Alligator Records

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)

Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label, founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.

Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers,^[1] whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record. Nine months after the release of the first album, he stopped working at Delmark Records to concentrate fully on the band and his label. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the Living Blues magazine in Chicago in 1970 from eBay.

In 1982, the label won its first Grammy Award for the album, I'm Here, by Clifton Chenier. The second Grammy came in 1985 for Showdown! by Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray.

Since its founding, Alligator Records has released over 250 blues and blues/rock albums, as well as a now-defunct reggae series. Present and past Alligator artists include Marcia Ball, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Sam Lay, Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Roomful of Blues, Eric Lindell, JJ Grey & MOFRO, Lee Rocker, Cephas & Wiggins, and Michael Burks. More recently, veterans Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton have re-signed to the label.

Current

Past

See also

• List of record labels
• Chicago record labels
• Mutabaruka

References

External links

• Official website