In 1971, 23-year-old blues fan Bruce Iglauer spent his meager savings to record and release a record by his favorite Chicago blues band, Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers. The new album needed a record label, so he created Alligator Records to release one LP. Today, Alligator boasts a catalog of over 350 titles, many of which are renowned, classics of the genre. Career-defining albums from legendary artists like Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor, Son Seals, Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, Professor Longhair, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison and Michael "Iron Man" Burks share the catalog with releases from current blues and roots icons Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Guitar Shorty, Billy Boy Arnold and Mavis Staples.

2021 release. The defining blues voice of his generation releases the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to his Grammy-nominated debut, 2019's Kingfish. 662 (the area code of his Clarksdale stomping grounds) is a powerful and personal album, a fiery coming-of-age record. The lyrics reflect Ingram's newfound maturity and how your roots inspire where you're heading. Musically, the record delivers a heaping helping of the deep, visceral Ingram guitar magic his fans love, fueling a combustible mix of molten blues rock, down home shuffles and soulful grooves.

Atlanta-based southern blues rocker Tinsley Ellis has been burning up the road for nearly 40 years and has another lengthy coast-to-coast tour lined up in support of Ice Cream In Hell. A blazing guitarist and forceful singer, Tinsley is making the best music of his career right now and living to play live. He'll have a warm-up tour with Alligator labelmate Tommy Castro in November, play the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise in January and then hit the highway first week of February behind the new release.

Three CDs-58 songs. The king of blues labels turns 50! This anthology celebrates 50 years of classic, genre-defining recordings by a star-studded Who's Who of American blues and roots music artists past and present. Features tracks by Hound Dog Taylor, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, J.J. Grey & Mofro, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter, Tommy Castro, Marcia Ball, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, James Cotton, Toronzo Cannon and many more!

With a career spanning forty years, award-winning soul, blues and R&B vocalist/harmonicist/songwriter Curtis Salgado is a one-of-a-kind talent whose music is as compelling as his story. From co-fronting The Robert Cray Band to leading his own band (and recording nine solo albums) to helping transform John Belushi into "Joliet" Jake Blues to touring the country with Steve Miller and Santana, he is a true musical giant. The Beautiful Lowdown, Salgado's 2016 Alligator album, is the singer's most fearless and adventurous release to date. For the first time in his career, he wrote or co-wrote virtually the entire album himself. He co-produced it along with Marlon McClain and Tony Braunagel and contributed to the horn arrangements and background vocal parts.

Marcia is simply on fire throughout Shine Bright, with a rollicking array of piano-fueled roadhouse romps seasoned by her incomparably soulful balladry. Tracks include nine new Marcia originals, plus brilliant takes on the music of Ray Charles, Ernie K-Doe and Jesse Winchester. Producer/ saxophonist Berlin guests on five tracks.

SINGLES COLLECTION VOL. 2 1951-62

28 examples of the scorching guitar work of Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown ' one of the most influential guitarists from the Texas school, influenced himself by T-Bone Walker. These, his earliest recordings spanning 1947 through 1953 were equally influential of the next generation of guitarists. Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan were all influenced by these seminal recordings.

Alberta Hunter was one of the most prominent jazz and blues singers of the early inter-war years, working with many of the major names of the period, as well as being a noted song writer. This great-value 94-track 4-CD set covers the two decades which comprised the greater part of her core recording career - she recorded only a couple of times after 1940 while she was travelling to entertain troops, and retired from the business to take up nursing when her mother died in 1957, returning to singing in her 70s after she was obliged to retire from nursing. Her style spanned the blues and jazz genres, in that while her accompaniment was often jazz-flavoured, the songs were very much in the blues idiom. She worked with solo or small band accompaniment, collaborating with many luminaries of early jazz, such as Eubie Blake, Fletcher Henderson, Clarence Williams, Fats Waller, Lovie Austin, Tommy Ladnier and Perry Bradford, with the likes of Louis Armstrong Lil Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Buster Bailey featuring in the groups she worked with. Also included are recordings she made in London in 1934 with the Jack Jackson Orchestra. This anthology comprises a very high proportion of the recordings she made during the period, and is a thorough overview of her work, so provides a comprehensive showcase for her unique talent.

Grammy-nominated blues, soul and Americana singer is revered worldwide for her defiant music and fire-breathing performances. Done Come Too Far continues Shemekia's riveting, clear-eyed testimony about our troubled world and the blessings that keep hope alive. The new album is again produced by Will Kimbrough, and an all-star supporting cast includes slide guitar whiz Sonny Landreth, Hill Country blues great Cedric Burnside and Hi Rhythm Section organist Charles Hodges. Done Come Too Far is another exhilarating Shemekia Copeland showcase, as her rousing vocals bring the heat in an infectious array of muscular rockers, stomping blues, swampy soul and heartbreaking ballads. Intense new originals make up most of the tracks and spirited versions of songs by Ray Wylie Hubbard and her father, Johnny Copeland, fit right into the mix.

Charley Patton is widely regarded as perhaps the archetypal early exponent of Mississippi Delta blues. He was a true original with a distinctive slide guitar technique, and he performed a range of blues, spirituals and ballads in a powerful, intense, even primitive, fashion which uniquely captures the style and spirit of the genre. His recording career was restricted to a few sessions between 1929 and 1934, from which around thirty double-sided '78s were released, first on Paramount and latterly on Vocalion, and that was the entirety of his recorded output before his premature death from a heart disorder in 1934 aged 45. This collection comprises the entirety of that canon, including six tracks on which he played guitar, with Henry Sims and Bertha Lee erspectively performing the vocals. Anyone seriously interested in the blues and it's history needs to have heard Charley Patton, and this anthology provides a comprehensive overview of his work.

Collection features Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rube Lacy, George Thomas, Bobby Grant, Dad Nelson, George Carter, Willie Brown, Teddy Darby & others.

W. King Solomon Hill, Ed Bell, Ramblin' Thomas, Lottie Kimbrough, Willie Brown, Skip James, Leola B. Wilson, Ed Bell +.

20 tracks from 1927-29 feat. Blind Roosevelt Graves, Buddy Boy Hawkins, Hometown Skiffle, Beale St. Sheiks, Tampa Red, Charlie Spand, Dad Nelson, Blind Blake, Johnnie Head, Will Ezell, Papa Charlie Jackson.

The mother of all blues singers accompanied by the Tub Jug Washboard Band, w. "Georgia" Tom Dorsey-piano, Eddie Miller-piano, Tampa Red-guitar. Papa Charlie Jackson-banjo.

Highly enjoyable Christmas CD with a total of 28 great tunes, favorites of the Bear Family Records� team. -Black music from the golden age of rhythm 'n' blues and blues, a balanced mix of well-known and obscure recordings. -Notes and biographical details from Chicago's Bill Dahl on each song in the illustrated, full-color booklet. -Carefully remastered original recordings in Bear Family's trademark brilliant sound quality. -Also available as a vinyl LP: BAF18075 Whenever it's time for Santa Claus, tree trimming, and holiday celebrations, you can safely anticipate Bear Family assembling the perfect Yuletide soundtrack. Our 2024 holiday compilation focuses solely on vintage blues and R&B material, and it comes in two formats to please everyone. The vinyl version offers 14 festive tracks ranging from beloved classics from Clyde McPhatter's Drifters, B.B. King and Charles Brown to obscure gems by The Jackson Trio, blues guitarist Ralph Willis and Bay Area keyboardist Lonnie Hewitt, whose You've Been A Bad Little Girl is a Yuletide revelation. The CD collection adds 14 more holiday gems, including both sides of The Voices' jumping 1955 single (Santa Claus Boogie b/w Santa Claus Baby), John Greer's jolly We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo, and Big Maybelle's spine-chilling rendition of the timeless Silent Night. This is the ultimate stocking stuffer that any dedicated R&B fan will be overjoyed to find under her or his Christmas tree.

In his lifetime, Memphis Slim was probably the best-known blues singer in the world, moving from Memphis to Chicago and finally to Paris in the early 1960s. But it's no exaggeration to say that Memphis Slim could rock with the best of them - and this CD is here to prove it!-Memphis Slim was born Peter Chatman in Memphis in 1915.

TEXAS SONGSTER 2: YOU GOT TO REAP WHAT YOU SOW

ANGOLA PRISONERS BLUES / VARIOUS

I HAVE TO PAINT MY FACE / VARIOUS

I'M AS BLUE AS A MAN CAN BE 1

LIFE GAVE ME A DIRTY DEAL

THE GOLD STAR SESSIONS - VOL. 1

SPIRIT OF BLACK TERRITORY BANDS

COUNTRY BOY DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS