News

Award-winning soul blues singer/harmonica master Curtis Salgado will undergo surgery on July 18 in Portland, Oregon, to remove a cancerous growth from his lung, according to his manager Shane Tappendorf.

A partial lobectomy will be performed to remove a segment of Curtis's left lung where a metastasized mass was found. It is suspected to be the same type of cancerous mass that was removed from his lung in 2008.

Salgado will be hospitalized for a period of four to six days and will require a recovery time of up to four weeks. Salgado and his doctors anticipate a complete recovery.

Winner of the 2012 Blues Music Award for Soul/Blues Artist of the Year, Curtis Salgado has recorded eight critically acclaimed solo albums. He tours internationally with his own band and has also toured as vocalist with the Robert Cray Band, Roomful of Blues and Santana. Salgado is also credited with being the inspiration for John Belushi's character of Joliet Jake in The Blues Brothers. Salgado's new CD, Soul Shot, on Alligator Records, is being hailed as his greatest album to date and continues to receive rave reviews and radio airplay worldwide. Blues Revue calls Soul Shot, "A joyous celebration of life. Soul Shot is this millennium's finest soul blues record...deep, commanding, and essential."

"I am extremely grateful for the overwhelming support of my family, friends and fans and the courageous people that have faced this fight before me," the 58-year-old Salgado wrote from his home this week. "I also want to thank the promoters and venues for their understanding regarding my medical situation. We will do our best to reschedule all of our performances affected by my surgery."

Salgado, who was diagnosed with liver cancer on March 23, 2006, underwent successful liver transplant surgery on September 30, 2006 at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Donations to help with Curtis's expenses can be made online at: http://curtissalgado.chipin.com/curtis-salgado-medical-fund. Donations can also be made to the Curtis Salgado Fund c/o Odaglas LLC Donation Account at all US Banks or by mail to US Bancorp, 2550 NW 188th Avenue, Hillsboro, OR 97124. For additional information please visit www.curtissalgado.com and www.facebook.com/CurtisSalgado.

MICHAEL "IRON MAN" BURKS' SHOW OF STRENGTH SET FOR AUGUST 21, 2012 RELEASE

Diamond-hard blues-rock...fierce, original, beautiful guitar and an exquisite growl of a voice...powerhouse blues that strikes like a hammer blow. --Billboard

Show Of Strength, the final album from modern day blues guitar hero and vocalist, Michael "Iron Man" Burks, is set for an August 21, 2012 release. Burks had completed work on the album and was returning from a tour of Europe on May 6, 2012, when he collapsed and died while changing planes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport  He was 54 years old. Show Of Strength, on which Burks wrote or co-wrote five of the CD's twelve songs, is the album he felt would take him to the very top of the blues world.

Burks' fiery music was driven by an intense, blue collar work ethic that won him a devoted worldwide fan base. His "Iron Man" moniker was born from his hours-long, intensely physical performances, his fearsome guitar attack and his tough, smoky vocals. It also came from the thousands of miles a year he personally logged behind the wheel of his touring van. Between his blistering guitar sound -- which could at any moment become sweetly melodic -- and his live charisma, Burks earned four Blues Music Award nominations, including, most recently, the 2012 nomination for Guitarist Of The Year. He won the 2004 Living Blues magazine Critics' Award for Best Guitarist. GuitarOne named his Alligator Records debut album, Make It Rain, one of the Top 200 Greatest Guitar Recordings Of All Time. According to Living Blues, "Burks burns his own signature onto almost everything he touches...he has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new."

From Show Of Strength's explosive opening blast, Count On You to the closing strains of Charlie Rich's elegiac Feel Like Going Home, Burks' signature combination of feral yet tuneful guitar work with his gritty, dynamic vocals provide a searing, emotional autobiography in blues. According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, "It was my decision to leave this album as we intended it, not as a memorial to a friend and bluesman gone, but as a living, breathing statement, sent straight from Michael's heart and soul. Although Michael is not here, the music he recorded is indeed his show of his immense strength and spirit. It will live on, confirming forever his status as one of the greatest bluesmen of his generation."

The unstoppable, heartfelt intensity that Burks brought to the stage was the very core of his appeal. His passionate music and undeniable charisma made him an overwhelming force in the blues. On Show Of Strength, Burks is captured at the absolute height of his musical powers. With taste, melodicism, and always in full command of his mighty guitar playing and soul-baring, fervent vocals, Michael "Iron Man" Burks leaves a legacy of extraordinary music, including the new Show Of Strength -- a timeless statement of universal truth from a larger-than-life musician certain to become a blues legend.

BIOGRAPHY:

Born in Milwaukee on July 30, 1957, Michael Burks quite literally entered the world with blues in his blood. Joe Burks, Michael's grandfather, played acoustic Delta blues guitar in his hometown of Camden, Arkansas. Michael's father, Frederick, was a bass player. For years, Frederick Burks worked in Milwaukee steel mills and refineries during the day and spent his evenings performing in the city's dimly-lit blues clubs,often backing harmonica legend Sonny Boy Williamson II as well as other touring blues luminaries and local stars.

Michael first held a guitar when he was two years old, and Frederick immediately began teaching his son how to play. Equipped with a fully functional, child-size guitar, the young Burks began emulating the bass runs of his father. Soon he was learning scales and songs. By the age of five, he was diligently studying his father's 45s, aided by an effective lesson plan. "I'll give you a dollar if you learn this song by the time I'm home from work," Frederick would tell his young prodigy. Sure enough, Michael would learn that tune inside out and sideways by the time his father walked through the front door. When he was six, Michael played his first gig during a visit to his family's hometown in Arkansas. The fledgling guitarist took the stage with his cousin's band and thrilled an unsuspecting audience. In 1971, at age 14, he got his first road gig, touring California as guitarist with Michael Clay and the Fabulous Souls.

In the early 1970s, Frederick Burks moved his family back to their southern home. There, along with his siblings, Michael helped his father build The Bradley Ferry Country Club -- a 300-seat juke joint. By this time Michael was fronting his own band and backing most of the blues and R&B greats who passed through town, including Johnnie Taylor and O.V. Wright. Business at The Bradley Ferry thrived for years, with Michael Burks leading the house band every Thursday through Saturday. Tables near the stage had to be reserved two weeks in advance. His status as a local celebrity was further heightened by his success at rebuilding and racing motorcycles.

In the mid-1980s, Michael, with a new baby daughter to raise, wanted a stable home life and a steady paycheck. He took a job as a mechanical technician for Lockheed-Martin. But his desire to perform persisted, and in 1994 he formed a new band and began playing clubs and regional festivals. Despite his not having a record deal, the high-powered energy of Michael's performances began to earn him festival offers from Florida to California. Fortunately, Michael's boss was a blues lover. He recognized Michael's ability and encouraged it, giving Burks the flexibility of long weekends in order to tour. On more than a few occasions, Lockheed even entertained its clients by flying them to Michael's festival appearances.

Burks self-released his debut CD, From The Inside Out, in 1997. His impassioned, string-bending solos, combined with his fiery tone and smoldering vocals, left no doubt that Michael Burks was an emotionally-charged blues powerhouse. Critics and fans loved what they heard. Living Blues rated it as one of "the best debut discs of the year." In 2000, Burks received a Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist, even though he was already a hard-working professional.

It had become clear that Burks needed to pursue his musical career full-time once again. Fueled by a tank full of positive reviews, Michael began to play more festivals than ever before, appearing at the Chicago Blues Festival, Telluride Blues Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Festival and Kalamazoo Blues Festival, and making headlining appearances at the Mississippi Muddy Waters Blues Festival, Arkansas River Blues Festival and the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival, among others. After his powerful set at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival, Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer signed him on the spot.

With Make It Rain, his 2001 Alligator debut, Burks achieved well-deserved national and international acclaim and became one of the blues world's fastest-rising stars. He immediately hit the road in support of the CD, bringing his blistering blues to fans across the country, throughout Europe, and even to Australia. Guitar Player said, "Burks plays and sings with conviction, as he proves with each song." 2003's I Smell Smoke featured songs driven by Burks' feral guitar playing and impassioned vocals. As raw and galvanizing as ever, Burks played with the precision and dedication of a seasoned veteran. He received the Blues Music Award nomination for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year. His next album, 2008's Iron Man, drew even more rave reviews. Blues Revue said, "Burks' down and dirty guitar screams and wails on every cut. Hard-hitting blues, outrageous tone...blazing, explosive solos. His [music] is full of soul and passion. His vocals possess the rich soulfulness of B.B. and rival his stinging guitar work as his greatest talent."

MARCIA BALL NOMINATED FOR THREE LIVING BLUES READERS' AWARDS

LIL' ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS NOMINATED FOR BEST LIVE BAND

Living Blues magazine has announced its nominees for the 2012 Living Blues Awards. Marcia Ball has been nominated in three categories: Blues Artist Of The Year (Female), Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard) and Best Blues Album Of 2011 for her Grammy-nominated CD, Roadside Attractions. Ball holds the 2011 Living Blues Readers' Awards for both Blues Artist Of The Year and Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard).

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials -- who have just released their new Alligator album, Jump Start -- has received a Readers' Award nomination for Best Live Performer. The band won that same distinction in the 2011 Living Blues Critics' Poll. About.com/Blues says, "Jump Start is a joyous, raucous, and downright pleasurable album from a band that just doesn't know how to do anything else."

Voting remains open through July 10, 2012. For more information, go to www.livingblues.com.

Marcia Ball:

Blues Artist Of The Year (Female)

Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard)

Best Blues Album Of 2012 (New Recordings): Roadside Attractions

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials:

Best Live Performer

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MEMORIAL AND MUSICAL CELEBRATION FOR MICHAEL "IRON MAN" BURKS

JULY 30, 1957 - MAY 6, 2012

The family of late blues legend Michael "Iron Man" Burks has announced plans for a memorial and musical celebration on Sunday, May 20, 2012. The event, open to the public, will take place rain or shine at 3:00pm CST at Riverwoods On The Ouachita, Bradley Ferry Road, in Burks' hometown of Camden, Arkansas. Guests are encouraged to bring instruments, lawn chairs and coolers.

Burks died in Atlanta on Sunday, May 6, 2012. He was 54 years old. He was returning from a tour of Europe and collapsed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and could not be revived.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations in Burks' name be  to the HART Fund of the Blues Foundation, which aids musicians with health care needs. http://www.blues.org/#ref=hart_donate

Michael "Iron Man" Burks earned his moniker by his hours-long, intensely physical performances, fearsome guitar attack, and tough, smoky vocals. He also earned it by the thousands of miles he personally logged behind the wheel of his touring van. Burks was a true modern blues hero whose music was driven by an intense, blue collar work ethic that had won him well-deserved national and international recognition. His instantly identifiable guitar sound and his live charisma earned him four Blues Music Award nominations. He won the 2004 Living Blues magazine Critics' Award for Best Guitarist.

Born in Milwaukee in 1957, Burks grew up immersed in the blues, and learned to play guitar at an early age. His family moved to Camden, Arkansas in the early 1970s. There, Burks and his siblings helped their father build the Bradley Ferry Country Club -- a 300-seat juke joint. By this time Michael was fronting his own band as well as backing several of the blues and R&B greats that passed through town. Burks left music to raise a family and returned to performing blues in the 1990s.

After self-releasing his first CD in 1997, Burks signed with Chicago's Alligator Records in 2001 and released three critically acclaimed albums. GuitarOne named his debut album, Make It Rain, one of the Top 200 greatest guitar recordings of all time. He has toured the world, headlining blues festivals, concert halls and clubs. His status as an Arkansas musical hero was confirmed by his receipt of the prestigious Sonny Payne Award for Blues Excellence in 2006, presented by the Delta Cultural Center, and by his multiple headlining appearances at The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival. Burks had just finished recording his fourth Alligator CD, which is due for release at the end of July 2012.

"Burks has learned to burn his own signature onto almost everything he touches. The aching passion of Burks' voice and the probing intensity of his guitar lines come together in a searing evocation of desire and desperation. Burks has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new."

--Living Blues

 

ALLIGATOR ARTISTS CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE, MARCIA BALL AND CURTIS SALGADO RECEIVE BLUES MUSIC AWARDS

TWO ANDERS OSBORNE-PRODUCED ARTISTS ALSO WIN

Alligator Records artists were among the winners at the star-studded 33rd annual Blues Music Awards show on Thursday, May 10, 2012. The five-hour long celebration and concert, hosted by The Blues Foundation, was held at The Cook Convention Center in Memphis. Harmonica legend and Blues Hall Of Famer Charlie Musselwhite received two awards: Traditional Blues Male Artist Of The Year and Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica. Musselwhite has now won a total of 26 Blues Music Awards. Marcia Ball took the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Of The Year Award, her ninth overall award. And for the second time in his career, Curtis Salgado won Soul Blues Artist Of The Year. Musselwhite and label mate Joe Louis Walker were among the dozens of blues artists who performed.

Alligator's Anders Osborne, whose new album Black Eye Galaxy was released on May 1 to rave reviews and massive radio play, was deeply involved with projects from two BMA Award winners. Tab Benoit's Medicine -- which Osborne co-produced, and on which he played and co-wrote seven songs with Benoit -- won Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year. And the title track from Johnny Sansone's The Lord Is Waiting And The Devil Is Too, produced by Osborne and on which he also plays guitar, won for Song Of The Year.

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE:

Traditional Blues Male Artist Of The Year

Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica

MARCIA BALL:

Pinetop Perkins Piano Player

CURTIS SALGADO:

Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year

ANDERS OSBORNE

Tab Benoit, Medicine - Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year (Co-producer)

Johnny Sansone, The Lord Is Waiting And The Devil Is Too - Song Of The Year (Producer)

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New Orleans-based guitarist/songwriter/singer Anders Osborne's new album, Black Eye Galaxy, debuted at #10 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart for the week ending May 6, 2012. This is the highest charting album of his career.

Osborne, voted New Orleans' Best Guitarist two years in a row by OffBeat magazine, is coming off two weeks of stellar performances at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. USA Today described one performance as "heavy duty," saying, "Anders Osborne is one of the city's reigning rock guitar heroes and he backed up that title repeatedly. Influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix to fellow JazzFest performer Sonny Landreth and Neil Young echoed in his playing." About the new CD, the paper said, "Black Eye Galaxy contains fiery anthems and dark confessional songs."

Osborne will hit the road starting May 9, 2012, touring across the United States. On Friday, May 11 at 5:00pm CST, he will perform live at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas. The show, free and open to the public, will be webcast live.

 

Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tommy Castro, leader of Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, won first place in the Blues category of The International Songwriting Competition for his original composition (co-written with Bonnie Hayes), Hard Believer. The song is the title track from Castro's Alligator Records debut CD. The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is an annual song contest whose mission is to provide the opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena. Castro's latest Alligator release is the red-hot, multi-artist Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue--Live! featuring Castro and many of his internationally famous friends, including Alligator label mates Marcia Ball, Janiva Magness, Michael "Iron Man" Burks, and Rick Estrin.

Tommy Castro & the Painkillers (previously known as The Tommy Castro Band) are bassist Randy McDonald (back with Tommy after a five-year hiatus), drummer Byron Cage and new member, keyboardist James Pace.

Pianist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball received a surprise induction in Baton Rouge's Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame on April 23, 2012. Ball, an Austin, Texas fixture raised in Vinton, LA, was about to start her show when Hall Of Fame Executive Director Mike Shepherd bestowed her with the induction award artwork and certificate signed by the governor. According to Shepherd, "Ball has made a great cultural contribution by taking the piano styles of Louisiana to Austin and essentially cross-pollinating the Texas music scene. Marcia Ball is a truly unique artist, one of a kind, just like Gatemouth Brown was truly unique."

"I'm shocked," said Ball. "Don't you make me want to cry."

Ball's latest CD, Roadside Attractions, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Koko Taylor, the late Queen Of The Blues, will be honored with a coveted Beale Street Brass Note in a ceremony to be held in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 10, 2012 at 12:00pm CST, just prior to the start of the annual Blues Music Awards. Taylor's Brass Note (the Memphis music version of a star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame) will be placed in front of the Historic Daisy Theater, located at 329 Beale Street. Her last live performance was in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards show, just two weeks before her death on June 3, 2009.

Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness, whose new CD Stronger For It is already being hailed as the best of her career, will appear on NPR's World Cafe on May 24, 2012. The live concert airs on over 250 stations nationwide. It will also be available to stream on demand. Blues Revue says Magness is "a powerful artist" with "a voice that's made for the blues...defiant and irresistible." Blurt called Stronger For It "the album of the year," declaring, "Janiva Magness just keeps getting better. This is an album not just to enjoy but an album that, like all great art, forces you to come back to it again and again and search for the eternal verities of the blues. There is not a weak cut here."

Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter Michael "Iron Man" Burks died in Atlanta on Sunday, May 6, 2012. He was 54 years old. He was returning from a tour of Europe and collapsed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He was rushed to South Fulton Medical Center where he could not be revived. The preliminary diagnosis for cause of death was a heart attack. More information will follow as it becomes available.

Michael "Iron Man" Burks earned his moniker by his hours-long, intensely physical performances, fearsome guitar attack, and tough, smoky vocals. He also earned it by the thousands of miles he personally logged behind the wheel of his touring van. Burks was a true modern blues hero whose music was driven by an intense, blue collar work ethic that had won him well-deserved national and international recognition.His instantly identifiable guitar sound and his live charisma earned him four Blues Music Award nominations. He won the 2004 Living Blues magazine Critics' Award for Best Guitarist. Burks received a nomination for the 2012 Blues Music Award for Best Guitarist.

Born in Milwaukee in 1957, Burks grew up immersed in the blues, and learned to play guitar at an early age. His family moved to Camden, Arkansas in the early 1970s. There, Burks and his siblings helped their father build the Bradley Ferry Country Club -- a 300-seat juke joint. By this time Michael was fronting his own band as well as backing several of the blues and R&B greats that passed through town. Burks left music to raise a family and returned to performing blues in the 1990s.

After self-releasing his first CD in 1997, Burks signed with Chicago's Alligator Records in 2001 and released three critically acclaimed albums. GuitarOne named his debut album, Make It Rain, one of the Top 200 greatest guitar recordings of all time. He has toured the world, headlining blues festivals, concert halls and clubs. His status as an Arkansas musical hero was confirmed by his receipt of the prestigious Sonny Payne Award for Blues Excellence in 2006, presented by the Delta Cultural Center, and by his multiple headlining appearances at The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival. Burks had just finished recording his fourth Alligator CD, which is due for release at the end of July 2012.

For a complete bio, go here: http://www.alligator.com/artists/Michael-Burks/

For a high-resolution color jpeg, please email: publicity@allig.com

"Burks has learned to burn his own signature onto almost everything he touches. The aching passion of Burks' voice and the probing intensity of his guitar lines come together in a searing evocation of desire and desperation. Burks has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new."

--Living Blues

 

Alligator Records has set a June 5, 2012 release date for Jump Start (AL 4949), the blistering new CD from Chicago's award-winning blues masters, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials. Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and raw-boned Chicago shuffles with the deepest slow-burners, Lil' Ed Williams and his rip-roaring Blues Imperials -- bassist James "Pookie" Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton -- deliver gloriously riotous, rollicking and intensely emotional blues. Currently celebrating 24 history-making years together, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials ply their musical talents with skills that have been honed to a razor's edge.

The band's wildly energetic and seriously soulful new CD Jump Start is jam-packed with Lil' Ed's incendiary slide playing and rough, passionate singing, as the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cook like mad alongside him. Produced by Williams and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, it is a tour-de-force of untamed slide guitar, rock solid rhythms, heartrending ballads and authentic deep blues vocals. Williams wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album's 14 songs, which all overflow with the band's full throttle drive and serious sense of fun. Jump Start reveals a band firing on all cylinders and ready to spread the genuine houserockin' fever to their biggest audience yet. "It's all blues, really," says Lil' Ed. "Some of it will make you dance, some will ease your soul."

Lil' Ed boasts a direct bloodline to blues history -- his uncle and musical mentor was the great Chicago slide guitarist, songwriter and recording artist J.B. Hutto. Live, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials simply can't be beat as Ed breaks out the deepest back-bends, the highest toe-walks, and the most authentic electric slide-guitar blues being played today. Garrett's risk-taking rhythm guitar work and Littleton's conversational, old school drumming perfectly complement Lil' Ed's and Pookie's rambunctious playing.

Adding to the legend is Ed's storybook rise, taking him from working in a car wash to entertaining thousands of fans all over the world. He's made multiple appearances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and has brought his music to fans from Japan to Poland. According to The Chicago Tribune, "Williams represents one of the few remaining authentic links to pure Chicago blues."

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials won the prestigious Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year in both 2007 and 2009 and also took home the Best Live Band Award in the 2011 Living Blues Critics' Poll. Williams was recently nominated for a 2012 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year and his whole group again for Band Of The Year. They will perform on the Crossroads Stage at the Chicago Blues Festival on June 10, 2012.

"Long ago," recalls Lil' Ed, "Uncle J.B. told me, 'When you get the right guys in your band, you'll know.' When Mike and then Kelly joined up with me and Pookie, we just clicked. I knew. We are a family," says Lil' Ed, summing it all up. "And families stay together."