Dear Friends,
2011 marks Alligator’s 40th year of recording the blues. It’s almost impossible to believe that on May 25th, it will be four decades since my co-producer Wesley Race and I took Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers into the studio to make that very first album in just two evenings. Back then, my simple dream was to make a record with my favorite band, turn on some new fans to their music, and hopefully make enough profit to cut more of the great blues artists that I was hearing every night in Chicago.
Right now we’re choosing songs for The Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection, a budget-priced two-CD set that we’ll release in February. With the many styles of blues we’ve recorded over the years, trying to pick tracks that represent the entire history of the label is very, very hard. And it’s really tough to leave off any of the dozens of great artists who have given us their best music. To help make the final choices, we recently asked the thousands of Alligator fans who have signed up for our email list at www.alligator.com to name their very favorite Alligator tracks. Many of those songs will be included on the Collection.
Before we release our 40th Anniversary Collection, we have two outstanding albums set for January. Hook, Line & Sinker will be our fourth Gator by the wonderful, swinging Roomful of Blues. Roomful has been a beloved musical institution for as long as Alligator has been around, and the new album is full of their patented horn-driven energy and a great batch of 1940s and ‘50s blues and R&B. The album introduces a terrific new singer, Phil Pemberton, as well as some of Chris Vachon’s most fiery guitar work. Chris is one of the most underrated players in the blues, and he sure proves it here. The interplay of guitar, vocals and horns is simply killer.
Along with Roomful’s new release, we’re preparing a new Deluxe Edition, this one presenting over an hour of the very best Alligator tracks by the most exciting young blueswoman of her generation, Shemekia Copeland. We’ve chosen 16 of the finest performances from Shemekia’s four Alligator albums, including her most-requested songs, like Turn The Heat Up, It’s 2 A.M., Living On Love and Who Stole My Radio? Of course we included the passionate, deeply soulful version of her father Johnny Copeland’s classic song Ghetto Child that’s a highlight of every one of Shemekia’s live shows. All have been lovingly remastered under my direct supervision. Along with the electrifying music, we’ve included a host of unreleased photos and a mini-poster.
Last time I was telling you about preparing for the final recording session for Cold Snap, our 1986 album by the Master of the Telecaster, Albert Collins. But I failed to mention that between the second and third tracking sessions, his friends, the wonderful Uptown Horns flew in from New York. With Albert advising, they created swaggering, perfectly crafted parts to enhance the six songs we had just finished cutting. Albert loved big brass and reeds framing his guitar and voice, so he was in horn heaven!
Albert flew in through the night from L.A. for the final rehearsal and session. Our old friend Allen Batts took over the organ chair in place of the famed Jimmy McGriff. After Albert caught a quick nap, we had a short rehearsal to sketch the arrangements and let Albert create some of the sound effects for Too Many Dirty Dishes, and headed straight to the studio. Albert plugged his battered Telecaster into his piercingly loud Fender Quad Reverb amp, which we put in a large isolation booth to keep it from leaking into every other microphone in the studio. I like to record everything as close to a live performance as possible, so we set up the vocal mic and the whole band in the large main room, where everyone could make eye contact. I was plenty confident of the talent of the musicians, but with only the one short rehearsal and songs that Albert and the guys had never played before that day (and Albert had never sung before), I wasn’t so sure we were ready to record truly memorable performances.
More next time,
Bruce Iglauer