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“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth.”

–Rolling Stone

Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball will appear on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday on April 28. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, released her dynamic new Alligator Records album, Shine Bright, on Friday, April 20. Weekend Edition Saturday, hosted by Scott Simon, is heard on NPR member stations across the United States, and around the globe on NPR Worldwide.

Currently celebrating 50 years as a professional musician, Ball has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. Her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.”

With Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs, including nine originals. They range from the title track’s rousing appeal for public and private acts of courage to the humorous advice of Life Of The Party, and from the upbeat call to action of Pots And Pans (a song inspired by renowned Texas political writer and humorist Molly Ivins) to the poignantly optimistic World Full Of Love. Throughout the album, the intensity of Ball’s conviction never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball, “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962 and falling under the spell of Professor Longhair's piano playing convinced Ball to seek out a career in music. She led a couple of early psychedelic country rock bands before pursuing her solo career from her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.

After her 1978 Capitol Records debut, Circuit Queen, and a series of successful albums on Rounder Records, Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, the first of her six releases for the label, four of which have been Grammy nominated. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. According to The Houston Chronicle, “Marcia Ball’s brand of blues lifts the spirit. She’s as perfect an artist as could be."

New CD, The High Cost Of Low Living, Debuted At #3 On The Billboard Blues Chart

 Nick Moss's muscular, electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, gruff, soulful vocals and impassioned songwriting. Gruenling is a contemporary harmonica master...impressive, genuine and fresh-sounding. --Living Blues

The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling, whose newly-released Alligator Records debut CD The High Cost Of Low Living entered the Billboard Blues Chart at #3, recently recorded a live performance for NPR's celebrated music show, Mountain Stage. Over 240 NPR member stations around the country will begin airing the program this Friday, March 30. Air times and stations can be found here.

 

The High Cost Of Low Living is already earning rave reviews, as are the band's must-see live shows. The album is a tour de force of the classic Chicago blues ensemble sound that world class guitarist/vocalist Moss and master harmonicist/vocalist Gruenling know, live and love. AllMusic says, "The album makes the case for the vitality of old-fashioned Chicago electric blues in the 21^st century."

The High Cost Of Low Living is no recycling of old songs. Moss wrote eight memorable new originals and Gruenling wrote two, all deeply rooted in the blues tradition with a touch of old school rock ‘n’ roll. Produced by guitarist Kid Andersen and Moss and recorded at Rancho de Rhythm in Elgin, Illinois, the album is a joyous sonic blast of pure blues power.

With the release of The High Cost Of Low Living, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will do what they do best: barnstorm the globe, bringing their muscular, high-energy show to clubs, concert halls, roadhouses and festival stages night after night. It is a show that is not to be missed. Current tour dates can be found here.

According to Moss, “I’m a shy person, but when the band and I get on stage, the music takes over. We can’t hold back and the energy just comes pouring out. We get carried away and the audience gets carried away with us.”

“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth.”

–Rolling Stone

Alligator Records has announced an April 20, 2018 release date for Shine Bright, the dynamic new album from Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. For fifty years, her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.” The Houston Chronicle says simply, “She’s as perfect as an artist can be.”

With Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs (including nine originals), ranging from the title track’s rousing appeal for public and private acts of courage to the upbeat call to action of Pots And Pans, a song inspired by renowned Texas political writer and humorist Molly Ivins. From the humorous advice of Life Of The Party to the poignantly optimistic World Full Of Love, the intensity of Ball’s conviction never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962 and falling under the spell of Professor Longhair's piano playing convinced Ball to seek out a career in music. She led a couple of early psychedelic country rock bands before pursuing her solo career from her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.

After her 1978 Capitol Records debut, Circuit Queen, and a series of successful albums on Rounder Records, Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, the first of her six releases for the label, four of which are Grammy nominated. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. As her hometown Austin Chronicle says, “What’s not to like about Marcia Ball?”

Since joining Alligator, Ball has blossomed as a songwriter. Each album has been filled with fresh, original songs, never more so than on Shine Bright. Ball easily draws her listeners deep into her music with instantly memorable melodies and imaginative imagery. Her songs paint vibrant musical pictures richly detailed with recognizable characters, regional flavors, universal themes and colorful scenes, both real and imagined. Living Blues declares, “Her originals sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces that no one else can imitate.”

Now, with Shine Bright, Ball’s new, aggressively hopeful songs are energized by Steve Berlin’s inventive and exciting production, creating electrifying music that is daring, inspired, poignant and timely. The Boston Globe calls Ball “a compelling storyteller” who plays “an irresistible, celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp rock and smoldering Texas blues.”

Of course, Ball will bring the party on the road, playing her new songs and old favorites for fans around the globe. “I still love the feel of the wheels rolling,” she says, “and the energy in a room full of people ready to go wherever it is we take them.” With both her new album and her legendary live performances, Marcia Ball will shine a light into the darkness, making the world a brighter place one song at a time.

Tinsley Ellis' Winning Hand #1
Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager's Rough Cut #2
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' Stompin' Ground #7

Recordings by Alligator Records artists currently sit atop the influential Billboard Blues Chart for the week ending January 18, 2018. The label's two January 12 releases -- Tinsley Ellis' Winning Hand and Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager's Rough Cut -- debut at the #1 and #2 spots respectively. Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' Stompin' Ground, released on September 29, 2017, currently holds the #7 spot, re-emerging after spending seven previous weeks on the chart.

Recorded in Nashville and produced by Tinsley Ellis and keyboardist Kevin McKendree, the ten brilliantly performed, fervently sung tracks on Winning Hand include nine originals, ranging from blistering blues to heart-pounding rock to soulful ballads. “Guitar, guitar, guitar is what this album is all about,” says Ellis, who recorded primarily with his 1959 Fender Stratocaster, his 1967 Gibson ES 345 and his 1973 Les Paul Deluxe. Guitar World says, “Ellis’ playing sparkles with depth and subtlety. Whether playing deep, slow blues or uptempo rockers, Ellis rides a gorgeously fat, pure tone.”

Ellis is currently on a coast-to-coast four month North American Tour. Tour dates can be found here.

Rough Cut is the first collaborative album from award-winning soul, blues and R&B vocalist Curtis Salgado and renowned guitarist Alan Hager. Salgado's earth-shaking vocals and forceful harmonica playing have been devastating audiences around the world for over 30 years. Guitarist Alan Hager has been wowing fellow musicians from his hometown of Portland, Oregon and beyond for decades. With Curtis’ inspired singing and world-class harmonica playing and Alan’s spellbinding guitar, Rough Cut is the album Salgado and Hager have always wanted to make together – soulful, sparse and haunting. The music is a moving exploration of the joyful, emotionally uplifting power of passionately played and soulfully sung acoustic blues.

Tour dates can be found here.

On Stompin’ Ground, Tommy Castro, a native of San Jose, CA, opens windows both into his past and his always-evolving musical future. Produced by Castro and guitar wunderkind Kid Andersen, Stompin’ Ground finds Castro unleashing a set of 12 potent tracks featuring seven originals and new versions of songs he learned and played as a young up-and-comer. He is simultaneously looking back with autobiographical originals and cover songs that inspired him, while forging a forward trail with up-to-the-minute lyrics atop blistering blues-rock. Castro’s friends Charlie Musselwhite (harp and vocals), Mike Zito (guitar and vocals), Danielle Nicole (vocals) and David Hidalgo (guitar and vocals) add their talents to Stompin’ Ground.

Tour dates can be found here.

 

THE HIGH COST OF LOW LIVING

 Nick Moss's muscular, electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, gruff, soulful vocals and impassioned songwriting. Gruenling is a contemporary harmonica master...impressive, genuine and fresh-sounding. --Living Blues

Alligator Records has set a Friday, March 9, 2018 release date for The High Cost Of Low Living, the blistering label debut by The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling. The album is a tour de force of the classic Chicago blues ensemble sound that world class guitarist/vocalist Moss and master harmonicist/vocalist Gruenling know, live and love.

The High Cost Of Low Living is no recycling of old songs. Moss wrote eight memorable new originals and Gruenling wrote two, all deeply rooted in the blues tradition with a touch of old school rock ‘n’ roll. Produced by guitarist Kid Andersen and Moss and recorded at Rancho de Rhythm in Elgin, Illinois, the album is a joyous sonic blast of pure blues power.

Although Moss and Gruenling had known each other for 20 years and had jammed together often, it wasn’t until 2016 that they decided to team up full time. Moss’ deeply rooted yet fully modern guitar playing flawlessly meshes with Gruenling’s monster harmonica chops. On stage, the two communicate seemingly telepathically, as Moss lays down the deepest blues licks and Gruenling’s harmonica wails and howls in perfect response, with Moss’ top-notch band adding their energy and expertise to the ensemble. And the world is taking notice. On January 9, 2018, The Nick Moss Band received a Blues Music Award nomination for the coveted Band Of The Year Award, and Gruenling was nominated as Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica.

Chicago guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Nick Moss is a bona fide bluesman down to his soul, a 30-year veteran of the city’s take-no-prisoners blues scene. Moss paid his dues gigging in Chicago’s rough and tumble West and South side blues clubs under the tutelage of some of the city’s greatest blues luminaries. Blues Revue says, “Nick Moss is at the top of the blues world...ambitious and intense...He can play traditional blues with the best.” New Jersey’s Dennis Gruenling is considered among today’s best blues harmonica players. His high-energy, full-throttle playing prompted Blues Revue to call him "a leading light among a new generation of harp players...a true innovator."

Growing up in Chicago and standing tall at 6’2”, Nick Moss dreamed of playing both music and sports. When kidney surgery sidelined his athletic hopes, he dove headfirst into the blues. His mother was a huge blues fan, even taking a young Nick to see bluesmen like Muddy Waters live in concert. Originally a bass player, Moss got his first professional break touring and playing bass with legendary West Side Chicago guitarist Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins. He next toured with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (longtime Muddy Waters’ drummer), leader of the Legendary Blues Band. Finding himself in need of a guitarist, Smith insisted Moss switch instruments. Combining his natural talent with non-stop woodshedding and playing every open jam session, Moss quickly became one of the city’s most highly sought-after players. Bluesman Jimmy Rogers (famous for his pioneering guitar work with Muddy Waters and for his solo hit Walking By Myself) hired Moss to join his touring band and became his mentor. Moss’ other influences include B.B. King, Freddie King, Earl Hooker, Magic Slim and other groundbreaking players.

Moss formed his own band in 1997 and released the first of his 12 solo albums a year later on his own independent Blue Bella label. He’s received 22 Blues Music Award nominations and has earned legions of fans around the world, playing over 100 shows a year. Moss has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Clark, Jr., David Hidalgo and many others, and is an in-demand guest, always welcome to sit in with his musician friends around the world. Elmore calls him “one of the best guitarists on the scene today.”

As a teen, Dennis Gruenling heard the Alligator recording Harp Attack! (a summit meeting of James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell and Billy Branch) and decided that blues harmonica was his life’s calling. Gruenling was inspired by blues harp masters including Cotton, Little Walter and George “Harmonica” Smith as well as by saxophonists, including Lester Young and Red Prysock. A self-taught player and a natural entertainer with seven solo albums to his credit, Gruenling’s giant, fat-toned harp work, raw-boned singing and untamed energy are a perfect foil for Moss’ hair-raising guitar playing and straight-from-the-shoulder blues vocals.

With the release of The High Cost Of Low Living, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will do what they do best: barnstorm the globe, bringing their muscular, high-energy show to clubs, concert halls, roadhouses and festival stages night after night. It is a show that is not to be missed. According to Moss, “I’m a shy person, but when the band and I get on stage, the music takes over. We can’t hold back and the energy just comes pouring out. We get carried away and the audience gets carried away with us.”

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018, The Blues Foundation announced the nominees for the 39th Annual Blues Music Awards, the blues world's highest honors. Ten Alligator recording artists received a total of 18 nominations.
 
Rick Estrin, leader of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, received seven nominations, including the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Album Of The Year (for Groovin' In Greaseland) and Song Of The Year (for The Blues Ain't Goin' Nowhere). Estrin was also recognized with nominations for Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica, Traditional Blues Male Artist Of The Year and Traditional Blues Album Of The Year. Nightcats' guitarist Kid Andersen received a nomination for Best Instrumentalist - Guitar.
 
Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, The Nick Moss Band and The Cash Box Kings were all nominated for the coveted Band Of The Year award. Nick Moss Band harmonica player Dennis Gruenling received a nomination for Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica.

In addition, The Cash Box Kings' Royal Mint and Elvin Bishop's Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio were nominated for Traditional Blues Album Of The Year.

Blues visionary Selwyn Birchwood received nominations for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year (for Pick Your Poison) and Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year. Fellow blues groundbreaker Toronzo Cannon was also nominated for Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year.

Shemekia Copeland was nominated as Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The year.

Curtis Salgado received a nod in the Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year category.

The 39th Annual Blues Music Awards will be presented in Memphis on May 10, 2018 at the Cook Convention Center.
 
Alligator artists and nominations are as follows:

RICK ESTRIN:
Album Of The Year: Groovin' In Greaseland
Traditional Blues Album Of The Year: Groovin' In Greaseland
Band Of The Year: Rick Estrin & The Nightcats
B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year
Song Of The Year: The Blues Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Traditional Blues Male Artist Of The Year
Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica

Best Instrumentalist - Guitar: Kid Andersen

SELWYN BIRCHWOOD:
Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year: Pick Your Poison
Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year

THE CASH BOX KINGS:
Band Of The Year
Traditional Blues Album Of The Year: Royal Mint

ELVIN BISHOP:
Traditional Blues Album Of The Year: Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio

SHEMEKIA COPELAND:
Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year

THE NICK MOSS BAND:
Band Of The Year

Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica: Dennis Gruenling

TORONZO CANNON:
Contemporary Blues Male Artist Of The Year

CURTIS SALGADO:
Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year
 

Selwyn Birchwood's Pick Your Poison #1 On Blues Rock Chart
Alligator Artists Hold Five Of The Top Ten Spots On Blues Chart

Recordings by Alligator Records artists dominated the 2017 Roots Music Report's two influential blues charts, which were announced on Tuesday, January 2. Selwyn Birchwood's Pick Your Poison sits atop the RMR's Blues Rock Chart. Alligator artists hold five of the top ten spots on the Blues Chart. All six of Alligator's 2017 releases made top 20 -- The Cash Box Kings' Royal Mint, #4; Coco Montoya's Hard Truth, #5; Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio, #6; Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' Stompin' Ground, #8; Selwyn Birchwood's Pick Your Poison, #9 and Rick Estrin & The Nightcats' Groovin' In Greaseland, #17.

Additionally, the January 2018 issue of MOJO magazine, the UK's premiere tastemaker music publication, selected their Top Blues Albums Of 2017. The Cash Box Kings' Royal Mint came in at #2 and Birchwood's Pick Your Poison at #8.

Alligator Records eagerly looks forward to topping more charts in 2018 with highly anticipated new releases from Tinsley Ellis, Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling, Marcia Ball, Shemekia Copeland and others. Ellis' Winning Hand and Salgado & Hager's Rough Cut will both be released on Friday, January 12.

On Tuesday, November 28, 2017, The National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences (NARAS) announced a Grammy Award nomination for Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer and blues master Elvin Bishop. His latest album, Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio (with guitarist/pianist Bob Welsh and percussionist/vocalist Willy Jordan) received a nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. The album is Elvin’s seventh release on Chicago-based Alligator Records.

Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio features Bishop’s down-home delivery, deep blues picking and slide guitar playfully meshing with Welsh’s piano and guitar licks and Jordan’s soul singing and propulsive cajón playing. The album’s laid-back, front-porch vibe mixes four rollicking Bishop originals with three co-writes and five raucous, well-chosen covers of songs by Lightnin' Hopkins, Fats Domino, Sunnyland Slim, Ted Taylor and Bobby Womack. The Chicago Sun-Times said, “It’s impossible not to like Bishop. He’s always singing something lowbrow and uplifting.”

"In a trio, there's no place to hide," says Bishop. "You need to be totally into it all the time and you got to have the right guys. The combination of the three of us clicked big time. We went out and played a couple of gigs, and it was really cool to see how the people reacted to the goin’-for-it feel of the music. We decided we better make a CD. We enjoyed the hell out of playing this music."

Although Bishop has been performing his good-time brand of electrified, easy-rolling blues for over 50 years (his first professional gig was as guitarist for Junior Wells’ band in 1962), he is as vital and creative an artist today as he was when he first hit the national scene in 1965 with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and was scoring massive rock ’n’ roll hits in the 1970s. His return to the blues on Alligator Records in the late 1980s ensure his place on the short list of bona fide blues guitar heroes. In 2015 he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and soon after into the Blues Hall Of Fame. This is Bishop's third Grammy Award nomination. He won the Living Blues Award for Best Blues Album Of 2014 and three 2014 Blues Music Awards.

On Friday, December 9, 2017, legendary pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball will appear on A Jazz Piano Christmas from The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The event, presented by NPR and The Kennedy Center, is an annual holiday tradition featuring four celebrated pianists performing their favorite seasonal music. The other artists on the program are Helen Sung, Joanne Brackeen and Abelita Mateus. The concert will be recorded for future NPR broadcast and streaming online.

According to Ball, "I am honored to be invited to participate in this year's NPR's A Jazz Piano Christmas program alongside three other amazing piano women."

Marcia Ball has earned worldwide fame for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she strolls onto a stage. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.” Ball's signature groove-laden New Orleans R&B, heart wrenching ballads and rollicking Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music fans all over the world. Her songs paint vibrant pictures with richly detailed characters, flavors and scenes straight out of Louisiana and Texas.

Earlier this year, Ball, along with country music superstar George Strait, was named an official 2018 Texas State Musician by the Texas State Legislature. She holds ten Blues Music Awards, nine Living Blues Awards and five Grammy Award nominations. Born in Texas and raised in Louisiana (before settling in Austin in 1970), she has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. Her love of the road has led to countless performances at festivals, concert halls and clubs all over the world. Living Blues declares, “Her originals sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces that no one else can imitate.”

New Album, The High Cost of Low Living, Set for March 2018 Release

Nick Moss has been at the forefront of contemporary Chicago blues for years. His muscular electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, impassioned songwriting and foot-stomping soul.
--Living Blues

Nick Moss is at the top of the blues world. Ambitious and intense....He can play traditional blues with the best.
--Blues Revue

Dennis Gruenling is the real deal -- one of the best harmonica players in the world today.

--World Of Harmonica

Alligator Records is pleased to announce the signing of famed Chicago-based blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Nick Moss. The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will release their label debut, The High Cost Of Low Living, in March 2018.

Nick Moss is a bona fide bluesman to his soul with 12 solo releases to his credit, ranging from straight ahead Chicago blues to experimental blues-rock. The new album is a return to the classic Chicago blues ensemble sound Moss knows, lives and loves. But it's no re-creation of old songs. Moss wrote nine memorable new originals and Gruenling wrote two, all rooted in the blues tradition.

Moss is a 30-year veteran guitarist who paid his dues gigging in Chicago's rough and tumble West and South side blues clubs under the tutelage of some of the city's greatest blues luminaries. He learned directly from, and toured with, blues giants Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and Jimmy Rogers.

New Jersey's Dennis Gruenling is considered among the very top blues harmonica players today. As a teen, Gruenling heard the Alligator recording Harp Attack! (featuring Junior Wells, Carey Bell, James Cotton and Billy Branch) and decided the harmonica was his calling. A self-taught player, his fat-toned harp work, soulful singing and raw-boned, untamed energy are a perfect foil for Moss' hair-raising guitar playing and commanding vocals. Blues Revue called Gruenling "a leading light among a new generation of harp players...a true innovator."

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, Nick is a natural fit for the label. "It’s very exciting to bring an artist to Alligator who is so deeply rooted in the Chicago blues tradition, but creating fresh new songs to carry that tradition forward. He’s a thrilling guitar player, a gritty, honest singer, and his band is tough as nails. Dennis Gruenling is a blues harmonica master and a terrific showman, and he brings another world class talent to Nick’s band. These are artists that any fan of the blues has got to love."

Moss is equally thrilled, saying, "I am extremely excited and honored to be a part of Alligator Records' legacy. It was 35 years ago I got my first Alligator recording -- Blues Deluxe -- and 30 years ago I saw my first Alligator act, Little Charlie & The Nightcats, in person. My life has never been the same!”

Growing up in Chicago and standing tall at 6'2", Moss (born December 15, 1969), dreamed of playing both music and sports. When kidney surgery sidelined his athletic hopes, he dove headfirst into the blues. His mother was a huge blues fan, even taking a young Nick to see bluesmen like Muddy Waters live in concert. Originally a bass player, Moss got his first professional break touring and playing bass with legendary West Side Chicago guitarist Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins. He next toured with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (longtime Muddy Waters' drummer), leader of the Legendary Blues Band. Finding himself in need of a guitarist, Smith insisted Moss switch instruments. Combining his natural talent with his monumental work ethic, Moss quickly rose in the ranks, becoming a highly sought-after player. Bluesman Jimmy Rogers (famous for his pioneering guitar work with Muddy Waters and for his solo hit Walking By Myself) hired Moss to join his touring band and became his mentor.

Moss formed his own band in 1997 and released the first of his 12 solo albums a year later on his own independent Blue Bella label. He's received 21 Blues Music Award nominations and has earned legions of fans around the world, playing over 100 shows a year. Moss has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Clark, Jr., David Hidalgo and many others.

Although Moss and Gruenling had known each other for 20 years and have jammed together often, it wasn't until 2016 that they decided to team up full time. Moss' deeply rooted yet fully modern guitar playing flawlessly meshes with Gruenling's monster harmonica chops. On stage, the two communicate seemingly telepathically, as Moss lays down the deepest blues licks and Gruenling's harmonica wails and howls in perfect response, with Moss' top-notch band adding their energy and expertise to the ensemble.

With the release of The High Cost Of Low Living, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will travel the country, bringing their high-energy show to clubs, concert halls, roadhouses and festival stages, continuing to excite and inspire longtime fans while earning new ones every time they perform.

Alligator Records has set a January 12 release date for Rough Cut, the first collaborative album from award-winning soul, blues and R&B vocalist Curtis Salgado and renowned guitarist Alan Hager. Salgado's earth-shaking vocals and forceful harmonica playing have been devastating audiences around the world for over 30 years. Guitarist Alan Hager has been wowing fellow musicians from his hometown of Portland, Oregon and beyond for decades.

Hager has been jamming with Salgado since 2003, and joined his band full-time in 2015. Together, the two friends took time out of their busy touring schedule to record Rough Cut, a stripped-down album featuring a potent mix of newly written, timeless originals and carefully chosen blues covers. “We did it for the love of the music,” says Salgado. “This is where our hearts are. These are deep songs that we love to play.”

Produced by Salgado and Hager, the 13 songs on Rough Cut(including six originals) range from plaintive to playful. Recorded in one live unrehearsed take, the original I Will Not Surrender, with its haunting and sparse soundscape, showcases some of Hager’s strongest guitar work, and some of the most profoundly emotive vocals Salgado has ever laid down. The canine-lover’s anthem, I Want My Dog To Live Longer (The Greatest Wish), is already a huge fan favorite. Salgado’s soulful singing and Hager’s elegant slide guitar playing shine on Elmore James’ You Got To Move and Muddy Waters’ I Can’t Be Satisfied. “He’s the best player in the business, unlike anybody else,” Salgado says of Hager. “One reason I made this record was to show him off.”

Salgado and Hager have performed at Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, The Chicago Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival and Canada’s Festival Tremblant Blues Festival and on the Legendary Blues Cruise. Salgado has also performed at The San Francisco Blues Festival, Memphis’ Beale Street Music Festival, Denver’s Mile High Blues Festival, as well as in Canada, England, throughout Europe, Brazil, Chile, Panama, The Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong. Blues Revue, describing Salgado’s performances, declares, “He starts at excellent before segueing into goose bumps, ecstasy, and finally nirvana.”

Salgado released the first of his 10 solo albums in 1991. He joined Alligator Records in 2012, debuting with the award-winning, critically acclaimed Soul Shot  followed by The Beautiful Lowdown in 2016. The albums earned Salgado multiple Blues Music Awards for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year, Soul Blues Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year. NPR calls him “a blues icon” with a “huge voice."

Along with his accolades, Salgado is no stranger to adversity. During his career, he has overcome multiple health challenges, battling back from liver cancer in 2006 and lung cancer in 2008 and 2012. In March 2017 he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. Now he is back on the road, revved up and firing on all cylinders, performing with his band as well as a duo with Hager. His resilience can be heard – and felt – on I Will Not Surrender, Rough Cut’s lead track.

With Curtis’ inspired singing and world-class harmonica playing and Alan’s spellbinding guitar, Rough Cut is the album Salgado and Hager have always wanted to make together – soulful, sparse and haunting. The music is a moving exploration of the joyful, emotionally uplifting power of passionately played and soulfully sung acoustic blues. They’ll perform together as a duo both on their own and during Curtis’ full band shows, giving their fans a taste of what Alan calls “American Classical music.” “This type of music moves us the most,” says Salgado. “You believe it when you hear it.”

TINSLEY ELLIS' WINNING HAND SET FOR
JANUARY 12, 2018 RELEASE

 Massive U.S. Tour To Launch From Ellis' Atlanta Hometown

Feral blues guitar...non-stop gigging has sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge...his eloquence dazzles...he achieves pyrotechnics that rival early Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
--Rolling Stone

Ellis unleashes a torrent of dazzling musicianship pitched between the exhilarating volatility of rock and roll and the passion of urban blues.

--Los Angeles Times

Alligator Records has set a January 12, 2018 release date for Winning Hand, the powerful new album from Southern blues-rock guitar wizard, vocalist and songwriter Tinsley Ellis. He will immediately hit the road for a mammoth three month U.S. tour, launching on release date with a concert at the Variety Playhouse in his hometown of Atlanta.

Recorded in Nashville and produced by Ellis and keyboardist Kevin McKendree, the ten brilliantly performed, fervently sung tracks on Winning Hand include nine originals, ranging from blistering blues to heart-pounding rock to soulful ballads. “Guitar, guitar, guitar is what this album is all about,” says Ellis, who recorded primarily with his 1959 Fender Stratocaster, his 1967 Gibson ES 345 and his 1973 Les Paul Deluxe. Guitar World says, “Ellis’ playing sparkles with depth and subtlety. Whether playing deep, slow blues or uptempo rockers, Ellis rides a gorgeously fat, pure tone.”

Since his Alligator debut 30 years ago, Tinsley Ellis has become a bona fide worldwide guitar hero. The Chicago Sun-Times says, “It's hard to overstate the raw power of his music.” Armed with his signature molten licks, melodic riffs and rousing, intense solos, Ellis, as his legions of fans will attest, is among the blues world’s best loved, hardest working and most well-travelled statesmen. He has performed in all 50 United States as well as in Canada, Western and Eastern Europe, Australia and South America, earning legions of fans with his guitar virtuosity, passionate vocals and memorable original songs. Ellis is also revered as a guitarist’s guitarist, with famous friends including Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Oliver Wood, Jonny Lang and members of Widespread Panic calling on him to sit in and jam. “A musician never got famous staying home,” he says.

Born in Atlanta in 1957, Ellis was raised in southern Florida. He found the blues through the back door of British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds, The Animals, Cream, The Rolling Stones and Southern rockers like The Allman Brothers. As he discovered the roots of these bands, he attended shows by B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and every other blues artist who came through town.

Already an accomplished teenaged musician, Ellis returned to Atlanta and started playing with local bands. In 1981, along with veteran blues singer and harpist Chicago Bob Nelson, Tinsley formed The Heartfixers, a group that would become Atlanta’s top-drawing blues band. After cutting three Heartfixers albums for the Landslide label, Ellis was ready to head out on his own.

 
Georgia Blue, Tinsley’s first Alligator release, hit the unprepared public by surprise in 1988. The Chicago Tribune said, “Tinsley Ellis torches with molten fretwork. Ellis takes classic, Southern blues-rock workouts and jolts them to new life with a torrid ax barrage.” Tinsley’s next four releases — 1989’s Fanning The Flames, 1992’s Trouble Time, 1994’s Storm Warning, and 1997’s Fire It Up — further grew his fan base and his fame. Features and reviews ran in Rolling Stone, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in many other national and regional publications.

Ellis released an album on Capricorn Records in 2000 and on Telarc in 2002. He returned to Alligator in 2005, releasing Live--Highwayman, which captured the fifth-gear energy of his live shows. He followed it with two more incendiary studio releases, 2007's Moment Of Truth and 2009's Speak No Evil. He has since self-released four successful albums on his own Heartfixer label.

Over the course of his career, Ellis has shared stages with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, The Allman Brothers, Leon Russell, Son Seals, Koko Taylor, Albert Collins and many others. Whether he’s on stage with his own band or jamming with artists like Buddy Guy, the  Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gov’t Mule or Widespread Panic, he always plays with grit, soul and unbridled passion. Back home on Alligator Records with his new album and a massive live tour in the works, Tinsley Ellis is ready to prove again that whenever he picks up a guitar, he's playing with a winning hand.

2018 WINNING HAND TOUR:

01/12/18 Variety Playhouse - Atlanta, GA
01/13/18 Songbirds Guitar Museum - Chattanooga, TN
01/16/18 The Downtown Music Hall at Capital Ale House - Richmond, VA
01/17/18 Blues Alley - Washington, DC
01/18/18 Creative Alliance - Baltimore, MD
01/19/18 Arden Gild Hall - Arden, DE
01/20/18 Sellersville Theater 1894 - Sellersville, PA
01/21/18 City Winery - NYC
01/23/18 Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA
01/24/18 City Winery Boston - Boston, MA
01/25/18 Narrows Center for the Arts - Fall River, MA
01/26/18 The Linda WAMC's Performing Arts Studio - Albany, NY
01/27/18 Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
01/28/18 Buffalo Iron Works - Buffalo, NY
01/29/18 Cadillac Lounge - Toronto, ON
01/31/18 SPACE - Evanston, IL

02/01/18 Callahan's Music Hall - Auburn Hills, MI
02/02/18 Cincy Winter Blues Fest - Cincinnati, OH
02/03/18 C2G Music Hall - Fort Wayne, IN
02/07/18 Blues at the Abbey - Subaico, AR
02/08/18 Chrome Lounge - Omaha, NE
02/09/18 Sioux Falls Jazz and Blues Concert Series - Sioux Falls, SD
02/10/18 Fargo Blues Festival - Fargo, ND
02/13/18 Mangy Moose - Jackson, WY
02/14/18 The State Room - Salt Lake City, UT
02/15/18 Boulder Station Casino - Las Vegas, NV
02/16/18 World Records - Bakersfield, CA
02/18/18 Rio Theatre - Vancouver BC
02/20/18 Dimitriou's Jazz Alley - Seattle, WA
02/21/18 Dimitriou's Jazz Alley - Seattle, WA
02/22/18 The Roots Cellar- Prosser, WA
02/23/18 The Jack London - Portland, OR
02/24/18 The Sapphire Room - Boise, ID
02/25/18 Sofia Center for the Arts - Sacramento, CA
02/26/18 Yoshi's Oakland - Oakland, CA
02/27/18 The Tower Theatre Lounge - Fresno, CA
02/28/18 Coach House - San Juan Capistrano, CA

03/01/18 Canyon Club - Agoura Hills, CA
03/02/18 191 Toole - Tucson, AZ
03/03/18 Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix, AZ
03/08/18 The Temporary - Basalt, CO
03/09/18 Reserve Casino - Central City, CO
03/10/18 Reserve Casino - Central City, CO
03/12/18 Crested Butte Center for the Arts - Crested Butte, CO
03/16/18 Redstone Room - Davenport, IA
03/17/18 Dakota Jazz Club - Minneapolis, MN
03/18/18 Lefty's Live Music - Des Moines, IA
03/22/18 Woodlands - Columbus, OH
03/23/18 Music Box Supper Club - Cleveland, OH
03/24/18 Franke Center for the Arts - Marshall, MI

04/05/18 Dosey Doe - Houston, TX
040/6/18 Guitar Sanctuary - Dallas, TX
04/07/18 Antone's - Austin, TX