News

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."

CURTIS SALGADO'S SOUL SHOT DEBUTS AT #6 ON THE BILLBOARD BLUES CHART

ALSO LANDS AT #63 ON BILLBOARD'S NEW ARTIST CHART

Portland, Oregon-based soul-singer/harmonica icon Curtis Salgado's Alligator Records debut, Soul Shot, hit the #6 position on the Billboard Blues Chart for the week ending April 15. The album also placed at #63 on the magazine's New Artist Chart. Since its April 10 release, Soul Shot has been hailed by many national and regional publications, including USA Today. The New Yorker called the album "a highly-polished, high-energy affair." Influential AAA radio station KINK-FM in Portland, Oregon added the lead track, What You Gonna Do?, to their regular rotation.

Salgado -- winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year -- effortlessly mixes R&B, funk and blues, with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt. He moves with ease from the tenderest ballads to the most full-throated stompers. Over the course of his career, he has sung with The Robert Cray Band, Roomful Of Blues and Santana, in addition to leading his own band.

In 1977 Salgado befriended John Belushi in Eugene, Oregon, while Belushi was filming Animal House. Before long, Salgado was playing old records for Belushi, teaching him about blues and R&B. Belushi soaked up the music like a sponge and soon developed his idea for The Blues Brothers.

Salgado has released six previous albums for a variety of labels, and has toured virtually non-stop. In 2006 he was sidelined when he underwent a successful liver transplant and then shortly afterwards was diagnosed with and then beat lung cancer. Like so many musicians, Curtis had no health insurance. His medical expenses were paid for in part by a huge outpouring of love and money from his fellow musicians and his huge Northwest fan base. He bounced back with a perfect bill of health in 2008, released Clean Getaway and resumed touring.

Now, with Soul Shot, Salgado is ready for more, as he is tougher and more focused than ever. He will again hit the road hard, proving his reputation as a fire-breathing live performer night after night.

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ANDERS OSBORNE'S BLACK EYE GALAXY MAKING WAVES AT PRESS AND RADIO ONE MONTH BEFORE RELEASE

FIRST SINGLE, WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN?, AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD

FULL ALBUM TO STREAM EXCLUSIVELY AT RELIX.COM

MASSIVE TOUR ANNOUNCED

New Orleans' "Best Guitarist" (as selected by OffBeat magazine's readers), Anders Osborne, will tour heavily behind the May 1 release of his new Alligator Records CD, Black Eye Galaxy. The CD is already gaining momentum with press, radio and through fan-driven word of mouth. The song Black Tar (co-written by Little Feat's Paul Barrere) debuted on XM/Sirius Radio's Jam On (Channel 27) on March 29.

Beginning April 3, the first single from the album, When Will I See You Again?, will be available as a free download at both Alligator.com and Andersosborne.com.

The full album will stream exclusively at Relix.com beginning on April 17. 

Recorded at the famed Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana, Black Eye Galaxy was produced by Anders along with engineer Warren Riker and Galactic's Stanton Moore. Sounds on the album range from heavy electric mayhem to joyous acoustic melodicism. Anders begins the album singing from the darkest depths of despair and concludes it affirming the healing power of love. Black Eye Galaxy is a harrowing but ultimately uplifting cycle of richly detailed songs that are musically and lyrically thought-provoking, exhilarating and spellbinding.

Anders has filmed a series of videos performing acoustic versions of each song from the album shot in different locations around New Orleans. All videos will be available at Anders' YouTube page, located here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AndersOsborneVideos/videos

In addition to his recent OffBeat awards for "Best Guitarist" and "Roots Rock Artist Of The Year," Osborne has been nominated for Gambit magazine's Big Easy Award for "Best Rock." He is also nominated for "Best Mixed Bag" for his work with The Voice Of The Wetlands All-Stars. Two records Osborne produced and played on -- by Johnny Sansone and Tab Benoit -- received Big Easy Award nominations in the "Best Blues" category. Sansone's was also nominated for "Album Of The Year."

Tour dates for Anders and his band -- bassist Carl Dufrene and drummer Eric Bolivar -- follow below, with more dates to be announced:

Apr 27, 2012    Nolafunk Jazzfest Series Inaugural Event, New Orleans, LA at the Republic New Orleans
Apr 28, 2012    New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA with the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars
Apr 28, 2012    The Howlin' Wolf, New Orleans, LA
Apr 30, 2012    Tipitina's Foundation 11th Annual INSTRUMENTS A COMIN', New Orleans, LA at Tipitina's
May 01, 2012   2012 Threadhead Patry, New Orleans, LA at The Old Ironworks
May 03, 2012   House of Blues, New Orleans, LA Guest of Karl Denson's Tiny Universe "Sticky Fingers" Tour
May 04, 2012   The Howlin' Wolf, New Orleans, LA with The New Orleans All-Stars
May 05, 2012   New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
May 05, 2012   Nolafunk Jazzfest Series 2012, New Orleans, LA at the Republic New Orleans
May 09, 2012   Dosey Doe Coffee House, The Woodlands, TX
May 10, 2012   Sam's Burger Joint, San Antonio, TX
May 11, 2012   The Parish, Austin, TX
May 12, 2012   The Kessler Theater, Dallas, TX
May 15, 2012   Blueberry Hill, St. Louis, MO
May 16, 2012   Knuckleheads Saloon, Kansas City, MO
May 18, 2012   The Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO
May 19, 2012   Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
May 22, 2012   The Waiting Room, Omaha, NE
May 23, 2012   Varsity Theater & Cafe, Minneapolis, MN
May 24, 2012   Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI
May 25, 2012   SPACE, Evanston, IL
May 26, 2012   Summer Camp Music Festival, Chillicothe, IL
May 30, 2012   Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
May 31, 2012   The Blockley, Philadelphia, PA
Jun 01, 2012    Mountain Jam, 2012 Hunter, NY
Jun 02, 2012    The Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Jun 20, 2012    The 8x10, Baltimore, MD
Jun 22, 2012    T.T. the Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA
Jun 23, 2012    Paulie's New Orleans Jazz & Blues Festival, Worcester, MA

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Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness' new CD, Stronger For It, was among the top ten best-selling blues CDs on Billboard magazine's Blues Chart. This is Magness' third Alligator Records release, all of which debuted in the top ten on Billboard's Blues Chart. The album also hit #58 on the Billboard Indie Artist Chart.

Magness, who is currently touring the country in support of the album, will perform live on Iowa Public Radio's Java Blend on Friday, March 23 at 12:00PM CST. The show originates on University of Iowa radio station WSUI-AM 910 and will be broadcast on Iowa Public Radio stations across the state. For more information about broadcast times and stations, go to http://iowapublicradio.org/javaBlend.php or iowapublicradio.org.

Since its March 13 release, Stronger For It is one of the most added records at AAA (Adult Rock) Radio. It is also charting in the Top 40 on the Americana Radio Chart. The Los Angeles Daily News says the new album features "blazing, gutbucket soul. Magness' voice has a husky, sublime power."

Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness' new CD, Stronger For It, will be released on Tuesday, March 13, and it is already garnering excitement and positive reactions from press and radio. Allmusic.com says, "Magness' original songs are some of the most potent on an album with no shortage of powerful material. Gritty, stomping rhythms...sexy, sinister grooves...funky, growling, understated intensity. Magness' snarling, throaty, jubilant vocals send chills down your spine." About.com/Blues declares Magness "one of the best female blues vocalists in the world today...if you're not listening to Janiva Magness, you're missing out on one of the best."

Alligator Records has set a May 1 release date for Black Eye Galaxy (AL 4948), the powerful new album from New Orleans' Anders Osborne. Between the sheer force and potent lyricism of his guitar playing, the riveting depth of his songwriting and the straight-from-the-soul conviction of his vocals, Osborne is among the most original and visionary musicians writing and performing today. OffBeat magazine recently named Osborne the Crescent City's Best Guitarist for the second straight year, and also awarded him with the Best Roots Rock Artist title. 

Recorded at the famed Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana, Black Eye Galaxy was produced by Anders along with engineer Warren Riker and Galactic's Stanton Moore. Sounds on the album range from heavy electric mayhem to joyous acoustic melodicism, lyrics move from the darkest depths to the healing power of love. The title is an unambiguous metaphor for Osborne's life as a traveler, a musician, an immigrant, a recovering addict, and as a husband and father. Black Eye Galaxy is a harrowing but ultimately uplifting cycle of richly detailed songs that are musically and lyrically thought-provoking, exhilarating and completely engaging.

Since 1989, Osborne has released ten albums to great critical and popular acclaim. He's written virtually all of his own material and contributed memorable songs to a wide variety of other artists. Two tunes co-written by Osborne appear on blues great Keb Mo's Grammy-winning 1999 release Slow Down. Country superstar Tim McGraw scored a #1 hit with Anders' song Watch The Wind Blow By. He wrote and recorded the title track for the 2010 Kate Hudson film Earthbound, and can also be seen performing in a recent episode of HBO's New Orleans-based drama, Treme.

Since the release of his 2010 Alligator Records debut, American Patchwork, Osborne has toured virtually non-stop, performing with his own band, solo with Keb Mo, with The Stanton Moore Trio, alongside Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, with Luther Dickinson as well as with The Voice Of The Wetlands All-Stars. In 2011 Osborne produced and played on critically acclaimed albums by Tab Benoit, Johnny Sansone and Mike Zito. The previous year he appeared on the track Dark Water from Galactic's Ya-Ka-May album.

In the studio and in concert, Anders Osborne channels the music throughout his entire body, becoming a whirling dervish of pure energy. Paste says, "Anders Osborne is a triple threat as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. He can play the hot guitar slinger, and he can play the sensitive, soulful singer/songwriter, and he's excellent at both. Mastering either genre puts you in select company. Mastering both is mind-bogglingly great."

Award-winning guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tommy Castro proudly introduces his new band, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. The band features bassist Randy McDonald (back with Tommy after a five-year hiatus), drummer Byron Cage, and new member, keyboardist James Pace. Castro is nominated for four 2012 Blues Music Awards, including the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year and Band Of The Year.

His most recent project, Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue -- Live!, is nominated for a Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year. His latest full band CD, Hard Believer, won that same award in 2010.

Award-winning blues guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joe Louis Walker will appear on TBS's CONAN on Monday, March 5. Walker, along with his band, will perform the song Ride All Night from his new Alligator Records debut CD, Hellfire. Billboard says Hellfire is "one of the strongest albums in Walker's canon...gutbucket blues, joyous gospel, Rolling Stones-style rock crunch, and aching R&B... a heavenly showcase for Walker's virtues."

Walker has been releasing groundbreaking recordings since 1986, but his career goes all the way back to the mid-1960s. As a 16-year-old, he was the house guitarist at San Francisco's famed musical playground, The Matrix, where he played with or opened shows for everyone from Lightnin' Hopkins to Jimi Hendrix to Thelonious Monk. These ear-opening surroundings explain the ease with which Walker blends blues, rock, gospel, jazz and country, making it seem as if the walls between the styles never existed in the first place. The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. He delivers no-nonsense, gutsy blues. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." According to Living Blues, he is "one of today's modern musical masters." Rolling Stone simply called him "ferocious."

Since his debut release in 1986, Walker has released 23 more albums (and two DVDs) and toured worldwide. He's won four Blues Music Awards, including the 2010 Album Of The Year Award for Between A Rock And A Hard Place (Stony Plain Records), and has been nominated for 43 more. He's also recorded as a guest with some of the blues world's best-known artists, including appearances on Grammy-winning records by B.B. King and James Cotton.

Walker has played every major U.S. blues festival including The Chicago Blues Festival, The San Francisco Blues Festival, and The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He's performed at major European festivals including the Northsea Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Notodden and Montreux, as well as festivals in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil. Walker has appeared on national television many times, including performances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, The Don Imus Show and Later With Jools Holland in the UK.

Fans and critics have been celebrating Walker for years. Blues Revue calls Walker "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative musicians, releasing consistently exciting music. No matter what he's singing, Walker's approach is soulful, heartfelt and spellbinding." Living Blues said, "His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his own trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision -- even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds as if he's playing ideas, not just notes." A bluesman of immense talent and drive, Walker tours constantly playing concerts and festivals across the globe.

Early praise for Hellfire:

On Hellfire, Mr. Walker plays jump blues, slow, searing blues, Rolling Stones-style rockin' blues, electric country blues, Chicago blues and gospel blues. His raspy, powerhouse voice is out front while his stinging guitar cuts through the uncluttered arrangements.
--Wall Street Journal

Hellfire is delightful, down and dirty blues [with] influences from the psychedelic rock scene...loud Hendrixian virtuosity here, "Exile On Main Street"-era Stones there.
--Los Angeles Daily News

Hellfire is Walker's most rock-oriented release. His playing is ferocious. His wah-wah inflected solo on Hellfire digresses with the kind of fierce embellishments that Jimi Hendrix might've conjured. The slow-burn of What's It Worth spins ever wilder and wider into outer space with each solo. Walker attacks these songs like the gospel vocalist he once was.
--Chicago Tribune

Boundary-pushing blues rocker Joe Louis Walker is a legendary icon of modern blues. [He plays] powerful, gritty, heavy blues rock. Hellfire is a fierce album expertly incorporating his intense, racing solos into blues, spirituals and crashing rock jams. His playing on Hellfire has garnered comparisons to Hendrix himself.
--NPR Music

Alligator Records has set an April 10 street date for Soul Shot (AL 4947), the blistering new album (and label debut) from award-winning vocalist/songwriter/harmonica icon Curtis Salgado. Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year, Salgado effortlessly mixes R&B, funk and blues, with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt. He moves with ease from the tenderest ballads to the most full-throated stompers.

Soul Shot was produced by funk and R&B guitarist Marlon McClain, drummer Tony Braunagel and co-produced by Salgado. "I wanted to make a soul record that you can listen to and dance to," says Salgado. And that's just what he and members of The Phantom Blues Band, along with additional guest musicians, did. Soul Shot speaks loud and clear to contemporary audiences, carrying on the timeless spirit of 1960s and '70s R&B. The album features four Salgado originals and seven carefully chosen covers. Songs by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, George Clinton, Otis Redding and Bobby Womack flow into and out of Salgado's own compositions. Each track - the slow-burning ballads and the driving rockers - is delivered with the vocal power and passion of a musical master. "Soul Shot was the most challenging recording of my career," he says, "and it's the solid best thing I've ever done. That's a fact."

Born February 4, 1954 in Everett, Washington, Salgado grew up in Eugene, Oregon. His home was always filled with music. His parents' collection included everything from Count Basie to Fats Waller, and his older brother and sister turned him on to the soul and blues of Wilson Pickett and Muddy Waters. He attended a Count Basie performance when he was 13 and decided then and there that music was his calling. Curtis began devouring the blues of Little Walter and Paul Butterfield, fell in love with the harmonica and taught himself to play.

Salgado played his first professional gigs when he was 16, and by 18 he was already making a name for himself in Eugene's bar scene. Salgado quickly developed into a player and singer of remarkable depth, with vocal and musical influences including Otis Redding to O.V. Wright, Johnnie Taylor, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson I and II, Lightnin' Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Spann and Magic Sam. With his band The Nighthawks, he became a must-see act in Eugene and throughout the Northwest. Salgado earned a reputation for high-intensity performances and a repertoire that was informed by his encyclopedic knowledge of blues, soul and R&B music.

In 1977, comedian/actor John Belushi was in Eugene filming Animal House. During downtime from filming, Belushi caught a typically balls-out Salgado performance. Afterwards the two got to talking and a friendship grew. Before long Salgado began playing old records for Belushi, teaching him about blues and R&B. Belushi soaked up the music like a sponge and soon developed his idea for The Blues Brothers, first as a skit on Saturday Night Live and then as a major motion picture and a best-selling record album and concert tour.

As Salgado was getting more serious about his career, he realized some of his band mates were not. It was then that Salgado joined forces with his friend Robert Cray and began playing together as The Robert Cray Band. As the stature of the group grew, Salgado found himself sharing stages with blues icons like Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and Bonnie Raitt. The band performed a transcendent set at the 1977 San Francisco Blues Festival to thunderous ovation before backing up the great Albert Collins.

After Salgado and Cray parted ways in 1982, Curtis went on to front Roomful Of Blues, singing and touring with them from 1984 through 1986. Back home in Oregon, he formed a new band, Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos, and was once again tearing it up on the club scene. He wrote many new songs, and honed his band to a razor's edge before releasing his first solo album in 1991. His friend and fan Steve Miller invited Curtis and his band to open for him on a summer shed tour in 1992. Two years later, Salgado spent the summer on the road singing with Santana. In 1997 he performed in front of an audience of millions on NBC television's Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Salgado then joined forces with Shanachie Records in 1999, putting out four critically acclaimed albums over the next nine years and finding his biggest audience yet.

In 2006 Salgado was sidelined when he underwent a successful liver transplant and then shortly afterwards was diagnosed with and then beat lung cancer. Like so many musicians, Curtis had no health insurance. His medical expenses were paid for in part by a huge outpouring of love and money from his fellow musicians and his huge Northwest fan base. He bounced back with a perfect bill of health in 2008, releasing Clean Getaway.

Blues master Joe Louis Walker's Alligator Records debut Hellfire reached  number 38 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart for the week ending February 5, 2012. It also hit number 11 on the magazine's Blues Chart. The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot declares Hellfire is Walker's "most rock-oriented release," bringing "the kind of fierce embellishments that Jimi Hendrix might've conjured" and that his guitar playing "spins ever wilder and wider into outer space with each solo." The Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli says, "Walker's raspy, powerhouse voice is out front while his stinging guitar cuts through the uncluttered arrangements."