Alligator Records to Celebrate 35th Anniversary with Double Release

Press release
Source: Alligator Records

Alligator Records, the country's largest contemporary blues label, is celebrating its 35th anniversary with two releases hitting the street on April 4, 2006. The first is a one-of-a-kind 2-CD set: ALLIGATOR RECORDS 35 X 35 -- 35 SONGS, 35 YEARS OF GENUINE HOUSEROCKIN' MUSIC, in which Alligator president Bruce Iglauer and staff look back, in chronological order, at highlights from artists' debut releases for the label. The other release, Eric Lindell's CHANGE IN THE WEATHER, looks forward, with an album whose completely original, roosty, funky music and hook-filled, cliche-free songs will launch Lindell into the musical mainstream.

ALLIGATOR RECORDS 35 X 35
35 X 35 is not just another best-of compilation. Alligator founder and president Bruce Iglauer and staff chose to spotlight songs from the Alligator debut release from each featured artist. From She's Gone (the very first track on the very first Alligator album, 1971's Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers) to the legendary Mavis Staples' chilling A Dying Man's Plea, 35 X 35 is effectively a chronological history of Alligator, a story told in music highlighting every style of blues and roots music the company has released. From the searing hard blues of Hound Dog Taylor, Son Seals, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, Koko Taylor and Buddy Guy to harmonica-driven workouts from Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite and William Clarke to the Gulf Coast piano blues of Professor Longhair, Katie Webster and Marcia Ball to the acoustic music of Saffire--The Uppity Blues Women and Corey Harris, it is clear that Alligator Records has been, and will remain, at the forefront of modern blues music in all of its many shades. With personal notes on each track from Iglauer in the accompanying 40-page booklet, 35 X 35 is proof of the staunchly independent label's single-minded vision for all these years: to record nothing but deeply rooted "Genuine Houserockin' Music."

CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
California-bred, New Orleans-schooled singer/ songwriter/ vocalist Eric Lindell is a roots rocker with dozens of original songs that combine soul-shaking rhythm & blues, reggae grooves and Louisiana swamp pop. Lindell is a fan favorite in his northern California turf and his adopted home of New Orleans (where he has been featured on the cover of OffBeat magazine and performed on the main stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2003. He will be playing the main stage at the Festival again this year). He is accomplished on guitar, harmonica, keyboards and bass, and has performed with some of the Crescent City's top musicians as well as some of the jam band community's biggest names (including members of Galactic). The winner of the 1999 John Lennon Songwriting Competition, Lindell is now ready to bring his rough-hewn voice and memorable original songs to the rest of the music-loving world with the release of his Alligator Records debut, CHANGE IN THE WEATHER.

CHANGE IN THE WEATHER will delight and surprise music fans hungry for an extraordinary, original artist who is just getting ready to explode. Lindell's songs are completely original and yet have an instant familiarity to them. The laid-back grooves and hook-laden melodies hint of 1970's-era Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen, but are not throwbacks as much as they are powerful, rootsy, thought-provoking and danceable contemporary songs. Traces of Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Ray Charles and Sly And The Family Stone can be found in Eric's originals, with foot-stomping grooves and horns punching in all the right places. Guests on the CD include War drummer Harold Brown, Ivan Neville and Galactic's Stanton Moore.

Born in San Mateo, California, in 1969, the former "skate-punk" spent countless hours in San Francisco, soaking up the musical sounds of the city, eventually leading him to pick up the bass, and then the guitar. Lindell listened to the music of Donny Hathaway and The Impressions as well as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Jimmy Reed, Albert King and Stevie Wonder. Eric formed his own group in 1993 and quickly gained a loyal California audience thanks to countless performances and many late-night jam sessions. Established stars like Charlie Musselwhite and Tom Waits attended his gigs, as did overflow crowds of music fans.

Lindell gigged in New York in 1998 before heading down to New Orleans in 1999, where he discovered the Crescent City roots music scene. He gravitated toward the West Bank dive bars of Gretna and Algiers, Louisiana, befriending many older swamp pop musicians. Before long he met up with Galactic's Stanton Moore, and the two began playing together. Some of New Orleans' finest players, including Harold Brown and drummer Johnny Vidacovich, often joined him on stage. Galactic bassist Rob Mercurio began sitting in as well, and word of Lindell's immense talents began spreading around the city. Some of his famous friends and admirers include Branford Marsalis, The Neville Brothers, John Scofield, Chris Chew (North Mississippi Allstars), Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead) and Wally Ingram (David Lindley, Stockholm Syndrome). According to Lindell, "The fact that these amazing people are so complimentary to me and my music means the world to me."

With the release CHANGE IN THE WEATHER, Lindell and his band will tour heavily, giving the rest of the country the chance to discover for itself what a growing number of people already know: Eric Lindell is a musician bursting at the seams with talent, with enough original songs and inventive grooves to carry him as far as he chooses to go.