ALLIGATOR RECORDS

“30th Anniversary Collection”

Alligator

If you’re marking your time by Alligator Records, it’s time to feel a bit older, but still fresher.

It’s hard to believe that, for 30 years, ever since Bruce Iglauer started the label with a Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers release way back in 1971, that Alligator has steadfastly, and some times seemingly all alone, kept electric, Chicago-based blues in the public eye.

Along the way, the roster that has passed through this label is amazing. Johnny Winter, Albert Collins and Elvin Bishop are some of the most popular blues artists to have recorded for Alligator, but its real strength, as witnessed in this, along with the prior anniversary compilations, has been its ability to bring artists like Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women, Little Charlie & the Nightcats and Koko Taylor to wider audiences.

This double disc set is broken down into studio releases from the past 10 or so years, and a second disc of mostly previously unreleased live performances. Of those, classics from Luther Allison, Lonnie Mack and James Cotton show that Alligator’s stable could bring it from the stage as well as the studio.

Hopefully, this label will keep its blues jaws clamped on us for at least another 30 years.

- Mark T. Gould