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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. 

Legendary blues guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Elvin Bishop returns to Alligator Records with Can't Even Do Wrong Right, set for release on Tuesday, August 19. With his "so-loose-they're-tight" road band behind him, along with friends Charlie Musselwhite and Mickey Thomas, Bishop has created one of the best albums of his career. Can't Even Do Wrong Rightfinds 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, 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 fifty years and over 20 albums. Five of the songs are Bishop originals, including Let Your Woman Have Her Way, on which Bishop’s friend Mickey Thomas sings lead (this is the first time Thomas, the ex-Jefferson Starship singer, has recorded with Bishop since he provided vocals on Bishop’s classic hit Fooled Around And Fell In Love). 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). With the addition of his Grammy Award-winning pal Charlie Musselwhite on Old School and No More Doggin’, Can’t Even Do Wrong Righthits its target at every turn.

Born in Glendale, CA on October 21, 1942, Elvin grew up on a farm in Iowa before relocating to Oklahoma when he was ten. He first got hooked on the blues listening to late night R&B radio as a teenager, and began collecting, listening to and absorbing blues music. Once Bishop realized that many of his favorite records were recorded in Chicago, he used his 1959 National Merit Scholarship as a way to get closer to his blues heroes by enrolling in the University of Chicago—its campus surrounded on three sides by the South Side black community. “The first thing I did when I got there,” Elvin recalls, “was make friends with the guys working in the cafeteria. Within fifteen minutes I was into the blues scene.” Leaving his physics studies behind, Bishop turned to blues music full time. He befriended bluesman Little Smokey Smothers and would hang out with him for hours on end. Smothers liked young Bishop and took the willing student under his wing, teaching Elvin how to really play—and live—the blues. In short order, Elvin became an accomplished and innovative player. Many years later, in 2000, Elvin and Smothers recorded their only album together, the appropriately titled That’s My Partner!, for Alligator.

After Elvin crossed paths with harmonica player and fellow University of Chicago student Paul Butterfield, the two began sitting in together at black blues clubs, often jamming with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. They first formed The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1963, adding Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums and Mark Naftalin on keyboards. Prior to cutting their debut LP in 1965, Michael Bloomfield joined the group as second lead guitarist, and created a groundbreaking, all-star band. The self-titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band introduced electric Chicago blues to the rock audience for the first time. With the release of East/West in 1966, the band's popularity hit an all-time high. Their straight Chicago blues sounds drifted further into progressive and experimental rock ‘n’ roll and—with two world-class lead guitarists on board—the band helped pave the way for groups featuring multiple virtuoso guitarists, like The Allman Brothers and Derek and the Dominos.

Towards the end of the 1960s, after recording three albums with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Elvin decided to move on, heading for the San Francisco area. “I liked it there. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder,” Bishop recalls. He became a regular at the famed Fillmore Auditorium jam sessions, playing alongside Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, B.B. King and many others before embarking on a solo career. He recorded first for Fillmore Records, then Epic and then for Capricorn, where his career took off. He charted with Travelin’ Shoes before scoring big in 1975 with Fooled Around And Fell In Love (the song reached number three on the pop charts).

After a seven-year recording hiatus, Elvin returned to his blues roots in 1988, signing with Alligator and releasing Big Fun to critical and popular acclaim. He followed in 1991 with Don’t Let The Bossman Get You Down!and in 1995 with Ace In The Hole, delivering no-holds-barred sets of rootsy blues fueled by Elvin's wicked guitar playing and tongue-in-cheek originals. With 1998’s The Skin I’m In, serious guitar playing and humorous looks at aging made the album a true blues statement for the end of the 20th century. Entertainment Weekly described the album as “sheer, unpretentious joy.”

As Bishop continues to tour and release new music, his stature continues to grow. Through the years his music has appeared in film and television, including the 1997 use of She Puts Me In The Mood (from Big Fun) in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. In 2005 he performed on the internationally televised Grammy Awards broadcast alongside Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers’ guitarist Dickey Betts. He recently appeared in the documentary Born In Chicago. In 2012 and 2013 he was nominated for inclusion into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Now, with Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, Bishop again is ready to share his happy-go-lucky vibe with his fans around the world. His guitar/vocal/songwriting triple-threat talent, along with his ability to deliver a rollicking good time wherever he goes, assures his not-to-be-missed live performances are consistently packed to the gills with cheering fans. The Chicago Tribune says Bishop plays “good-time music guaranteed to put a smile on your face...serious playing, potent slide guitar and razor-sharp licks.”

Don't Call No Ambulance, the Alligator Records debut from young guitarist/vocalist Selwyn Birchwood, received a rave review from writer Dave DiMartino at RollingStone.com:

Selwyn Birchwood: Don’t Call No Ambulance (Alligator)

"Recently issued by the distinguished blues label Alligator and garnering repeated plays in this household is the remarkable debut album by young guitarist/singer Birchwood--a powerhouse player and emotive performer whose work respects blues tradition but could not be more contemporary. From Orlando, Florida, Birchwood made an early ally of Texas bluesman Sonny Rhodes and at 29 has already made his name onstage opening for artists like Buddy Guy and Robert Cray. His band, his material, and both his skilled guitaring and soulful vocals are the essence of fully-formed; Birchwood is a major player, the sort of artist that assures his blues-devoted label many more years of prominence to come, and most importantly, a damn fine listen through and through. Highly recommended."

Since the June 10 release of Don't Call No Ambulance, Birchwood, the winner of the 2013 International Blues Challenge, has been wowing club and festival audiences and garnering piles of critical praise. He was recently featured, along with Alligator's other young signing Jarekus Singleton, in a major Washington Post feature story. The two were heralded as leading forces in a new wave of blues for a new generation of listeners.

"Fervent, inspired and joyful blues, R&B, soul, roadhouse rock and gospel
...beautiful harmonies, true magic." --NPR

 

On Wednesday, June 25, The National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) announced that soul/blues/gospel legends The Holmes Brothers (Wendell Holmes, Sherman Holmes and Popsy Dixon) will receive a coveted and prestigious National Heritage Fellowship.

According to the NEA, "The National Heritage Fellowship is the highest honor that our nation bestows upon its folk and traditional artists. NEA National Heritage Fellowships recognize the recipients' artistic excellence and support their continuing contributions to our nation's traditional arts heritage."

The Holmes Brothers, as 2014 NEA National Heritage Fellows, will be honored along with the other recipients at an awards ceremony on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 and a concert at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium on Friday, September 19, 2014. Both events will be open to the public and the concert will be streamed live at arts.gov. More information, including how to obtain free tickets to the concert, will be available later this summer.

The Chicago Tribune described the amazing musical team of Wendell Holmes, Sherman Holmes and Popsy Dixon as "a gift to the world of music." Melding blues, soul, gospel, traditional hymns, spirituals, country, R&B, and rock and roll, The Holmes Brothers blend American roots music with their telepathic musicianship and trademark three-part harmonies. The Tribune declared that the three men together “become a mystical fourth entity, inexplicable yet sublime.”

Sherman and Wendell Holmes were born and raised in Christchurch, Virginia. Both sang in church and played piano. Sherman also learned clarinet and Wendell took up trumpet and organ. In addition, both taught themselves to play the guitar. Sherman studied theory and composition at Virginia State University for two years before dropping out and moving to New York. A few years later his brother joined him there and throughout the 1960s and '70s, the brothers performed together and in a variety of bands. In the early '70s, Wendell met and performed with drummer Willie "Popsy" Dixon, who was also a native Virginian. Dixon sat in with the brothers at a blues jam session in 1980, marking the beginning of The Holmes Brothers band with Sherman on baritone vocals and bass guitar, Wendell on tenor vocals, guitar, and piano, and Popsy on falsetto vocals and drums.

At first the band primarily played at Dan Lynch's, a club in New York that featured weekly jam nights and performances by blues acts. There The Holmes Brothers acted as role models and mentors to younger aspiring musicians, including Joan Osborne and members of Blues Traveler. In 1989, they released their first album for Rounder Records, followed by four more albums. In 1992, they were the first American group to sign with Peter Gabriel's Real World Records and in 1996 they recorded the soundtrack for the movie Lotto Land. For the last 13 years, they have recorded for Alligator Records, where they have released five albums, including their latest, 2014's Brotherhood.

The Holmes Brothers have toured internationally and have performed with artists such as Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Odetta, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, and Levon Helm. In 2005, they won The Blues Music Award for Band of the Year from The Blues Foundation, followed by the award for Soul Blues Album of the Year in 2008 for State of Grace.

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Blues Blast Magazine, the online blues publication, today announced that five Alligator Records artists received a total of seven 2014 Blues Blast Music Award nominations. 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.

Voting is open to subscribers and non-subscribers alike at www.BluesBlastMagazine.com beginning July 15, 2014 and continuing until September 15, 2014. Subscriptions to Blues Blast Magazine are free. Winners will be announced on October 23, 2014 at the awards ceremony to be held at The Fluid Events Center in Champaign, Illinois.

Artists and their nominations follow:

JAMES COTTON

Traditional Blues Album Of The Year: Cotton Mouth Man

Song Of The Year: He Was There by James Cotton, Tom Hambridge and Richard Fleming from Cotton Mouth Man


TOMMY CASTRO & THE PAINKILLERS

Rock Blues Album Of The Year: The Devil You Know

Blues Band Of The Year


LIL' ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS

Blues Band Of The Year


JOE LOUIS WALKER

Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year: Hornet's Nest


ROOMFUL OF BLUES

Blues Band Of The Year