News

SINGER JANIVA MAGNESS TO PERFORM FOR U.S. TROOPS
IN KUWAIT AND IRAQ IN APRIL!

ALLIGATOR PREPARES LABEL DEBUTS FROM SMOKIN’ JOE KUBEK & BNOIS KING AND EDDY “THE CHIEF” CLEARWATER!

Alligator Records has set a March 4 street date for BLOOD BROTHERS from Texas roadhouse rockers Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King, and WEST SIDE STRUT from legendary Chicago blues master (and Grammy Award nominee) Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. For almost 20 years, the red-hot Texas blues of Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King has been thrilling music fans all around the world. Clearwater is an intense, flamboyant blues-rocking showman, and one of the masters of West Side blues. Both Kubek & King and Clearwater signed with Alligator late in 2007.

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Dallas, Dallas, TX-based guitarist Smokin’ Joe Kubek’s raucous roadhouse fretwork is expertly complimented by the equally fiery guitar and soulful vocals of Bnois King. With nearly 20 years together and literally thousands of live performances under their collective belt, the two create a one-two punch of raw, tough, blues-rock filled with intensity and purpose.

BLOOD BROTHERS, produced by Kubek and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, features 14 rocking blues songs (13 originals) filled with Kubek’s larger-than-life fretwork and King’s smoky vocals and economical, tasty guitar playing. Recorded with Kubek and King’s road-honed band, the album captures all of their legendary live energy and highlights the seemingly telepathic interplay between the musicians.

Kubek was born in Grove City, PA in 1956 but grew up in Irving, TX. He was leading his own bands and gigging all around Dallas clubs when he was only 14. Bowled over by the blues a short time after first hearing Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, Kubek soon discovered the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and other early masters. By the time he was 19, he was backing many famous players in the area, including legend Freddie King.

Kubek worked with R&B singer Al “TNT” Braggs and made a host of new friends, including Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan (with whom Kubek became close), B.B. King and many other blues icons. In 1989, Kubek met guitarist/vocalist Bnois King at a Monday night Dallas jam session. The two became fast friends, and melded their seemingly divergent styles – Kubek a rocking and fierce picker and slider, King a jazz-inflected chorder (who could also solo with flaming electricity) – into one of the most potent guitar combinations the Southwest had ever produced.

King was born in Delhi, LA in 1943. He was inspired to play guitar by his high school music teacher. Before long, Bnois was playing blues cover songs with a local band. On his own, he traveled through Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, finding local bands to gig with and also performing with carnival tent show combos. King made his way to Dallas in 1979, gigging with jazz bands until he hooked up with Kubek 10 years later.

Calling themselves The Smokin’ Joe Kubek Band Featuring Bnois King, they signed with Bullseye Blues and released their debut CD, Stepping Out Texas Style, in 1991. The band immediately grew out of Texas and began touring nationally. After a successful series of Bullseye releases, they joined Blind Pig Records in 2003. As their popularity continued to build on the strength of their music and the energy of their live shows, Kubek and King started playing over 150 dates per year all across the United States, Canada and Europe.  With BLOOD BROTHERS and a massive tour planned, the band will gig from coast to coast, bringing their no-holds-barred brand of soul-charged Texas rockin’ blues to old fans and newcomers night after night.

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Between his slashing left-handed guitar work, his room-filling vocals, and his self-defined “rock-a-blues” style (a forceful mix of blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel), Eddy Clearwater is among the very finest practitioners of the West Side Chicago blues performing today. The blues world recognized his talent by giving him the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues – Male Artist of the Year in 2001. His last release, 2003’s Rock ‘N’ Roll City, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Now he’s back with his very first Alligator CD, the aptly titled WEST SIDE STRUT.

WEST SIDE STRUT, produced by young hotshot guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of the legendary bluesman Lonnie Brooks), is an energized mix of West Side blues and old school rock injected with a tough, up-to-the-minute contemporary edge. Featuring some of Eddy’s hottest playing ever recorded, the CD burns with his stinging guitar and rough-and-ready vocals. Guests include Eddy’s old friends Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Johnson, Billy Branch and Otis Clay as well as Ronnie Baker Brooks himself, playing some scintillating guitar parts.

Born Edward Harrington on January 10, 1935 in Macon, MS, Eddy and his family moved to Birmingham, AL in 1948. With music from blues to gospel to country & western surrounding him from an early age, Eddy taught himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with various gospel groups, including the legendary Five Blind Boys of Alabama. After moving to Chicago in 1950, Eddy stayed with an uncle and took a job as a dishwasher, saving as much as he could from his $37 a week salary. His first music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. Through his uncle’s contacts, Eddy met many of Chicago’s blues stars. He fell deeper under the spell of the blues, and under the wing of blues star Magic Sam, who would become one of Eddy’s closest friends and teachers.

By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars regularly. After hearing Chuck Berry in 1957, Eddy added that rock and roll element to his already searing blues style, creating a unique sound that defines him to this day. He recorded his first single, Hill Billy Blues, for his uncle’s Atomic H label under the name Clear Waters in 1958 (his manager at the time, drummer Jump Jackson, came up with the name as a play on Muddy Waters).

The name Clear Waters morphed into Eddy Clearwater and Eddy worked the local circuit steadily throughout the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, finding huge success in the 1970s among the North Side college crowd who responded to his individual brand of blues, his rock and roll spirit and his high energy stage show.

His first full-length LP, 1980’s The Chief, was the initial release on Chicago’s Rooster Blues label. Recording numerous albums for various labels during the 1980s and 1990s, Eddy’s star continued to rise. His 2003 CD Rock ‘N’ Roll City paired him up with the surf-rocking Mexican wrestling-masked group, Los Straitjackets. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award and earned Eddy a multitude of new fans.

Now, with WEST SIDE STRUT, Eddy has made the very best album of his life. He loves to perform and can usually be found tearing it up somewhere around the world on any given night. He’s played everywhere from Russia, Turkey, and Romania to Brazil and Alaska. He’ll hit the road hard in support of the CD, strutting his slicing guitar licks, his rock-fueled blues, rockabilly, country and gospel gumbo and his uninhibited live show to fans ready for a taste of the real West Side Chicago blues, played by a master at the very peak of his abilities.

ERIC LINDELL TO PERFORMS ON LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN ON FRIDAY, FEBRURARY 8

Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Eric Lindell made his national television debut with a performance on NBC television's Late Night With Conan O'Brien on Friday, February 8. Eric and his band sang Lay Back Down, the first single from their new Alligator CD, LOW ON CASH, RICH IN LOVE.  

Since the January 14, 2008 release of LOW ON CASH, RICH IN LOVE, Lindell has received massive amounts of radio airplay and critical praise, with features and reviews running in USA Today, Harp, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Relix, and many other national and regional publications.

The Chicago Sun-Times calls Eric, "A tremendous raw talent. 'Low On Cash, Rich In Love' is a mature album by a singer-songwriter with a fully realized musical vision. It's not a great stretch to liken Lindell to Van Morrison in his proficiency for crafting classic neosoul sounds. Lindell writes from the heart with the life experience of a Charles Bukowski and the poet's soul of the Belfast Cowboy himself."

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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 .