In Living Blues #203
September 2009

Dear Friends, It’s been a really great festival summer for me; I attended the Pocono Blues Festival, the Deep Blues Festival in Minneapolis and the Paramount...

In Living Blues #202
July 2009

Dear Friends, As I’m sure you all know, my dear friend, Alligator’s senior artist and blues icon Koko Taylor died on June 3 as a result of internal bleeding....

In Living Blues #201
May 2009

Dear Friends, I just returned from the 2009 Blues Music Awards in Memphis. It was a very exciting night —lots of great music (about six hours of it) and plen...

In Living Blues #200
March 2009

Dear Friends, So far this year is shaping up to be a very difficult one for the world’s economy, and, as you’d imagine, for the blues. Some festivals have al...

In Living Blues #189
March 2007

Dear Friends, Last month I had the pleasure of being a judge at the band finals of the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis. Thi...

IN LIVING BLUES #165
September 2002

Dear Friends, This is the hottest summer I can remember and we’re preparing two September releases calculated to keep the heat turned up. As you know, Dr. J...

IN LIVING BLUES #163
May 2002

Dear Friends, I’m writing from Nashville, where I’m attending a meeting of representatives of The International Bluegrass Music Association, The Folk Allian...

IN LIVING BLUES #162
March 2002

Dear friends, With all the troubles that the record industry is going through right now (including the recent bankruptcy of Valley Media/DNA Distributors w...

IN LIVING BLUES #161
January 2002

Dear Friends, It looks like a good year coming up for new Alligator releases. I just returned from Los Angeles where I was helping Little Charlie and the N...

IN LIVING BLUES #160
November 2001

Dear Friends, In this time of emotional turbulence, it seems that we need the soul-soothing power of the blues more than ever. I’ve never considered blues ...