News

Jarekus Singleton's Alligator Records debut CD, Refuse To Lose, and Blues Hall Of Famer Joe Louis Walker's second Alligator Records release, Hornet's Nest, both appear on MOJO Magazine's influential Top Ten Blues CDs Of The Year list. Newcomer Singleton scored the #2 spot, while legendary guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Walker earned the #6 position.

Alligator Records recordings from Jarekus Singleton, Michael "Iron Man" Burks, Son Seals, Eric Lindell and Hound Dog Taylor will soon appear on network television programs. Singleton's Gonna Let Go will be featured in an upcoming episode of Netflix's Bloodline, airing in Spring of 2015. CBS Television's The Mentalist will feature, all in the same episode, Burks' Little Juke Joint, Seals' Crying Time and Sitting At My Window, and Lindell's Lullaby For Mercy Ann. The air date has yet to be announced. In addition, Taylor's It's Alright and She's Gone will air during The Messengers, a new series set to air on the CW Network in 2015.

SEVEN ALLIGATOR ARTISTS RECEIVE 19 BLUES MUSIC AWARD NOMINATIONS

Elvin Bishop Receives Six, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats Receive Four

Newcomers Jarekus Singleton and Selwyn Birchwood Both Nominated

Previous Winners Marcia Ball, Joe Louis Walker and Curtis Salgado Also Receive Nominations

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014, The Blues Foundation announced the nominees for the 2015 Blues Music Awards, the blues world's highest honors. Seven Alligator recording artists received a total of 19 nominations.

Legendary guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Elvin Bishop leads the pack with six nominations, with nods in all the biggest categories: Album Of The Year and Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year (for Can't Even Do Wrong Right), B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Band Of The Year, Song Of The Year (for the title track) and Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year. Bishop has been nominated eight previous times, though he has never won a BMA.

Harmonicist/vocalist/songwriter Rick Estrin, of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, received two nominations, including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer Of Year and Instrumentalist Of The Year - Harmonica. The whole band received a Band Of The Year nomination. Nightcats guitarist Kid Andersen received a nomination for Instrumentalist Of The Year - Guitar. Estrin has been nominated 15 previous times and holds two BMAs.

Newcomer Jarekus Singleton received three nominations including the prestigious Album Of The Year and Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year for his Alligator debut, Refuse To Lose. He also was recognized with a nomination for Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year.

Fellow newcomer Selwyn Birchwood received a nomination for Best New Artist Album Of The Year for his breakout Alligator debut, Don't Call No Ambulance.

Austin piano queen Marcia Ball received nominations for Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year and the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Of The Year. Ball has received 42 previous nominations and has won nine BMAs.

Blues Hall Of Famer Joe Louis Walker also received two nominations: one for Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year and the other for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year for Hornet's Nest. Walker has been nominated 52 times previously, and has won four BMAs.

Vocalist/harmonicist Curtis Salgado received a nomination for Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year. Salgado has been nominated 12 times previously and has won five BMAs, including Soul Blues Male Artist Of The year three times.

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

TuneIn -- the world's largest audio network -- officially launched Alligator Records Radio today, December 9, 2014. The Alligator Records Radio station on TuneIn will stream songs from Alligator's extensive catalog of music covering 43 years of blues and roots rock releases. Exclusively available on TuneIn, Alligator Records Radio is one of only a handful of label stations to be developed and curated by TuneIn itself.

The station is available at http://tunein.com/radio/Alligator-Records-Radio-s231181/, or fans can simply search "Alligator Records" on the free TuneIn Radio app or on TuneIn.com to listen to Alligator Records Radio. TuneIn is also available on more than 200 platforms, including smartphones, tablets, vehicles and gaming consoles.

Starting today, TuneIn First will preview the entire upcoming Alligator Records digital-only Best Of compilation from roots rocker Eric Lindell. That feature will be available here.

TuneIn -- with over 50 million monthly active users -- provides listeners access to over 100,000 real radio stations and more than four million podcasts streaming from every continent.

According to Summer Watson, TuneIn's VP of Content, "TuneIn has always been focused on connecting people and communities through their shared love of audio. Working with such a seminal voice as Alligator Records to expand our footprint in blues and independent music was a natural fit for TuneIn. With this new curated station, blues fans all over the world will now have a place they can go to hear classic blues favorites, mixed in with new releases from internationally recognized artists."

Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer is in full agreement, saying, "The timing is right. TuneIn is a perfect fit for Alligator. The launch of Alligator Records Radio will bring our music to a whole new generation of blues fans all over the world."

Proudly independent Alligator Records is home to some of the world's foremost blues and roots rock talent and is regarded by fans and the media alike as the top contemporary blues record label in the world. The Washington Post said, "Alligator is the premiere blues label." The Chicago Sun-Times added, "Alligator is numero uno among indie blues labels, with artists representing the best in contemporary blues." The current roster reads like a Who's Who of contemporary blues, featuring established artists including James Cotton, Elvin Bishop, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, The Holmes Brothers, Marcia Ball, Joe Louis Walker, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Curtis Salgado, Roomful Of Blues and newcomers Jesse Dee, Jarekus Singleton and Selwyn Birchwood. The catalog features classic albums by Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite, Son Seals, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, Professor Longhair, Mavis Staples and many others.

From the early days of recording only Chicago blues artists to the addition of national and international artists to the label's commitment to younger roots acts who are creating new blues for a new generation of blues fans, Alligator continues to forge full steam ahead. After four decades, Alligator is still dedicated to discovering great new talent, proving that the passion, soul and redemptive power of blues and roots music is alive and well.

According to Iglauer, "Alligator is committed to bringing blues and roots music to new fans and getting them as excited about the music as I am. I want the future of the blues and the future of Alligator Records to be one and the same."

Harmonica giant James Cotton and blues rockers Tommy Castro And The Painkillers each received a 2014 Blues Blast Music Award, presented by Blues Blast magazine. Cotton won for Traditional Blues Album Of The Year for his Grammy-nominated CD, Cotton Mouth Man. Castro won for Rock Blues Album Of The Year for his 2014 release The Devil You Know.

Winners were announced on October 23, 2014 at the awards ceremony held at The Fluid Events Center in Champaign, Illinois.

Living blues legend Lonnie Brooks will be honored by Blues Blast Magazine when he receives the online publication's Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, October 23 at The Blues Blast Music Awards. The ceremony will take place at The Fluid Event Center in Champaign, IL. According to Blues Blast publisher Bob Kieser, "These awards are given to outstanding individuals who have a lifetime of exceptional accomplishments in blues music."

The Chicago Tribune declares Brooks' music a "joyful paean to the power of the blues. He is one of the genre’s fiercest guitarists.” Lonnie (originally Lee Baker, Jr.) was born in Louisiana and learned guitar at an early age, earning his first professional gig with zydeco master Clifton Chenier. During the 1950s Brooks, then known as Guitar Junior, cut a series of Gulf Coast proto-rock and roll singles for the Goldband label, now considered swamp rock classics. He headed to Chicago in the 1960s, changed his name to Lonnie Brooks and jumped head first into the Chicago blues scene. Brooks gigged constantly, releasing a few singles before Capitol Records issued his first solo album in 1969. He joined Alligator Records in 1978 and has released six classic solo albums. In addition, he joined his Gulf Coast friends Phillip Walker and Long John Hunter on Lone Star Shootout. Brooks received a Grammy Award nomination for his contributions to Alligator's famous Living Chicago Blues series. His live shows are legendary for kick-starting parties and spreading good times like wildfire.

The same night Brooks receives his award, Blues Blast will announce the winners of this year's awards. Five Alligator artists have been nominated for a total of seven Blues Blast Awards. Harmonica giant James Cotton and blues rockers Tommy Castro & The Painkillers each received two nominations. Blues master Joe Louis Walker, houserockers Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials and jump/swing legends Roomful Of Blues each received one nomination.

Blues guitarist/vocalist Elvin Bishop will be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall Of Fame on Saturday, November 1, 2014 in a ceremony at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, OK. Other inductees this year include J.J. Cale, Jim Keltner, Chuck Blackwell and Lowell Fulson.

Bishop has had a very busy 2014. Aside from releasing his critically acclaimed new Alligator Records CD, Can't Even Do Wrong Right,, his 1975 hit Fooled Around And Fell In Love found new life in the box-office smash Guardians Of The Galaxy. The soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. To top it off, Bishop was again nominated, as a member of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Can't Even Do Wrong Right finds Bishop playing, writing and singing some of the most spirited and distinctive blues and roots music today. The CD 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 groundbreaking playing, easygoing vocals, witty lyrics and good-time humor.

Soul singer/songwriter Jesse Dee and longtime jump/swing/blues favorites Roomful Of Blues both received prestigious 2014 Boston Music Award nominations. Dee, whose Alligator Records debut On My Mind/In My Heart, broke him out of Boston and introduced him to a national -- and international -- audience was nominated in the Best Vocalist Of The Year category. Roomful Of Blues received a nomination for Blues Artist Of The Year. The group's latest CD, 45 Live!, celebrates the band's 45 year history. The awards ceremony will be held on December 14 at Boston's Revere Hotel.

Award-winning pianist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball will release her new Alligator Records CD, The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man, on September 23, 2014. The Texas-born, Louisiana-raised Ball has earned worldwide fame for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she strolls onto the stage. Her groove-laden New Orleans boogie, deeply soulful ballads and rollicking Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music fans all over the world.

On The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man, Ball draws listeners deep into her music with instantly memorable melodies and imaginative imagery. Her songs paint vibrant musical pictures, richly detailed with characters, flavors and scenes straight out of Louisiana and Texas. With raucous horns punctuating Ball’s legendary piano pounding and emotional, melodic vocals, the new CD mixes Ball's New Orleans R&B, swampy Louisiana ballads, and jumping, Tex-Mex flavored zydeco into a one-of-a-kind musical gumbo, a sound she has been perfecting over the course of her four-decade career.

From the poignant Just Keep Holding On to the fresh start of Clean My House to the surprising and timely The Squeeze Is On to the southern warmth of Human Kindness, Ball has delivered a set of songs so well written and so well performed, she’ll astound and delight her longtime fans and give newcomers plenty of reasons to join the party. Featuring her stellar, road-tested touring band, with help from friends Delbert McClinton and Terrance Simien and production by Grammy-winner Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, James Cotton, Susan Tedeschi), The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man is happy, moving, joyful, stirring, thought-provoking, danceable and fun.

After a 1978 solo LP for Capitol and a successful series of releases on Rounder, Ball joined the Alligator Records family in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent. The CD took home the 2002 Blues Music Award for Blues Album Of The Year. 2004’s So Many Rivers, 2005’s Live! Down The Road, 2008’s Peace, Love & BBQ and 2010’s Roadside Attractions all received Grammy Award nominations as well as critical and popular acclaim. In 2010, Ball was inducted into the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and in 2012 into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. She’s received a total of seven Living Blues Awards and nine Blues Music Awards (and has earned a whopping 42 nominations).

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.” Living Blues declares, “Her originals sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces that no one else can imitate.” Of the new album, Ball says, “I don’t make a record until I have something to say, stories to tell, messages to impart. I try to make records that are true to me,” she continues, “and this one couldn’t be truer.”

COTTON NAMED BLUES ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Alligator Records artists James Cotton and Marcia Ball received coveted Living Blues Awards, the magazine announced in its August 2014 issue.

Cotton, whose 2013 release Cotton Mouth Man received a Grammy Award nomination, received three Living Blues Critics' Poll Awards: Blues Artist Of The Year (Male), Most Outstanding Musician (Harmonica), and Album Of The Year (for Cotton Mouth Man).

Ball received a Living Blues Readers' Poll Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard). Her new CD,The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man, will be released on September 23, 2014. Four of Ball's previous five Alligator releases have been Grammy nominated.

 

 

 

"MAKING-OF" VIDEO FEATURES BISHOP, CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE AND MICKEY THOMAS

 Can't Even Do Wrong Right, the new CD from the legendary Elvin Bishop, will exclusively premiere as a full album stream at Relix.com beginning Wednesday, August 6. The stream will be available here: http://www.relix.com/media/audio/album_premiere_elvin_bishop_cant_even_do_wrong_right. The album will be released on August 19.

In an enlightening behind-the-scenes video, Bishop and his friends Charlie Musselwhite and Mickey Thomas are having the time of their lives making the record. The video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omyYA2syhhk.

Bishop is currently riding high atop the charts, as his 1975 hit song, Fooled Around And Fell In Love (with vocals by Mickey Thomas) is included in the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack and film. This iconic musical pair joins forces once again on Can't Even Do Wrong Right, with Thomas' soaring vocals and Bishop's soulful slide guitar making Let Your Woman Have Her Way an instant classic.

With his "so-loose-they're-tight" road band behind him, along with friends Thomas and Grammy Award-winning harmonica player Musselwhite (on Old School and No More Doggin’), Bishop has created one of the best albums of his career. Can't Even Do Wrong Right finds Bishop playing, writing and singing some of the most spirited and distinctive blues and roots music today.

Of the new album, Bishop tells Relix, "It was kinda lucky how everything happened for this project -- the tunes fell out of the sky and the people I wanted turned out to be willing and available -- Mickey and Charlie and the band --wow. And [producer] Steve Savage put a helluva sound together for us."

Can't Even Do Wrong Right 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 groundbreaking playing, easy-going vocals, witty lyrics and good-time humor.

Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, with hilariously spot-on cover art by musician/artist Paul Thorn, finds Bishop firing on all cylinders and having fun while doing it. With this album, Bishop has created another highlight in a career that covers 50 years and over 20 albums. Five of the songs are Bishop originals. An outstanding instrumental version of Jimmy Reed’s Honest I Do harkens back to Elvin’s childhood: this was the very first blues song he heard coming from Nashville’s WLAC, the late night R&B 50,000 watt powerhouse radio station, beaming all the way to his Oklahoma home. In the 1950s in Oklahoma, everything was racially separated except the radio (“They couldn’t segregate the airwaves,” Bishop recalls). Between the original songs, the well-chosen covers, Bishop's great band and his special guests, Can’t Even Do Wrong Right hits its target at every turn.

Confirmed tour dates through October 2014 follow:
Aug. 15, 2014     Fargo Blues Festival - Fargo, ND
Aug. 17, 2014     Cobb Mountain Concert Series - Cobb, CA
Sep. 06, 2014     San Diego Blues Festival - San Diego, CA
Sep. 12, 2014     SPACE - Evanston, IL     
Sep. 13, 2014     Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater - Alton, IL     
Sep. 27, 2014     Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse - Berkeley, CA     
Oct. 04, 2014     Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise - Los Angeles, CA (through Oct. 11, 2014)
Oct. 17, 2014     Theatre Deville - Vacaville, CA    

Alligator Records founder and president Bruce Iglauer will receive the very first "Iconic Innovators" Award from AirPlay Direct. AirPlay Direct is among the leading secure digital file transfer systems for the music industry. AirPlay Direct president Michael Harnett explains that the award, new this year, "will be given to the AirPlay Direct member who best embraces the vision and opportunities that digital innovation in the music industry continues to create."

 Harnett says Iglauer was the first person who came to mind for this new award. "Bruce’s professional career is a road map for success and accomplishment. He is a passionate, committed and relevant leader in the ever evolving independent global music community. Bruce is undoubtedly an 'Iconic Innovator,' but more importantly he is the type of man that blazes trails and leads by example. Great pair of ears, great heart and a great partner.” 

Iglauer is equally thrilled to be receiving the award, which comes with a $50,000 AirPlay Direct Marketing And Awareness campaign. "I’m extremely honored to receive the first 'Iconic Innovators' Award from AirPlay Direct. Although Alligator is over 40 years old, we’ve always tried to make sure that we stayed on the technological cutting edge. We were the first Blues label to manufacture compact discs in 1984. We were selling online from our own website twenty years ago, and we were among the first independent labels to commit to streaming services and download stores."

 "More recently," Iglauer continues, "we began working with AirPlay Direct to deliver our music to radio and online programmers around the world. This has been a great decision for us, and the AirPlay Direct staff have been terrific to deal with. I also have to give kudos to Josh Lindner, Alligator’s Director of New Technology, who first connected Alligator and AirPlay Direct, as well as leading us to many other new technology opportunities."

About AirPlay Direct:
AirPlay Direct is a centralized, professional eco-system that connects artists, labels, radio stations, as well as equipment and services. All of their subscribers are qualified music industry participants. They have a national and international reach of 9,000+ radio station members in 90 countries with over 38,000 artist / label members. They give direct access to the primary target market of artists, musicians, labels, and radio stations of all musical genres.