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.

ALLIGATOR RECORDS SIGNS EDDY “THE CHIEF” CLEARWATER!

NEW CD EXPECTED IN SPRING 2008

“Chicago’s premiere blues showman.”

--The Chicago Tribune

Alligator Records is pleased to announce the signing of legendary Chicago blues guitarist and songwriter Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. Clearwater, winner of the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Award for “Contemporary Blues – Male Artist Of The Year” in 2001, is known worldwide as a masterful guitarist and vocalist as well as a charismatic and joyful live performer. Alligator will release Clearwater’s as yet untitled label debut in Spring 2008. Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of Chicago blues legend Lonnie Brooks, produced the CD, and added some of his own guitar work to the mix.

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, Eddy’s addition to the Alligator line-up is a perfect fit. “It's a great honor to have an artist with Eddy's legacy and talent join the Alligator family. This is a special album; the combination of Eddy's soulful West Side guitar playing and Ronnie Baker Brooks' contemporary production and his tough, young band makes for some real fireworks. Plus, Ronnie's guitar playing really inspired Eddy to some of his very best guitar work on record ever.”

Born Edward Harrington in Macon, MS on January 10, 1935, Eddy grew up listening to blues and country & western. By the time he was 13, he was playing guitar with a variety of gospel groups, including the legendary Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. By the time he came to Chicago’s West Side at age 15, he was still playing gospel, but soon fell under the spell of the blues, hearing greats like Freddie King, Magic Sam, Otis Rush and others. Magic Sam became a close friend of Eddy’s, and in 1953 Eddy made his move into the blues. Originally under the name of Guitar Eddy, he began working the city’s South and West Side bars. After hearing Chuck Berry in 1955, Eddy immediately adopted the rock ‘n’ roll sound into his blues playing.

With his personalized mix of West Side blues and Chuck Berry-style rock, Eddy was becoming more in-demand by the late 1950s. Nicknamed Eddy Clearwater (a word play on Muddy Waters) by drummer Jump Jackson, the southpaw guitarist quickly became known as a great showman with the ability to play the hardest blues, the most energetic rock, and a bit of country as well. He recorded a few singles in the early 1960s and never had to look too hard for a gig, as he worked constantly in Chicago-area nightclubs.

It took over 20 years, but by the 1970s Clearwater’s star was finally rising. He toured Europe twice that decade, and appeared on England’s BBC television and made a record in France. His debut U.S. album, 1980’s The Chief (named for Eddy’s Indian heritage and his penchant for wearing a full Indian headdress on stage) was the first release on Chicago’s Rooster Blues label.  After two more albums for Rooster Blues, Clearwater followed with a steady stream of recordings for Blind Pig, Rounder and Cleartone.

With his new release, Clearwater has found a perfect home on Alligator Records, the world’s premiere blues label. Heavy touring (booked by Piedmont Talent) along with Alligator’s promotional muscle, will bring Clearwater’s music to more fans than ever before.

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