News

Living Blues magazine has announced the nominees for the 2014 Living Blues Readers' Awards. Six Alligator Records artists received a total of ten nominations. Joe Louis Walker received three, including Blues Artist Of The Year (Male), Best Blues Album Of 2014 (New Recordings) for Hornet's Nest and Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar). Elvin Bishop and Shemekia Copeland each received two nominations. Marcia Ball, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, and James Cotton each received one.

The public -- subscribers and non-subscribers alike -- can vote at www.livingblues.com or by mailing in the ballot in the current issue of the magazine (#237), by July 15, 2015.

Winners will be announced in August.

JOE LOUIS WALKER:

Blues Artist Of The Year (Male)

Best Blues Album of 2014 -- Hornet's Nest

Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar)

ELVIN BISHOP:

SHEMEKIA COPELAND:

Best Live Performer

MARCIA BALL:

Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard)

LIL' ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS:

Best Live Performer

JAMES COTTON:

New Album Due In Early 2016

"Among the cream of the next generation of blues musicians making their name on the Chicago scene."    --Blues & Rhythm

"One of Chicago's new greats."  --The Chicago Sun-Times

Wendell Holmes, vocalist, guitarist, pianist and songwriter of the critically acclaimed soul/blues band The Holmes Brothers penned an open letter to his friends and fans as he entered hospice care. Wendell recently retired from touring when he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. Holmes Brothers drummer Willie "Popsy" Dixon died on January 9, 2015 of complications from cancer.

Text of the letter in full:

As I write this letter, I am preparing to go home on hospice care. One benefit of hospice is the time it allows you to say some of the things you want to say to those you love and care about. I’m grateful for the opportunity to say “thanks” to many friends for your many expressions of love to me and my wife Barbara.

Thank you for being my friends in life. You’ve shown me how you care through your many cards, letters, phone calls, home and hospital visits, on line acknowledgements, and more importantly, your prayers. Please know that it is greatly appreciated and I am awed by it all. It means a lot to me.

It was Abraham Lincoln who said that “the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but will never forget what they did here.” Of course, I’m no Lincoln, but I believe there’s an element of truth there, and I do hope my music, whether some song I wrote, sang or maybe some notes I played, will leave a lasting impression.

You know that it is my custom to tell everyone who will listen…”don’t go it alone,” and I can tell you that it’s been by God’s amazing grace that I have had a truly enjoyable journey. It's been a great ride and my thanks to you for making it so.

I love you, and may God bless you all!  

Wendell Holmes

P.S. Thanks too as you continue to support, enjoy and appreciate the gifts in my big brother Sherman as he carries on The Holmes Brothers legacy with his own Sherman Holmes Project along with Brooks Long and Eric Kennedy. 

Wendell, the man Entertainment Weekly has called "a timeless original," was born in Christchurch, Virginia in 1943. He and his older brother Sherman were raised by their schoolteacher parents, who nurtured the boys’ early interest in music. As youngsters they listened to traditional Baptist hymns, anthems and spirituals as well as blues music by Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker and B.B. King. According to Wendell, “It was a small town, and my brother and I were about the only ones who could play anything. So we played around in all the area churches on Sundays.” The night before, though, they would play blues, soul, country and rock at their cousin’s local club, Herman Wate’s Juke Joint. “When he couldn’t get any good groups to come from Norfolk or Richmond, he’d call us in,” Wendell recalls. “That’s how we honed our sound. We used to say we’d rock ‘em on Saturday and save ‘em on Sunday.”

Once Wendell finished high school he joined Sherman, who had already begun playing professionally in New York. The two brothers played in a few bands before forming The Sevilles in 1963. The group lasted only three years, but they often backed up touring artists like The Impressions, John Lee Hooker and Jerry Butler, gaining a wealth of experience. Sherman and Wendell met drummer Popsy Dixon, a fellow Virginian, at a New York gig in 1967. Dixon sat in with the brothers and sang two songs. “After that second song,” recalls Wendell, “Popsy was a brother.” They continued to play in a variety of Top 40 bar bands until 1979, when the three officially joined forces and formed The Holmes Brothers band.The band toured the world, releasing 12 albums starting with 1990's In The Spirit on Rounder. Their most recent release is 2014's Brotherhood on Alligator. The New York Times calls The Holmes Brothers "deeply soulful, uplifting and timeless."
 
In September 2014, The Holmes Brothers were honored with a National Endowment For The Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor the United States bestows upon its folk and traditional artists. They won two Blues Music Awards including Blues Band Of The Year in 2005. The Holmes Brothers are featured on the cover of the current issue of Living Blues magazine.

Long-Awaited CD From The Kentucky Headhunters With Johnnie Johnson To Be Released June 2

On Monday, May 25, The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog will host the world premiere of Meet Me In Bluesland, a previously unreleased 2003 recording by Grammy-winning Southern blues-rockers The Kentucky Headhunters with pianist Johnnie Johnson, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. These last recorded performances of Johnson's career found the man Rolling Stone called “the greatest sideman in rock and roll” for his groundbreaking piano work with Chuck Berry playing some of the deepest and most rocking blues piano of his legendary career. With The Kentucky Headhunters at their down-home best, the record is a country-fried, blues-infused party from start to finish. The CD will be released on Alligator Records on June 2, 2015.

The Kentucky Headhunters, declared “the great American rock ‘n’ roll band” by Billboard magazine, began their professional journey in 1968 when brothers Fred and Richard Young and cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney formed the Southern blues-rock band Itchy Brother. The band morphed into The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986. Their first album, 1989’s Pickin’ On Nashville, was released by Mercury Records and surprised the world, becoming a bona fide hit, selling over two million copies. The album won a Grammy Award, three Country Music Awards, an American Music Award and an Academy Of Country Music Award. It spawned four consecutive Top 40 Country hits. The New York Times said, “Rowdy, twanging, wild-eyed Southern rockers perform songs that insist on down-home roots. The Headhunters bring a sense of bar-band recklessness, riffing with unchecked muscle, combining country roots with ferocious, bluesy hard rock.” Currently, the band is made up of Richard Young, Fred Young, Greg Martin and Doug Phelps.

Growing up on a 1300-acre family farm in Edmonton, Kentucky, the Young brothers, Martin and Kenney heard plenty of raucous R&B and deep, soulful blues courtesy of Fred and Richard’s mother, who listened to powerhouse radio station WLAC late at night. “She was real hip,” Richard says. “She was a huge influence on us.” Their father loved big band jazz, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Sarah Vaughan. “Music in our home was a mixture, unlike what most farm kids heard.” Part of their musical upbringing included their friendship with three African-American families who lived and worked on nearby farms. The boys heard gospel and blues, both sung by their neighbors in the fields and blasting out of their radios. They were reared on Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters (the name Headhunters was a nickname given to Waters and Jimmy Rogers when they came into a club ready to take on all comers). “All of these things taught us the blues,” says Richard. They loved Chuck Berry, and were especially wowed by Berry’s piano player, Johnnie Johnson. Befriending him and recording with him was a dream come true for the band. According to Fred, “We were fortunate to know him. It was a good marriage.” Richard adds, “Anyone who ever played with him became a better player.”

Johnnie Johnson was born on July 8, 1924 in Fairmont, West Virginia. He began playing piano at age five and never stopped. While serving in the Marines, he joined The Barracudas, a Marines servicemen’s band. He moved to Detroit and then Chicago, eventually playing with Muddy Waters and Little Walter. He landed in St. Louis in 1952 where he formed The Sir John Trio, playing jazz, blues and pop standards. Chuck Berry, an ambitious local guitarist and songwriter, was added to the group the same year and eventually took over leadership of the band. After Berry scored a contract with Chess Records, the hits came fast and furious. Many, including Maybellene, Nadine, Carol and School Days, were fueled by Johnson’s two-fisted piano. He was the high-octane gasoline in Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n’ roll engine. When Chuck wasn’t touring, Johnson played with Albert King, and recorded a number of singles with him for the Bobbin label. Tired of the road, Johnson left Chuck’s band in 1973 and returned to St. Louis to become a bus driver. With the 1987 release of the Chuck Berry documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Johnson found himself back in the spotlight, reintroduced to the world by his friend-to-be Keith Richards. After three solo recordings, Johnson joined his musical cohorts The Kentucky Headhunters for 1993’s That’ll Work. In 1996 and 1997 he toured with Ratdog, the band fronted by The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and continued to perform and record until his death in 2005. His 2003 sessions with The Kentucky Headhunters, released now for the very first time as Meet Me In Bluesland, are some of the most spirited and organic recordings of his remarkable and still influential career.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Story Behind Meet Me In Bluesland:
On January 25, 2003, Johnson joined his hosts, The Rolling Stones, for a rousing rendition of Honky Tonk Women at Houston, Texas’ Reliant Stadium. After hanging out all night with Keith Richards, Johnson got on a plane and flew to Kentucky. There he reunited with his good friends, brothers Richard and Fred Young, Greg Martin, Doug Phelps and Anthony Kenney, known worldwide as The Kentucky Headhunters. The plan was to have Johnnie lay down some piano for the band’s upcoming release, Soul. But the vibe was too strong and the music too good, so the tape just kept rolling. With songs and arrangements furiously being created on the spot and everything recorded live as it happened over the course of three days, a magical musical event was underway. Because the whole session was spontaneous, there were no immediate plans to release an album. After Johnnie’s death in 2005, the tapes, while never forgotten, remained unissued.

With the release of Meet Me In Bluesland, these timeless and rollicking performances are available for the first time. The record grooves from the raunchy rock of Stumblin’ to the slide-fueled Superman Blues to the roof-raising version of Little Queenie to the rocking Party In Heaven to the salacious She’s Got To Have It (the last vocal Johnson ever recorded).

“The minute Johnnie sat down with us, the music was a kind of ecstasy,” says guitarist/vocalist Richard Young. “Johnnie made us play like real men,” adds guitarist/vocalist Greg Martin. “Playing with him, the groove got bigger and much more grown up.” Drummer Fred Young explains, “We all admired Johnnie from the start. The first time we played with him was the first time I ever felt like we were doing it right. The music we made on Meet Me In Bluesland is as good as it gets.”

The relationship between Johnson and The Kentucky Headhunters dated back to 1992. Headed to New York for a Grammy Awards party, Greg picked up the new Johnnie Johnson CD, Johnnie B. Bad, for the ride. The band listened to nothing else all the way to New York. Having no idea he’d be at the party, they were shocked to see Johnnie Johnson sitting alone at a table. After some quick introductions, the musicians talked for hours, becoming fast friends. In 1993 they released their first collaboration, That’ll Work, on Nonesuch. They took the show on the road, playing gigs from the West Coast to New England, from Chicago’s Buddy Guy’s Legends to New York City’s Lone Star Café. They performed at The Jamboree In The Hills in Belmont County, Ohio, where Johnson, with the Headhunters triumphantly jamming behind him, played to over 30,000 fans.

Stinging blues guitar and potent, original songs herald the emergence of a major new talent.   --USA Today

Fast-rising young blues star Jarekus Singleton -- whose 2014 Alligator Records debut CD Refuse To Lose won him countless new fans and piles of critical praise -- launches his new website, www.jarekus.com, on Tuesday, May 26. The interactive, user-friendly site features stunning imagery, a full album stream, as well as up-to-date news and tour information.

At just 30 years old, Singleton is a musical trailblazer with a bold vision for the future of the blues. Springing from the same Mississippi soil as Charley Patton, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Singleton's cutting-edge sound -- equally rooted in rap, rock and blues traditions -- is all his own. He melds hip-hop wordplay, rock energy and R&B grooves with contemporary and traditional blues, turning audiences of all ages into devoted fans. With his untamed guitar licks and strong, soulful voice effortlessly moving from ferocious and funky to slow and steamy to smoking hot, Singleton is a fresh, electrifying bluesman bursting at the seams with talent.

Refuse To Lose features a scintillating guitar attack and lyrically startling original songs, all sung with a natural storyteller's voice. Produced by Singleton along with Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer, the album is an impossible-to-ignore first step onto the world stage. With songs telling real life, streetwise stories brimming with surprising images, pop culture references, infectious rhythms and unexpected musical twists, Refuse To Lose unleashes a new wave of blues for a new generation of fans.

Since the release of the CD, Singleton has toured non-stop, playing hundreds of shows at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over North America and Europe. He has just announced new East Coast and Midwest dates, as follows:

SAT, May 30
Western Maryland Blues Fest, Hagerstown, MD

SUN, May 31
Mike Arnone’s Crawfish Festival, Augusta, NJ

TUE, June 2
The Iridium, New York City, NY

THU, June 4
Harvester Performance Center, Rocky Mount, NC

FRI, June 5
Clementine, Harrisonburg, VA

SAT, June 6
4th Annual St. Georges Blues Festival, St. Georges, DE

MON, June 8
Bessie Smith Strut, Riverbend Festival, Chattanooga, TN

WED, June 10
Music Box Supper Club, Cleveland, OH

THU, June 11
Callahan's, Auburn Hills, MI

SAT, June 13
Chicago Blues Festival, Chicago, IL

SAT, June 13
SPACE, Evanston, IL

SUN, June 14
Marquette Waterfront Festival, Madison, WI

WED, June 17
97 WLAV Budweiser Blues on the Mall, Grand Rapids, MI

THU, June 18
The Acorn Theater, Three Oaks, MI

FRI, June 19
Ameristar Casino, St. Charles, MO

SAT, June 20
WC Handy Blues & BBQ Festival, Henderson, KY

Elvin Bishop Leads All Artists -- Wins Album, Song And Band Of The Year

Newcomer Selwyn Birchwood Wins New Artist Album Of The Year

Marcia Ball Wins Piano Player Of The Year -- The 10th BMA Of Her Career

On Thursday, May 7, 2015, The Blues Foundation announced the winners of the 2015 Blues Music Awards, the blues world's highest honors. Blues legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Elvin Bishop led all artists with three awards. His Grammy-nominated 2014 release Can't Even Do Wrong Right won Album Of The Year and the title track won Song Of The Year. The Elvin Bishop Band took the award for Band Of The Year. Bishop had been nominated eight previous times but hadn't won until now. On Monday, May 11, Bishop will appear on TBS' CONAN, sitting in with Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band.

Newcomer Selwyn Birchwood -- winner of the 2013 International Blues Challenge -- received the award for Best New Artist Album Of The Year for his breakout Alligator debut, Don't Call No Ambulance. This is Birchwood's first nomination and first win.

Austin piano queen Marcia Ball won the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Of The Year Award. This is Ball's 10th career Blues Music Award. She has received a total of 44 nominations.

The 36th Annual Blues Music Awards were presented in Memphis on Thursday, May 7, 2015 at the Cook Convention Center.

Blues guitar master Elvin Bishop -- newly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- will appear on TBS' CONAN on Monday, May 11. The legendary guitarist will sit in with Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band for the duration of the show.

Last month, Bishop was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the groundbreaking music he made with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Bishop's latest solo album, Can't Even Do Wrong Right, has been hailed as the best of his long career. Rolling Stone says the CD is "among Bishop’s very best...Impeccable playing by a legendary guitarist…engaging singing and most notably, good spirits…a great showing for a distinguished American player."

Can't Even Do Wrong Right finds Bishop playing, writing and singing some of the most distinctive blues and roots music today. The album proves that Bishop is as vital and creative an artist now as he was when he first hit the national scene in 1965 with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He is as slyly good-humored and instantly crowd-pleasing as he was when he was scoring Southern rock-styled hits during the 1970s. For five decades, he has never stopped touring or releasing instantly recognizable music featuring his inventive playing, easygoing vocals, witty lyrics and good-time humor.

In addition to his new album and his Rock Hall induction, Bishop's 1975 hit Fooled Around And Fell In Love found new life in the 2014 box-office smash Guardians Of The Galaxy. The soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and received a Grammy Award nomination.

The year 2015 has brought loss and change to the acclaimed soul/blues/gospel band The Holmes Brothers. Drummer Willie "Popsy" Dixon died on January 9, 2015 of cancer. In April 2015, Wendell Holmes, vocalist, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, announced his retirement from touring and performing due to health concerns, having been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension.

Older brother Sherman Holmes, vocalist, bassist, pianist, and songwriter, will continue to celebrate The Holmes Brothers legacy, leading a new band: The Sherman Holmes Project With Brooks Long.

The newest chapter in The Holmes Brothers story will feature a new trio, anchored and led by elder statesman Sherman Holmes on bass and vocals, joined by Wendell Holmes’ protégé and apprentice Brooks Long on guitar and vocals, plus renowned drummer/vocalist Eric Kennedy, winner of a 2015 Baker Artist Award. The Sherman Holmes Project will honor The Holmes Brothers repertoire with a blend of renewed energy, wisdom and youthful respect for timeless traditions.

Sherman Holmes is renowned for his deeply soulful baritone voice and his unique, blues-to-jazz-to-funk bass style. The Chicago Tribune called The Holmes Brothers "a gift to the world of music." As a member of The Holmes Brothers, Sherman has released twelve albums and toured the world, performing in all fifty states and more than fifty countries. In 2005, The Holmes Brothers won the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Band of the Year, followed by the BMA for Soul Blues Album of the Year in 2008 for State of Grace. Their most recent album is 2014’s Brotherhood on Alligator Records. Sherman has performed and recorded with such artists as Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Joan Osborne, Odetta, Willie Nelson, Levon Helm, and Rosanne Cash. The Holmes Brothers were honored with a National Endowment for The Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 2014, the highest honor the United States bestows upon its folk and traditional artists.

In late 2013, Wendell Holmes began working with a young and talented guitarist, singer, and songwriter -- Baltimore blues and soul musician, Brooks Long. Wendell has been formally mentoring Brooks with the assistance of a Maryland Traditions Apprenticeship Award. The Award is a program of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Folklife program, and is designed to honor master traditional artists, while enabling them to pass their skills on to the next generation. The result has been transformative, enabling Brooks to move into a creative, collaborative space with one of R&B’s wisest and most talented singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists.

Click below to watch The Sherman Holmes Project With Brooks Long in live performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXssl7CTcfk&feature=youtu.be

Confirmed 2015 Tour Dates:

April 15, Washington, DC - Library of Congress (with Phil Wiggins)
April 25, Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Lecture Hall
June 6, Galax, VA - Blue Ridge Music Center (with Phil Wiggins)
July 26 - Aug 2, Port Townsend, WA - Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival (with Cora Harvey Armstrong)

Alligator Records has set a June 2 street date for Meet Me In Bluesland, a previously unreleased album by Grammy-winning Southern blues-rockers The Kentucky Headhunters with pianist Johnnie Johnson, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. The performances found Johnson -- the man Rolling Stone called “the greatest sideman in rock and roll” for his groundbreaking piano work with Chuck Berry -- playing some of the deepest and most rocking blues piano of his legendary career. With The Kentucky Headhunters at their down-home best, the record is a country-fried, blues-infused party from start to finish.

On January 25, 2003, Johnson joined his hosts, The Rolling Stones, for a rousing rendition of Honky Tonk Women at Houston, Texas’ Reliant Stadium. After hanging out all night with Keith Richards, Johnson got on a plane and flew to Kentucky. There he reunited with his good friends, brothers Richard and Fred Young, Greg Martin, Doug Phelps and Anthony Kenney, known worldwide as The Kentucky Headhunters. The plan was to have Johnnie lay down some piano for the band’s upcoming release, Soul. But the vibe was too strong and the music too good, so the tape just kept rolling. With songs and arrangements furiously being created on the spot and everything recorded live as it happened over the course of three days, a magical musical event was underway. Because the whole session was spontaneous, there were no immediate plans to release an album. After Johnnie’s death in 2005, the tapes, while never forgotten, remained unissued.

With the release of Meet Me In Bluesland, these timeless and rollicking performances are available for the first time. The record grooves from the raunchy rock of Stumblin’ to the slide-fueled Superman Blues to the roof-raising version of Little Queenie to the rocking Party In Heaven to the salacious She’s Got To Have It (the last vocal Johnson ever recorded).

Click here to listen to Stumblin', She's Got To Have It, and Party In Heaven:

https://soundcloud.com/alligator-recs/sets/kentucky-headhunters-w-johnnie/s-KrTVX

“The minute Johnnie sat down with us, the music was a kind of ecstasy,” says guitarist/vocalist Richard Young. “Johnnie made us play like real men,” adds guitarist/vocalist Greg Martin. “Playing with him, the groove got bigger and much more grown up.” Drummer Fred Young explains, “We all admired Johnnie from the start. The first time we played with him was the first time I ever felt like we were doing it right. The music we made on Meet Me In Bluesland is as good as it gets.”

The relationship between Johnson and The Kentucky Headhunters dated back to 1992. Headed to New York for a Grammy Awards party, Greg picked up the new Johnnie Johnson CD, Johnnie B. Bad, for the ride. The band listened to nothing else all the way to New York. Having no idea he’d be at the party, they were shocked to see Johnnie Johnson sitting alone at a table. After some quick introductions, the musicians talked for hours, becoming fast friends. In 1993 they released their first collaboration, That’ll Work, on Nonesuch. They took the show on the road, playing gigs from the West Coast to New England, from Chicago’s Buddy Guy’s Legends to New York City’s Lone Star Café. They performed at The Jamboree In The Hills in Belmont County, Ohio, where Johnson, with the Headhunters triumphantly jamming behind him, played to over 30,000 fans.

From their very first meeting, Johnson and The Kentucky Headhunters stayed close, getting together whenever possible. In 2003, when the band asked Johnson to record with them again, he couldn’t wait to get back to Kentucky and make music with his friends. “Johnnie’s music was spontaneous, organic, magic energy,” says Greg. “During the recordings, everything was off-the-cuff and easy; a higher power just took over. This album is special, and we’re very happy in 2015 that it’s coming to fruition.” Adds Fred, “Johnnie gave us the gift of letting us know what it was like to do something great.”
___________________________________________________________________

The Kentucky Headhunters, declared “the great American rock ‘n’ roll band” by Billboard magazine, began their professional journey in 1968 when brothers Fred and Richard Young and cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney formed the Southern blues-rock band Itchy Brother. The band morphed into The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986. Their first album, 1989’s Pickin’ On Nashville, was released by Mercury Records and surprised the world, becoming a bona fide hit, selling over two million copies. The album won a Grammy Award, three Country Music Awards, an American Music Award and an Academy Of Country Music Award. It spawned four consecutive Top 40 Country hits. Currently, the band is made up of Richard Young, Fred Young, Greg Martin and Doug Phelps.

Growing up on a 1300-acre family farm in Edmonton, Kentucky, the Young brothers, Martin and Kenney heard plenty of raucous R&B and deep, soulful blues courtesy of Fred and Richard’s mother, who listened to powerhouse radio station WLAC late at night. “She was real hip,” Richard says. “She was a huge influence on us.” Their father loved big band jazz, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Sarah Vaughan. “Music in our home was a mixture, unlike what most farm kids heard.” Part of their musical upbringing included their friendship with three African-American families who lived and worked on nearby farms. The boys heard gospel and blues, both sung by their neighbors in the fields and blasting out of their radios. They were reared on Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters (the name Headhunters was a nickname given to Waters and Jimmy Rogers when they came into a club ready to take on all comers). “All of these things taught us the blues,” says Richard. They loved Chuck Berry, and were especially wowed by Berry’s piano player, Johnnie Johnson. Befriending him and recording with him was a dream come true for the band. According to Fred, “We were fortunate to know him. It was a good marriage.” Richard adds, “Anyone who ever played with him became a better player.”

Johnnie Johnson was born on July 8, 1924 in Fairmont, West Virginia. He began playing piano at age five and never stopped. While serving in the Marines, he joined The Barracudas, a Marines servicemen’s band. He moved to Detroit and then Chicago, eventually playing with Muddy Waters and Little Walter. He landed in St. Louis in 1952 where he formed The Sir John Trio, playing jazz, blues and pop standards. Chuck Berry, an ambitious local guitarist and songwriter, was added to the group the same year and eventually took over leadership of the band. After Berry scored a contract with Chess Records, the hits came fast and furious. Many, including Maybellene, Nadine, Carol and School Days, were fueled by Johnson’s two-fisted piano. He was the high-octane gasoline in Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n’ roll engine. When Chuck wasn’t touring, Johnson played with Albert King, and recorded a number of singles with him for the Bobbin label. Tired of the road, Johnson left Chuck’s band in 1973 and returned to St. Louis to become a bus driver. With the 1987 release of the Chuck Berry documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Johnson found himself back in the spotlight, reintroduced to the world by his friend-to-be Keith Richards. After three solo recordings, Johnson joined his musical cohorts The Kentucky Headhunters for 1993’s That’ll Work. In 1996 and 1997 he toured with Ratdog, the band fronted by The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and continued to perform and record until his death in 2005. His 2003 sessions with The Kentucky Headhunters, released now for the very first time as Meet Me In Bluesland, are some of the most spirited and organic recordings of his remarkable and still influential career.

Wendell Holmes, vocalist, guitarist, pianist and songwriter of the acclaimed soul/blues band The Holmes Brothers has recently been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and has announced his retirement from performing and touring. He plans to continue writing songs. Wendell's brother, bassist, vocalist and songwriter Sherman Holmes will continue to perform, billed as The Sherman Holmes Project with Brooks Long. Wendell has been mentoring Long since 2013. Holmes Brothers drummer Willie "Popsy" Dixon died on January 9, 2015 of cancer.

Since forming the band in 1979, The Holmes Brothers toured the world, releasing 12 albums beginning with 1990's In The Spirit on Rounder Records. Their most recent release is 2014's Brotherhood on Alligator Records. The New York Times called The Holmes Brothers "deeply soulful, uplifting and timeless."
 
In September 2014, The Holmes Brothers were honored with a National Endowment For The Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor the United States bestows upon its folk and traditional artists.

Wendell Holmes, the man Entertainment Weekly calls "a timeless original," was born in Christchurch, Virginia in 1943. He and his older brother Sherman were raised by their schoolteacher parents, who nurtured the boys’ early interest in music. As youngsters they listened to traditional Baptist hymns, anthems and spirituals as well as blues music by Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker and B.B. King. According to Wendell, “It was a small town, and my brother and I were about the only ones who could play anything. So we played around in all the area churches on Sundays.” The night before, though, they would play blues, soul, country and rock at their cousin’s local club, Herman Wate’s Juke Joint. “When he couldn’t get any good groups to come from Norfolk or Richmond, he’d call us in,” Wendell recalls. “That’s how we honed our sound. We used to say we’d rock ‘em on Saturday and save ‘em on Sunday.”

Once Wendell finished high school, he joined Sherman, who had already begun playing professionally in New York. The two brothers played in a few bands before forming The Sevilles in 1963. The group lasted only three years, but they often backed up touring artists like The Impressions, John Lee Hooker and Jerry Butler, gaining a wealth of experience. Sherman and Wendell met drummer Popsy Dixon, a fellow Virginian, at a New York gig in 1967. Dixon sat in with the brothers and sang two songs. “After that second song,” recalls Wendell, “Popsy was a brother.” They continued to play in a variety of Top 40 bar bands until 1979, when the three officially joined forces and formed The Holmes Brothers band.

Alligator Records is proud to announce the re-signing of blues/soul/Americana singing sensation Shemekia Copeland to the label she called home from 1998 through 2005. Over the course of her four Alligator albums and her two most recent for Telarc, Copeland's wide-open vision of contemporary blues, roots and soul music showcases the evolution of a passionate artist with a modern musical and lyrical approach. The Chicago Tribune said Copeland delivers "gale force singing and power" with a "unique, gutsy style, vibrant emotional palette and intuitive grasp of the music." She is currently recording new material for a Fall 2015 release with musician Oliver Wood (of The Wood Brothers) producing.

Copeland, a two-time Grammy nominee and daughter of late Texas blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, is excited to be back on Alligator. "Historically, Alligator has consistently put out the world's best blues music. Now I'm back to make a little history myself."

Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer couldn't be happier. "I’m thrilled to welcome Shemekia back into the Alligator family. When we first signed her in 1997, she was already a mature and extremely soulful blues singer. Now, with the experience of thirteen more years of live performances, she has blossomed into a charismatic artist who can deliver roots rock, Americana and blues with equal power and authority, and with wonderful subtlety, shading and nuance. Oliver Wood has proven to be a terrific producer for her. We’re very much looking forward to her next album, and proud to have it coming on Alligator."

When a young Shemekia Copeland first appeared on the scene in 1998 with her groundbreaking debut CD, Turn The Heat Up, she instantly became a blues superstar. Critics from around the country celebrated her music as fans of all ages agreed that an unstoppable new talent had arrived. News outlets from The New York Times to CNN took note of Copeland's talent, engaging personality, and true star power.

Copeland followed up with 2000's Grammy-nominated Wicked, 2002's Talking To Strangers(produced by Dr. John) and 2008’s The Soul Truth (produced by Steve Cropper). In that short period of time, she 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. 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." USA Today said, "Copeland is a singer with fervor and funk, power and range.” She has appeared numerous times on national television, National Public Radio, and in newspapers and magazines. She is a mainstay on countless commercial and non-commercial radio stations. 

Copeland has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world. She's played with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, James Cotton and many others. She opened for The Rolling Stones and entertained US troops in Iraq and Kuwait. At the 2011 Chicago Blues Festival, Joyce Threatt, daughter of the late Koko Taylor, presented Copeland with Taylor's tiara, and both the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois, by official proclamation, declared Copeland to be the new “Queen of the Blues”. In 2012, she performed at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama.

Like always, Copeland has her eyes fixed firmly on the future, prepared to continue to break new musical ground. "I want to keep growing, to be innovative," she says. "So it's not that I'm going back to Alligator. I'm moving ahead with Alligator. Together we are going to make the most exciting music of my career."

On January 15, 2015, Alligator Records will release nine new digital-only "Best-Of" collections from some of the label's top artists over the course of its 43-year history. Alligator Records founder and president Bruce Iglauer personally remastered the sets from blues stars Koko Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, James Cotton, Coco Montoya, Lil' Ed And The Blues Imperials, Tinsley Ellis, Roomful Of Blues, Eric Lindell, and Lonnie Mack. Each "Best Of" will contain 15 - 20 tracks, run from 70 to 90 minutes, and will be available for download from all major sites.

According to Iglauer, relistening and remastering was not an easy task. “It was a very enjoyable but tough job choosing which tracks constitute the ‘best’ of these great artists. We chose their biggest radio songs and most-requested fan favorites, but also included some tracks that we consider unrecognized gems among their recordings. New fans will find these a great introduction to these artists, and established fans will find tracks they may be unaware of. I think the remastering brings out more details of the music and makes the listener appreciate the quality of these performances even more.”