News

QUEEN OF THE BLUES KOKO TAYLOR TO PERFORM LIVE AT
GRAMMY AWARDS PRE-TELECAST SHOW

LITTLE CHARLIE BATY OF LITTLE CHARLIE & THE NIGHTCATS
ANNOUNCES SEMI-RETIREMENT

Charles Baty, co-founder and guitarist for Little Charlie & The Nightcats, has decided to enter into semi-retirement from touring after the band's March 2008 European tour. Little Charlie & The Nightcats were formed 32 years ago when harmonicist/vocalist/songwriter Rick Estrin teamed up with Baty in 1976. The band recorded ten albums for Alligator and has been one of the most in-demand and consistent draws on the blues circuit. Estrin will continue to pursue his own projects, and tour with current Nightcats drummer J Hanson and bassist Lorenzo Farrell. Baty plans to re-join the band for special one-off dates, some overseas tours, blues cruises and select North American festivals.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 14, 2008

CONTACT: Marc Lipkin / Alligator Records / 773-973-7736 x235
EMAIL: publicity@allig.com

Color Photograph available upon request

BOB ENOS, ROOMFUL OF BLUES TRUMPET PLAYER --- JULY 4, 1947 – JANUARY 11, 2008

Bob Enos, longtime trumpet player for Roomful of Blues, died in his sleep in his hotel room in Douglas, Georgia, early Friday morning, January 11, 2008 of suspected heart failure. He was 60. Roomful had played the Douglas Country Club the previous night. The band was on its way to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Sunday to perform on The Legendary Blues Cruise. Roomful is continuing its current tour with former band member John Wolfe taking Enos’s place.

Enos joined Roomful Of Blues in September, 1981. Only saxophonist Rich Lataille had been with the band longer. He appeared on every album that Roomful made apart from its first three releases, including a new CD, “Raisin’ A Ruckus,” set to be released on January 15, 2008. Enos can also be heard with the Roomful horn section on recordings by Pat Benatar, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Colin James, Jimmy “T99” Nelson and others. Influenced by Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge, Enos’ driving delivery and punching high notes put a sparkle atop the Roomful horn section and frequently drew gasps from the audience.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1947, Bob took up the trumpet at age 14, studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music, and spent the late sixties and early seventies playing in R&B and soul bands. After studying with John Coffee and Ray Copeland, he spent two of years working with the legendary Platters (led by Herb Reed) before joining Jack Radcliffe and the New Viper Revue. He then founded the award-winning band Channel One and was with this jazz fusion group for three years. After a period of freelance work he joined Roomful, literally on the eve of the band’s first coast-to-coast tour.

“Bob was one of a kind,” said Roomful bandleader Chris Vachon, “a unique talent. The band obviously feels devastated. When you work as closely together as a band like Roomful does, each person is family – we’re like brothers. It makes this kind of thing hard, very hard indeed.”

“He could always hit those high notes,” said Roomful’s former bandleader Greg Piccolo. “It was an amazing thing – I had never worked with a trumpet player who was so consistent. It didn’t matter how tired the band was, how long the drive to the job had been. He was always there, right on the money. He was a bull.”

“He was a pro through and through,” commented Bob Bell who managed Roomful for over 20 years. “He loved the music and he loved the band. Outside of his family, it was his life. He brought a lot of joy to an awful lot of folks. And he was a really sweet guy.”
 
He is survived by his wife Jill, sons Louis, Jude and Joseph, and daughter Elizabeth.

Contributions for Bob Enos’ son’s education may be sent to:

Bob Enos memorial Scholarship Fund

c/o TD Bank North

127 South Street

Wrentham, MA 02093

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EIGHT ALLIGATOR ARTISTS RECEIVE
11 BLUES MUSIC AWARD NOMINATIONS!

The Blues Foundation announced the nominees for the 2008 Blues Music Awards on Friday, December 14. Eight Alligator recording artists received a total of 11 nominations. Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor (a 2008 Grammy nominee as well) received four nominations (including nods for Album Of The Year for Old School and Song Of The Year for Taylor’s original Gonna Buy Me A Mule). Lil’ Ed Williams and his band The Blues Imperials, The Holmes Brothers, Ann Rabson (of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women), Sam Lay (of The Siegel-Schwall Band), and new Alligator signing Janiva Magness each received one nomination. Long time Alligator artists the late Carey Bell and the late Son Seals both received nominations for non-Alligator related DVD projects.

The Blues Music Awards are recognized as the highest honor given to blues artists. The Blues Music Awards ceremony and concert will be held May 8, 2008 at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi.  Alligator artists and nominations are as follows:

KOKO TAYLOR
Album of the Year: Old School
Song of the Year: Gonna Buy Me A Mule, written by Koko Taylor
Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year
Traditional Blues Album of the Year: Old School

LIL’ ED AND THE BLUES IMPERIALS
Band of the Year

HOLMES BROTHERS
Soul Blues Album of the Year: State Of Grace

JANIVA MAGNESS
B.B. King Entertainer of the Year

ANN RABSON (of SAFFIRE—THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN)
Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year

CAREY BELL
Instrumentalist – Harmonica
DVD – Carey & Lurrie Bell – Gettin‘ Up (Delmark Records)

SON SEALS
DVD – A Journey Through The Blues – The Son Seals Story

SAM LAY (THE SIEGEL-SCHWALL BLUES BAND)
Instrumentalist of the Year - Drums

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Queen Of The Blues Koko Taylor has received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album for her 2007 release, Old School. The announcement was made earlier today by The Recording Academy, whose membership includes recording artists, producers, engineers, designers, liner note writers and others involved in the creative aspects of the recording industry. 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards. The winners will be announced on February 10 in Los Angeles.

Known worldwide as The Queen Of The Blues, Koko Taylor was born and raised on a sharecropper's farm just outside of Memphis and began singing in church as a child. At 18, Taylor moved to Chicago. While working as a domestic on Chicago's ritzy North Shore by day, she began to sit in with the various blues bands across the city's South Side at night. The great producer/songwriter Willie Dixon heard Koko singing with Howlin' Wolf's band one night and quickly secured a contract with Chess Records for her, where she scored a million-selling hit with Wang Dang Doodle.

Over the course of her nine Alligator albums, Taylor has won every award the blues world has to offer, including eight Grammy Award nominations. She won a Grammy Award in 1984 for her participation in the compilation album Blues Explosion. Taylor has performed for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and appeared on television and in movies countless times.

On Old School, Taylor returns to the sounds of the 1950s electric blues she heard when first arriving in Chicago on a Greyhound bus from Memphis. With five original compositions (more than she has written on any previous recording) and singular reinterpretations of songs she carefully chose, Old School has been hailed as the best album of her entire career.

“Old School is destined to be remembered as one of the top blues albums of 2007, and one of the best projects in her illustrious discography.”
--Billboard

“No other living vocalist, male or female, tackles Chicago blues with as much toughness as Koko Taylor. The fierceness of her delivery is matched by the stark imagery of the songs.”
--San Francisco Chronicle

“Old School tears into its blues with a vengeance. Ms. Taylor sounds like she still knows exactly what she wants.”
--The New York Times

“Taylor is singing as well as she has at any time in the last couple of decades. The Queen of the Blues is back atop her throne.”
 --The Chicago Sun-Times



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Gospel/soul/blues masters The Holmes Brothers have made the final round of the Hennessy Pure Music Revue contest, which means their song, Gasoline Drawers from their latest CD, State Of Grace (released January 2007), was the most-voted-for track during one of the past 11 months of the contest. They are now qualified to win the Best Indie Song of the Year. Voted on by fans, the overall winner will be featured in Rolling Stone magazine with the chance to record a live session in New York City.

Fans cast their vote at the following website: http://www.rollingstoneextras.com/hennessy/voting.php .

Both Koko Taylor and Eric Lindell have been named finalists in the album category for the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards, as presented by The Music Resource Group.

Taylor is recognized for her CD Old School (released April 2007) and Lindell for Change In The Weather (released March 2006). The Independent Music Awards is an international program that helps independent artists and releases overcome mainstream obstacles and reach wider audiences. The program provides year-long promotion, marketing and distribution opportunities that place IMA winners and finalists in front of millions of music fans and industry decision makers around the world.

JJ Grey & MOFRO will appear on National Public Radio's World Café beginning November 14, 2007. Hosted by David Dye, the show can be heard on nearly 200 stations nationwide. The band's latest CD, Country Ghetto (released in April 2007) is still receiving massive amounts of critical praise, radio play, and fan support around the world.

In other JJ Grey & MOFRO news, the band has announced plans for a four-night New Year's Eve event in their hometown of Jacksonville, FL. They will play four shows starting on December 28 at Freebird Live, culminating on New Year's Eve.

And if the band didn't have enough reasons to celebrate, Alligator Records has just reissued the group's first two CDs, Blackwater and Lochloosa. Both have been out of print and unavailable for some time.

Bassist/vocalist/songwriter (and Stray Cat) Lee Rocker has signed with the Billions Corporation for his live performance bookings. The artist-centric agency represents over 120 bands of all genres, including Neko Case, The New Pornographers, Th' Legendary Shack Shakers, Jim Lauderdale and many others.

Rocker's current CD, Black Cat Bone (released in August 2007), as well as his foot stomping live performances, have received overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics all across the country.