Alligator Records
Curtis Salgado: Unstoppable Soul Blues Voice
October 1977. A twenty-three-year-old harmonica player and singer named Curtis Salgado took the stage at the Eugene Hotel in Oregon, ripping through…
Rick Estrin: The Call From Muddy He Never Got
Rick Estrin: The Call From Muddy He Never Got Rick Estrin stood at the Sutherland Hotel in Chicago, nineteen years old, blowing…
Chris Cain: Jazz-Blues Guitar with Albert King’s Blessing
Chris Cain: The Remarkable Guitarist Albert King Endorsed One night in the late 1980s, Chris Cain found himself on a Memphis stage…
Christone Kingfish Ingram: A Bold New Fire in Blues Guitar
In January 2014, a fourteen-year-old from Clarksdale, Mississippi walked into the White House. He was part of the Delta Blues Museum Band.…
D.K. Harrell: Young Houston Traditionalist Keeping It Real
A two-year-old boy sat in a living room in Ruston, Louisiana, and heard B.B. King pour out of the speakers. He didn’t…
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials: Chicago Slide Lives On
Early Life: Chicago’s West Side and Uncle J.B. Lil’ Ed Williams was twelve years old when he decided he wanted to play…
Southern Avenue: Memphis Family Band, Grammy-Nominated
When Bob Dylan — the most famously camera-shy figure in American music — eagerly poses for photos with a band, something remarkable…
Ronnie Baker Brooks: Carrying His Father’s Chicago Blues
Ronnie Baker Brooks learned guitar from Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, and B.B. King. His Alligator debut Blues In My DNA won three…
Shemekia Copeland: Blues, Social Justice, and Her Father
Shemekia Copeland earned 8 Grammy nods and 15 Blues Music Awards carrying her father Johnny Copeland's legacy into a bold new era…
Toronzo Cannon: Chicago Bus Driver by Day, Blues Star
Toronzo Cannon drove a Chicago CTA bus for 27 years while building a fierce blues career. Now full-time on Alligator Records, he…
Selwyn Birchwood: Tampa’s Swamp-Funk Blues Innovator
Selwyn Birchwood: Florida’s Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues Firebrand In September 2002, a seventeen-year-old kid from Orlando walked into a Buddy Guy concert…