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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."

 

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."

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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."

Sirius/XM's B.B. King's Bluesville radio show, hosted by Bill Wax, is featuring Magness in a longform special interview program, including a track-by-track breakdown. This special presentation runs multiple times, including Saturday, March 10 and Sunday March 11. Go to http://www.siriusxm.com/bluesville to check specific times. In addition, St. Louis radio station KDHX (88.1 FM) is streaming the entire album until March 13. To listen, click here: http://bit.ly/wkypaQ.

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."

 

Sirius/XM's B.B. King's Bluesville radio show, hosted by Bill Wax, is featuring Magness in a longform special interview program, including a track-by-track breakdown. This special presentation runs multiple times, including Saturday, March 10 and Sunday March 11. Go to http://www.siriusxm.com/bluesville to check specific times. In addition, St. Louis radio station KDHX (88.1 FM) is streaming the entire album until March 13. To listen, click here: http://bit.ly/wkypaQ.