Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection

Product Description Following in the footsteps of our 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th Anniversary Collections, which have scanned a combined 400,000 units, comes this budget-priced double CD release celebrating the 40th anniversary of the worlds premier blues label. Featuring 38 songs (over 157 minutes of music) showcasing 40 years of career-defining recordings by a star-studded Who's Who of American blues and roots artists past and present. From the Artist According to Iglauer, "Alligator should be the label that's exposing the next generation of blues artists and bringing their music to the next generation of blues fans. I want the future of the blues and the future of Alligator Records to be one and the same." About the Artist You could say Alligator Records was born in January, 1970, at a little neighborhood bar called Florence's Lounge on Chicago's South Side. On a Sunday afternoon, a young blues fan named Bruce Iglauer, newly arrived in the city dropped in to check out a gig by a tall, gangly guitarist that everyone called "Dog." When Iglauer stepped into the crowded little club packed with dancing, drinking, laughing patrons, he was overwhelmed by joyful, raw and energized electric boogie blues. Hound Dog Taylor, perched on a folding chair with a steel slide on the fifth of his six fingers, was pouring out piercing, distorted licks and chords on a cheap Japanese guitar and singing in a high, cracking true bluesman's voice. He was accompanied only by a broken-toothed second guitarist named Brewer Phillips, playing bass lines on an old Fender Telecaster, and a gum-chewing drummer named Ted Harvey who propelled every song forward, picking up the tempo on his minimalist kit, and making it impossible to keep from dancing. It was simply the happiest music Iglauer ever heard, and he decided there and then it had to be recorded. Iglauer spent the next year and a half learning everything he could about making and selling records from his boss and mentor, Bob Koester of Delmark Records. Finally, in May of 1971, he was ready to take this amazing little band into the studio. He wanted to capture the spirit of Florence's Lounge on tape, for all the world to hear. And fueled by a sufficient amount of Canadian Club and the encouragement of co-producer Wesley Race, Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers delivered just that spirit. They fulfilled Iglauer's dream, and