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball, “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962 and falling under the spell of Professor Longhair's piano playing convinced Ball to seek out a career in music. She led a couple of early psychedelic country rock bands before pursuing her solo career from her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.

After her 1978 Capitol Records debut, Circuit Queen, and a series of successful albums on Rounder Records, Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, the first of her six releases for the label, four of which have been Grammy nominated. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. According to The Houston Chronicle, “Marcia Ball’s brand of blues lifts the spirit. She’s as perfect an artist as could be."

New CD, The High Cost Of Low Living, Debuted At #3 On The Billboard Blues Chart

 Nick Moss's muscular, electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, gruff, soulful vocals and impassioned songwriting. Gruenling is a contemporary harmonica master...impressive, genuine and fresh-sounding. --Living Blues

The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling, whose newly-released Alligator Records debut CD The High Cost Of Low Living entered the Billboard Blues Chart at #3, recently recorded a live performance for NPR's celebrated music show, Mountain Stage. Over 240 NPR member stations around the country will begin airing the program this Friday, March 30. Air times and stations can be found here.

 

The High Cost Of Low Living is already earning rave reviews, as are the band's must-see live shows. The album is a tour de force of the classic Chicago blues ensemble sound that world class guitarist/vocalist Moss and master harmonicist/vocalist Gruenling know, live and love. AllMusic says, "The album makes the case for the vitality of old-fashioned Chicago electric blues in the 21^st century."

The High Cost Of Low Living is no recycling of old songs. Moss wrote eight memorable new originals and Gruenling wrote two, all deeply rooted in the blues tradition with a touch of old school rock ‘n’ roll. Produced by guitarist Kid Andersen and Moss and recorded at Rancho de Rhythm in Elgin, Illinois, the album is a joyous sonic blast of pure blues power.

With the release of The High Cost Of Low Living, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will do what they do best: barnstorm the globe, bringing their muscular, high-energy show to clubs, concert halls, roadhouses and festival stages night after night. It is a show that is not to be missed. Current tour dates can be found here.

According to Moss, “I’m a shy person, but when the band and I get on stage, the music takes over. We can’t hold back and the energy just comes pouring out. We get carried away and the audience gets carried away with us.”

“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth.”

–Rolling Stone

Alligator Records has announced an April 20, 2018 release date for Shine Bright, the dynamic new album from Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. For fifty years, her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.” The Houston Chronicle says simply, “She’s as perfect as an artist can be.”

With Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs (including nine originals), ranging from the title track’s rousing appeal for public and private acts of courage to the upbeat call to action of Pots And Pans, a song inspired by renowned Texas political writer and humorist Molly Ivins. From the humorous advice of Life Of The Party to the poignantly optimistic World Full Of Love, the intensity of Ball’s conviction never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962 and falling under the spell of Professor Longhair's piano playing convinced Ball to seek out a career in music. She led a couple of early psychedelic country rock bands before pursuing her solo career from her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.

After her 1978 Capitol Records debut, Circuit Queen, and a series of successful albums on Rounder Records, Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, the first of her six releases for the label, four of which are Grammy nominated. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. As her hometown Austin Chronicle says, “What’s not to like about Marcia Ball?”

Since joining Alligator, Ball has blossomed as a songwriter. Each album has been filled with fresh, original songs, never more so than on Shine Bright. Ball easily draws her listeners deep into her music with instantly memorable melodies and imaginative imagery. Her songs paint vibrant musical pictures richly detailed with recognizable characters, regional flavors, universal themes and colorful scenes, both real and imagined. Living Blues declares, “Her originals sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces that no one else can imitate.”

Now, with Shine Bright, Ball’s new, aggressively hopeful songs are energized by Steve Berlin’s inventive and exciting production, creating electrifying music that is daring, inspired, poignant and timely. The Boston Globe calls Ball “a compelling storyteller” who plays “an irresistible, celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp rock and smoldering Texas blues.”

Of course, Ball will bring the party on the road, playing her new songs and old favorites for fans around the globe. “I still love the feel of the wheels rolling,” she says, “and the energy in a room full of people ready to go wherever it is we take them.” With both her new album and her legendary live performances, Marcia Ball will shine a light into the darkness, making the world a brighter place one song at a time.

Tinsley Ellis' Winning Hand #1
Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager's Rough Cut #2
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' Stompin' Ground #7

Recordings by Alligator Records artists currently sit atop the influential Billboard Blues Chart for the week ending January 18, 2018. The label's two January 12 releases -- Tinsley Ellis' Winning Hand and Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager's Rough Cut -- debut at the #1 and #2 spots respectively. Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' Stompin' Ground, released on September 29, 2017, currently holds the #7 spot, re-emerging after spending seven previous weeks on the chart.

Recorded in Nashville and produced by Tinsley Ellis and keyboardist Kevin McKendree, the ten brilliantly performed, fervently sung tracks on Winning Hand include nine originals, ranging from blistering blues to heart-pounding rock to soulful ballads. “Guitar, guitar, guitar is what this album is all about,” says Ellis, who recorded primarily with his 1959 Fender Stratocaster, his 1967 Gibson ES 345 and his 1973 Les Paul Deluxe. Guitar World says, “Ellis’ playing sparkles with depth and subtlety. Whether playing deep, slow blues or uptempo rockers, Ellis rides a gorgeously fat, pure tone.”

Ellis is currently on a coast-to-coast four month North American Tour. Tour dates can be found here.

Rough Cut is the first collaborative album from award-winning soul, blues and R&B vocalist Curtis Salgado and renowned guitarist Alan Hager. Salgado's earth-shaking vocals and forceful harmonica playing have been devastating audiences around the world for over 30 years. Guitarist Alan Hager has been wowing fellow musicians from his hometown of Portland, Oregon and beyond for decades. With Curtis’ inspired singing and world-class harmonica playing and Alan’s spellbinding guitar, Rough Cut is the album Salgado and Hager have always wanted to make together – soulful, sparse and haunting. The music is a moving exploration of the joyful, emotionally uplifting power of passionately played and soulfully sung acoustic blues.

Tour dates can be found here.

On Stompin’ Ground, Tommy Castro, a native of San Jose, CA, opens windows both into his past and his always-evolving musical future. Produced by Castro and guitar wunderkind Kid Andersen, Stompin’ Ground finds Castro unleashing a set of 12 potent tracks featuring seven originals and new versions of songs he learned and played as a young up-and-comer. He is simultaneously looking back with autobiographical originals and cover songs that inspired him, while forging a forward trail with up-to-the-minute lyrics atop blistering blues-rock. Castro’s friends Charlie Musselwhite (harp and vocals), Mike Zito (guitar and vocals), Danielle Nicole (vocals) and David Hidalgo (guitar and vocals) add their talents to Stompin’ Ground.

Tour dates can be found here.

 

THE HIGH COST OF LOW LIVING

 Nick Moss's muscular, electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, gruff, soulful vocals and impassioned songwriting. Gruenling is a contemporary harmonica master...impressive, genuine and fresh-sounding. --Living Blues

Alligator Records has set a Friday, March 9, 2018 release date for The High Cost Of Low Living, the blistering label debut by The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling. The album is a tour de force of the classic Chicago blues ensemble sound that world class guitarist/vocalist Moss and master harmonicist/vocalist Gruenling know, live and love.

The High Cost Of Low Living is no recycling of old songs. Moss wrote eight memorable new originals and Gruenling wrote two, all deeply rooted in the blues tradition with a touch of old school rock ‘n’ roll. Produced by guitarist Kid Andersen and Moss and recorded at Rancho de Rhythm in Elgin, Illinois, the album is a joyous sonic blast of pure blues power.

Although Moss and Gruenling had known each other for 20 years and had jammed together often, it wasn’t until 2016 that they decided to team up full time. Moss’ deeply rooted yet fully modern guitar playing flawlessly meshes with Gruenling’s monster harmonica chops. On stage, the two communicate seemingly telepathically, as Moss lays down the deepest blues licks and Gruenling’s harmonica wails and howls in perfect response, with Moss’ top-notch band adding their energy and expertise to the ensemble. And the world is taking notice. On January 9, 2018, The Nick Moss Band received a Blues Music Award nomination for the coveted Band Of The Year Award, and Gruenling was nominated as Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica.

Chicago guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Nick Moss is a bona fide bluesman down to his soul, a 30-year veteran of the city’s take-no-prisoners blues scene. Moss paid his dues gigging in Chicago’s rough and tumble West and South side blues clubs under the tutelage of some of the city’s greatest blues luminaries. Blues Revue says, “Nick Moss is at the top of the blues world...ambitious and intense...He can play traditional blues with the best.” New Jersey’s Dennis Gruenling is considered among today’s best blues harmonica players. His high-energy, full-throttle playing prompted Blues Revue to call him "a leading light among a new generation of harp players...a true innovator."

Growing up in Chicago and standing tall at 6’2”, Nick Moss dreamed of playing both music and sports. When kidney surgery sidelined his athletic hopes, he dove headfirst into the blues. His mother was a huge blues fan, even taking a young Nick to see bluesmen like Muddy Waters live in concert. Originally a bass player, Moss got his first professional break touring and playing bass with legendary West Side Chicago guitarist Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins. He next toured with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (longtime Muddy Waters’ drummer), leader of the Legendary Blues Band. Finding himself in need of a guitarist, Smith insisted Moss switch instruments. Combining his natural talent with non-stop woodshedding and playing every open jam session, Moss quickly became one of the city’s most highly sought-after players. Bluesman Jimmy Rogers (famous for his pioneering guitar work with Muddy Waters and for his solo hit Walking By Myself) hired Moss to join his touring band and became his mentor. Moss’ other influences include B.B. King, Freddie King, Earl Hooker, Magic Slim and other groundbreaking players.

Moss formed his own band in 1997 and released the first of his 12 solo albums a year later on his own independent Blue Bella label. He’s received 22 Blues Music Award nominations and has earned legions of fans around the world, playing over 100 shows a year. Moss has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Clark, Jr., David Hidalgo and many others, and is an in-demand guest, always welcome to sit in with his musician friends around the world. Elmore calls him “one of the best guitarists on the scene today.”

As a teen, Dennis Gruenling heard the Alligator recording Harp Attack! (a summit meeting of James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell and Billy Branch) and decided that blues harmonica was his life’s calling. Gruenling was inspired by blues harp masters including Cotton, Little Walter and George “Harmonica” Smith as well as by saxophonists, including Lester Young and Red Prysock. A self-taught player and a natural entertainer with seven solo albums to his credit, Gruenling’s giant, fat-toned harp work, raw-boned singing and untamed energy are a perfect foil for Moss’ hair-raising guitar playing and straight-from-the-shoulder blues vocals.

With the release of The High Cost Of Low Living, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will do what they do best: barnstorm the globe, bringing their muscular, high-energy show to clubs, concert halls, roadhouses and festival stages night after night. It is a show that is not to be missed. According to Moss, “I’m a shy person, but when the band and I get on stage, the music takes over. We can’t hold back and the energy just comes pouring out. We get carried away and the audience gets carried away with us.”