Alligator Records--50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin' Music

Various - Alligator Records--50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin' Music- Alligator Records

Alligator Records is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year and, as it has in past years, compiled, 40th Anniversary Collection, a three-CD compilation of 58 recordings from the label since it released Genuine Houserockin' Music by Hound Dog Taylor, which label founder Bruce Iglauer says is the mantra that still governs the label. However, he notes the label no longer just records blues, even if the artists are deeply rooted in the blues tradition. There is also a double LP vinyl edition with twenty-four selections.

Given the diversity of contents and the purpose of this collection, it is not my intent to review the contents here. I suspect folks will find selections they don't like and others they think are timeless. Besides celebrating Alligator Records history, this compilation hopefully will introduce some of the artists and recordings that some may be unfamiliar with. There are vintage selections from Koko Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, Son Seals, Fenton Robinson, and Albert Collins. Also, there are contemporary acts like Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Shemekia Copeland, and Selwyn Birchwood. 

There is a selection from the Grammy Award-winning collaboration between Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray, a track from Professor Longhair, a live Luther Allison track, a selection from Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women, and a duet between Corey Harris and Henry Butler. Other performers represented here include Guitar Shorty, Billy Branch, Joe Louis Walker, Janiva Magness, JJ Grey & Mofro, Tinsley Ellis, and Coco Montoya. Also, many of the recent albums on Alligator are represented, including tracks from Chris Cain, The Cash Box Kings, Curtis Salgado, The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling, Toronto Cannon, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Elvin Bishop & Charlie Musselwhite, and Roomful of Blues.

In addition to his overview of Alligator's history, label head Bruce Iglauer provides short bios of the various acts. I believe his concluding comments to the liner notes states things very well, 

"Today, after 50 years, Alligator remains proudly independent and still 100% dedicated to Genuine Houserockin' Music. With a roster that includes beloved veterans like Marcia Ball, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Elvin Bishop and Roomful Of Blues, rising stars like Selwyn Birchwood and Toronzo Cannon, and the 22-year-old sensation Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, we are committed to the past, present and future of the tradition. Now that illegal downloading has been replaced by digital streaming services reaching around the globe, Alligator's music can be heard in China, India, and across Africa, and in other countries where it was never available in physical form. Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers would be amazed to see what happened to the tiny record label, now with over 350 releases, that was created to bring their music to the world. They'd be thrilled to know that billions of people can now discover the joyous houserockin' blues that they played every Sunday at Florence's Lounge."

"Alligator Records-- 50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin' Music" is a vibrant celebration of the impressive (and still growing) body of music produced by Alligator Records and Bruce Iglauer.

Alligator Records provided a download to review.

Staying Warm With The Cool Sounds of Albert Collins

I live near Washington DC and like many on the East Coast from the DC area to New York City we got hit with a Snowzilla of a Blizzard.Still having Cabin Fever, I thought I might warm folks up with some Albert Collins, after all he did get the nickname "The Iceman," and known for his cool sound.

Here is Albert Collins with Duke Robillard and Debbie Davies doing Frosty

Here is Albert Collins Ice Pickin' live when A.C. Reed was in his band

As Albert tells the Ladies, he's their Iceman.

Here is Avalance

And here Albert is like many of us Snowed In

This weather may give one a Cold Cold Feeling

But Don't Lose Your Cool

Blues Unlimited: Essential Interviews From The Original Blues Magazine

Blues Unlimited: Essential Interviews From The Original Blues Magazine
Edited by Bill Greensmith, Mike Rowe and Mark Camarigg
University of Illinois Press

Part of the "Music in American Life" series this new volume contains a number of important interviews from this pioneering publication which I was a subscriber to (and even made a few modest contributions to over four decades ago). Bill Greensmith and Mike Rowe were important contributors to Blues Unlimited and Mark Camarigg played an important role in the production of this volume. The editors provide an overview of the publication's history and the various artists whose interviews are reprinted here. They also update and correct some of the interviews here. They note that they have not included some interviews where they were superseded by interviews elsewhere.

Included are interviews with some legendary figures as well as others who likely are not as well known among those who are blues fans today. The volume is split up regionally with the first part (and lengthiest part) devoted to Chicago with interviews of Freddie King, Jimmy Walker, Louis Myers, Red Holloway, Fred Below, and Moody Jones, Floyd Jones and Snooky Pryor. While King and Cotton are the best known of these performers, there is plenty of blues history to be learned here. Most intriguing among the Detroit artists considered is the piece on the great pianist, Big Maceo based on Rowe's interviews with Maceo's widow and pianist Boogie Woogie Red.

The lengthiest interview here is with Jimmy Thomas and goes into his lengthy time with Ike Turner starting in St. Louis. Another St. Louis artist interviewed was Fontella Bass, recalling her days with Oliver Sain and recording "Rescue Me." Arguably the most significant interview with Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup is included. Blues Unlimited played a major role in promoting Houston one-man band, Weldon 'Juke Boy' Bonner, so it is not a surprise to find his interview here, and many will find the 1979 interview of Albert Collins of great interest (I know I did). There is also an interview with Johnny Otis (although one wishes they had reprinted the series of interviews Otis did for the publication), Roy Brown, and two pioneering record men, Henry Glover and Ralph Bass.

This is an invaluable publication with over 400 pages of blues history source material in a large page format. It is an understatement to state this is a major addition to the blues bookshelf and if you have any serious blues lover, it would make a terrific gift.

I purchased this book. This is one of a number of short reviews I have written for the 2015 Holiday Gift Guide edition of Jazz & Blues Report which is available to download at jazz-blues.com.

The Eagle Flies on Friday

Some renditions of T-Bone Walker's "Call It Stormy Monday"

Here is the legend himself:

The great Vi Redd with Count Basie, singing and wailing on the tenor sax. This clip inspired me to make this post.

B.B. King

Eva Cassidy

B.B. King (again) and Albert Collins

Diana Reeves and David Peaston

Albert King and John Mayall

Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor and Bobby Rush

Last Buddy Guy with Carlos Santana and Barbara Morrison

Debbie Davies Debut Picture This

Debbie Davies has a new release on M.C. Records I will be reviewing soon. It has been nearly 20 years since she had her first album, Picture This on Blind Pig. The following review appeared in the July/August 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 183) although I have made a few minor stylistic changes. I received my review copy from Blind Pig Records. Debbie Davies spent three years on the road as part of Albert Collins’ band before branching out into a solo career. Picture This (Blind Pig) is her debut album, and is more than a promising set of blues by a new female blues guitarist and vocalist. Obvious comparisons are to Joanna Connor and Sue Foley, however her music lacks the hard rock aspects of Joanna Connor and, unlike Sue Foley, she sings with authority on a program of modern blues, that include several tasty covers and a couple of solid originals. The title track gets off to a rocking groove, as her dryly delivered vocal leads to a solid solo. Albert Collins guests on I Wonder Why with a typical solo from him. The following number, Livin’ on Lies, is her best original song with memorable lyrics, a New Orleans rhythm and a biting solo as she effectively plays off the groove. Another fine original, How Long Till I Win Your Love, has a Magic Sam flavor. Another influence is Freddie King and she plays relaxed versions of King’s instrumentals Sidetracked and San-Ho-Zay. Admittedly there is nothing startlingly new here, just a set of modern blues that is well played and sung. Horns are added to several selections that help frame her playing and vocals as well as add variety. This reviewer was impressed when he saw her live, and this well-produced debut recording reinforces that impression. Recommended.

RIP Walter Price - Remembering The Thunderbird

Word has came that on Tuesday March 6, Houston blues and rhythm pianist and vocalist Big Walter "The Thunderbird" Price passed away reportedly at the age of 97. The Houston Chronicle in its brief obituary reported "Believed to be the last blues singer from the storied Peacock label, Big Walter the Thunderbird was 97. Though his birth certificate put him at three years younger, he maintained the disparity was a paperwork error." Interestingly in a letter to Mike Leadbitter in which he told his story (published originally in Blues Unlimited and then in the book Nothin' But The Blues, Price stated "I was born Walter Travis Price on August 2, 1917, in Gonzales, Texas." I assume he later discovered the paperwork error.

Price started recording in the mid-fifties for T.N.T. records and then later for Don Robey's Peacock label on which he waxed what were some of his best known recordings including Shirley Jean and Pack Four and Square. Members of Little Richard's backing band, The Upsetters, backed him on several of these recordings according to the February, 1965 Blues Unlimited article. He also recorded for Goldband among other labels and ran his own label Sunshine as well as a record store and cafe.  The Jay Geils Band covered Pack Four and Square, in the 1970's.

At the time he wrote Leadbitter, he also sent a tape of some then unissued recordings. A couple, Nothing But the Blues (If Blues Was Money), and My Tears, were issued initially on a Flyright album, Houston Ghetto Blues along with selections by Juke Boy Bonner and Hop Wilson. My Tears was an especially strong performance with a great vocal and Albert Collins takes us "all the way to London," with a blistering solo, but Price's vocal shows how strong a singer he was. Collins himself later covered a recording Price made for Huey Meaux, Get To Gittin'.

Price carried on a variety of other activities over the years including being a radio deejay, worked in a strip club but most importantly, he never stopped performing. His last recordings likely were for the fine 2006 Dialtone label's Texas Southside Kings. He had been in a nursing home in recent years.

The Houston Chronicle obituary quoted Price from a Living Blues interview with Houston music historian Roger Wood, "You can't classify me as a blues singer exclusively. The only thing, when you classify yourself as a blues singer, you're putting a label on yourself. You can't label me. I'm an artist. … I play Western music. Blues, ballads, country, I'm across the board."

For a fuller obituary on Price, check out the Houston Press' website.

Congratulations For Alligator's 40 Years of HouseRockin' Music

Alligator Records is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year and as it has in past years, compiled, 40th Anniversary Collection, a two-CD compilation of 38 recordings from the label since it released Genuine Houserockin’ Music by Hound Dog Taylor, which label founder Bruce Iglauer says is the mantra that still governs the label, although he notes the label no longer just records blues, even if the artists are deeply rooted in the blues tradition.

Given the diversity of contents and the purpose of the CD it is not my intent to review the contents here. I suspect folks will find selections they don’t like and others they think are timeless. Besides celebrating Alligator Records, this compilation will hopefully introduce some of the artists and recordings that some may be unfamiliar with whether it is some vintage Koko Taylor and Albert Collins, or more contemporary acts like Michael Burks, Tommy Castro and Anders Osborne. There is a selection from the Grammy Award winning collaboration between Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray as well as William Clarke’s reworking of Jimmy Witherspoon’s Daddy Pinnochio along with selections from current recordings by Roomful of Blues and Marcia Ball.

For each selection, Bruce includes comments on the artist and the particular recording, and at the booklet’s end he notes some of those performers he could not include which is a mini Blues Who Who in itself. I remember Bruce driving out to Buffalo in the mid-seventies in the middle of a snow storm trying to promote this young guitarist and singer by the name of Son Seals, and while he now has employees, he still is heavily involved at Alligator. The 40th Anniversary Collection is a vibrant celebration of the impressive (and still growing) body of Alligator Records and Bruce Iglauer

Alligator Records sent me my review copy.

The Blues Side of Ike and Tina

 When I was in college back in the latter part of the sixties, I purchased a copy of the album, “Outta Season” by Ike and Tina Turner on Blue Thumb. It has a gatefold cover showing the two in whiteface eating watermelons which may have been controversial back then. It was a collection of mostly blues including a terrific rendition of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” I had known of Ike and Tina from Murray the K playing the heck outta of the Phil Spector produced single “River Deep, Mountain High,” but getting this album was a revelation since at that time I was unaware of Ike’s legendary role in the post-war Delta blues scene as well as is the St. Louis music scene of the late fifties and sixties.

My musical education continued when the succeeding album, “The Hunter” came out a year or so later, with some really superb guitar by Albert Collins on many of the tracks. Of course after some major crossover hits, the relationship between Ike & Tina turned very sour and Tina became perhaps an even bigger star than in earlier years. Ike himself produced and played on a number of blues recordings that displayed he was still quite the musician.

Several years ago, the Spanish Blue Moon label reissued the Blue Thump albums on CD, “The Hunter and Outta Season,” which was, and is, available as an import. More recently, the American Acrobat Music label, issued an abridged reissue of the two albums that I reviewed in the November 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 310-with my photo of McCoy Tyner on the cover) which can be downloaded at jazz-blues.com. Here is that review of the American Acrobat reissue. Both reissues are still available, with the import being a bit more expensive.

Among its initial releases, the American Acrobat Music has issued Ike & Tina Turner “ Sings the Blues.” This album is compiled from the two albums that they had issued on Blue Thump, “Outta Season,” and “The Hunter” but unlike a Spanish reissue of the two albums of a few years back, this release only makes available 11 of the 13 songs on the first album and 7 of the 9 on the second release, which is unfortunately, since the full contents of both do fit on a single CD. One other serious shortcoming is the liner notes make no mention that Albert Collins, not Turner, was guitarist on much of “The Hunter,” which is not to say that Turner’s own guitar work is not worthy of praise as he was a first-rate and distinctive string bender as well as bandleader and Svengali. That all said, the music still resonates as fresh as it was four decades ago (I still have my vinyl LPs).

Tina was, and remains, a superb singer, able to touch one’s gut with her expressiveness whether its her nailing Otis Redding’s “I've Been Loving You Too Long,” or her take of “Three O'clock in the Morning Blues,” taken from B.B. King’s recording with some terrific guitar around her vocal from Ike, or her down-in-the-alley take of “Five Long Years.” “Grumbling” is an instrumental where Ike evokes Freddy King’s “The Stumble.”

Tina’s vocal shines even more brightly on the spiritual “ I Am a Motherless Child,” with its spare backing. Albert Collins’ stinging guitar should be immediately recognizable on her strong take of the Albert King blues, “The Hunter,” and it certainly sounds like Collins, although somewhat restrained in the solo, on the Jimmy Reed Classic “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” titled here as “You Got Me Running.” Ike is on guitar on the funky “Bold Soul Sister,” but Collins is laying it down on his Telecaster for the Bobby Bland classic, I Smell Trouble,” and also on “Early in the Morning,” a version of Junior Parker’s “Mother-in-Law Blues.”

I already mentioned the two main flaws in this reissue, its omission of songs and inaccuracies in its annotation. The music that is made available on this is compelling and highly recommended.

For FTC purposes, I received a review copy from a publicist for this issue.

Igor Prado's Strong Brazilian Blues Moves

The blues certainly developed an audience and players around the world. Guitarist Igor Prado hails from Brazil and his latest recording (and my introduction to his music) is “Watch Me Move” (Chico Blues). I purchased this from bluebeatmusic.com, where they succinctly describe this as “They make the kind of rockin blues with a traditional approach you used to be able to find here in the US.........This LIMITED EDITION release features strong singing, super song selection and SCORCHING guitar.” Not an inaccurate couple of sentences.

Guitarist and vocalist Prada, along with brother Yuri on drums, Rodrigo Mantovani, bass and Denilson Martins on saxophones, mixes hard modern blues and Memphis Soul with some ripping guitar (fans say of Johnny Moeller’s wild playing will go for Prada’s playing here and he is a pretty strong vocalist. Some pretty straight covers of “Knock on Wood,” and “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” along with rearranging the old Ray Charles stomp recording “Messaround,” and reworking as if The Power Station did it as a blues. The title track is one of Junior Wells’ funk numbers, amiably take on Lil Bob’s “I Got Loaded,” while “Gene’s Groove,” is a hot organ instrumental allowing Martins to showcase his robust tenor sax while Igor Prado showcases his jazzier chops, while the closing “Ice Man Groove,” is a rocking funky instrumental that is clearly inspired by the late Albert Collins who seems probably Prado’s greatest influence as a guitarist and who would be proud to have inspired such a solid musical offspring. Occasionally, Prado’s accent can be heard in his vocals but he sings with authority and never sounds forced. As Charlie at Bluebeat Music said, “Watch Me Move,” “features strong singing, super song selection and SCORCHING guitar.” This is a recording I will be returning to again and again and I give this a big thumbs up.

For FTC purposes, I purchased this CD.

A bit of Albert Collins for your viewing pleasure

I have been a bit lazy in writing recently but I came across these gems recently of the Iceman.

First up from 1980 with his great Alligator band that included A.C. Reed



Then Albert with Roy Buchanan and Lonnie Mack



Finally, singing the old Jimmy Liggins "I Ain't Drunk" with Debbie Davies on rhythm guitar



I miss Albert. He had style and sure could play the blues.

New Albert Collins Coming Out

Live in Montreux and should be in stores March 3

I have several other Collins DVDs and have not been disappointed with any of them. There is a you tube clip to preview it. It is from 1992 and while not long before he passed, this clip seems like another excellent performance.

Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvtI0nGSVoQ

I expect to post a review of it soon, but it looks like a winner.