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Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness' new CD, Stronger For It, was among the top ten best-selling blues CDs on Billboard magazine's Blues Chart. This is Magness' third Alligator Records release, all of which debuted in the top ten on Billboard's Blues Chart. The album also hit #58 on the Billboard Indie Artist Chart.

Magness, who is currently touring the country in support of the album, will perform live on Iowa Public Radio's Java Blend on Friday, March 23 at 12:00PM CST. The show originates on University of Iowa radio station WSUI-AM 910 and will be broadcast on Iowa Public Radio stations across the state. For more information about broadcast times and stations, go to http://iowapublicradio.org/javaBlend.php or iowapublicradio.org.

Since its March 13 release, Stronger For It is one of the most added records at AAA (Adult Rock) Radio. It is also charting in the Top 40 on the Americana Radio Chart. The Los Angeles Daily News says the new album features "blazing, gutbucket soul. Magness' voice has a husky, sublime power."

Award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness' new CD, Stronger For It, will be released on Tuesday, March 13, and it is already garnering excitement and positive reactions from press and radio. Allmusic.com says, "Magness' original songs are some of the most potent on an album with no shortage of powerful material. Gritty, stomping rhythms...sexy, sinister grooves...funky, growling, understated intensity. Magness' snarling, throaty, jubilant vocals send chills down your spine." About.com/Blues declares Magness "one of the best female blues vocalists in the world today...if you're not listening to Janiva Magness, you're missing out on one of the best."

Alligator Records has set a May 1 release date for Black Eye Galaxy (AL 4948), the powerful new album from New Orleans' Anders Osborne. Between the sheer force and potent lyricism of his guitar playing, the riveting depth of his songwriting and the straight-from-the-soul conviction of his vocals, Osborne is among the most original and visionary musicians writing and performing today. OffBeat magazine recently named Osborne the Crescent City's Best Guitarist for the second straight year, and also awarded him with the Best Roots Rock Artist title. 

Recorded at the famed Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana, Black Eye Galaxy was produced by Anders along with engineer Warren Riker and Galactic's Stanton Moore. Sounds on the album range from heavy electric mayhem to joyous acoustic melodicism, lyrics move from the darkest depths to the healing power of love. The title is an unambiguous metaphor for Osborne's life as a traveler, a musician, an immigrant, a recovering addict, and as a husband and father. Black Eye Galaxy is a harrowing but ultimately uplifting cycle of richly detailed songs that are musically and lyrically thought-provoking, exhilarating and completely engaging.

Since 1989, Osborne has released ten albums to great critical and popular acclaim. He's written virtually all of his own material and contributed memorable songs to a wide variety of other artists. Two tunes co-written by Osborne appear on blues great Keb Mo's Grammy-winning 1999 release Slow Down. Country superstar Tim McGraw scored a #1 hit with Anders' song Watch The Wind Blow By. He wrote and recorded the title track for the 2010 Kate Hudson film Earthbound, and can also be seen performing in a recent episode of HBO's New Orleans-based drama, Treme.

Since the release of his 2010 Alligator Records debut, American Patchwork, Osborne has toured virtually non-stop, performing with his own band, solo with Keb Mo, with The Stanton Moore Trio, alongside Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, with Luther Dickinson as well as with The Voice Of The Wetlands All-Stars. In 2011 Osborne produced and played on critically acclaimed albums by Tab Benoit, Johnny Sansone and Mike Zito. The previous year he appeared on the track Dark Water from Galactic's Ya-Ka-May album.

In the studio and in concert, Anders Osborne channels the music throughout his entire body, becoming a whirling dervish of pure energy. Paste says, "Anders Osborne is a triple threat as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. He can play the hot guitar slinger, and he can play the sensitive, soulful singer/songwriter, and he's excellent at both. Mastering either genre puts you in select company. Mastering both is mind-bogglingly great."

Award-winning guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tommy Castro proudly introduces his new band, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. The band features bassist Randy McDonald (back with Tommy after a five-year hiatus), drummer Byron Cage, and new member, keyboardist James Pace. Castro is nominated for four 2012 Blues Music Awards, including the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year and Band Of The Year.

His most recent project, Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue -- Live!, is nominated for a Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year. His latest full band CD, Hard Believer, won that same award in 2010.

Award-winning blues guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joe Louis Walker will appear on TBS's CONAN on Monday, March 5. Walker, along with his band, will perform the song Ride All Night from his new Alligator Records debut CD, Hellfire. Billboard says Hellfire is "one of the strongest albums in Walker's canon...gutbucket blues, joyous gospel, Rolling Stones-style rock crunch, and aching R&B... a heavenly showcase for Walker's virtues."

Walker has been releasing groundbreaking recordings since 1986, but his career goes all the way back to the mid-1960s. As a 16-year-old, he was the house guitarist at San Francisco's famed musical playground, The Matrix, where he played with or opened shows for everyone from Lightnin' Hopkins to Jimi Hendrix to Thelonious Monk. These ear-opening surroundings explain the ease with which Walker blends blues, rock, gospel, jazz and country, making it seem as if the walls between the styles never existed in the first place. The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. He delivers no-nonsense, gutsy blues. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." According to Living Blues, he is "one of today's modern musical masters." Rolling Stone simply called him "ferocious."

Since his debut release in 1986, Walker has released 23 more albums (and two DVDs) and toured worldwide. He's won four Blues Music Awards, including the 2010 Album Of The Year Award for Between A Rock And A Hard Place (Stony Plain Records), and has been nominated for 43 more. He's also recorded as a guest with some of the blues world's best-known artists, including appearances on Grammy-winning records by B.B. King and James Cotton.

Walker has played every major U.S. blues festival including The Chicago Blues Festival, The San Francisco Blues Festival, and The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He's performed at major European festivals including the Northsea Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Notodden and Montreux, as well as festivals in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil. Walker has appeared on national television many times, including performances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, The Don Imus Show and Later With Jools Holland in the UK.

Fans and critics have been celebrating Walker for years. Blues Revue calls Walker "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative musicians, releasing consistently exciting music. No matter what he's singing, Walker's approach is soulful, heartfelt and spellbinding." Living Blues said, "His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his own trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision -- even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds as if he's playing ideas, not just notes." A bluesman of immense talent and drive, Walker tours constantly playing concerts and festivals across the globe.

Early praise for Hellfire:

On Hellfire, Mr. Walker plays jump blues, slow, searing blues, Rolling Stones-style rockin' blues, electric country blues, Chicago blues and gospel blues. His raspy, powerhouse voice is out front while his stinging guitar cuts through the uncluttered arrangements.
--Wall Street Journal

Hellfire is delightful, down and dirty blues [with] influences from the psychedelic rock scene...loud Hendrixian virtuosity here, "Exile On Main Street"-era Stones there.
--Los Angeles Daily News

Hellfire is Walker's most rock-oriented release. His playing is ferocious. His wah-wah inflected solo on Hellfire digresses with the kind of fierce embellishments that Jimi Hendrix might've conjured. The slow-burn of What's It Worth spins ever wilder and wider into outer space with each solo. Walker attacks these songs like the gospel vocalist he once was.
--Chicago Tribune

Boundary-pushing blues rocker Joe Louis Walker is a legendary icon of modern blues. [He plays] powerful, gritty, heavy blues rock. Hellfire is a fierce album expertly incorporating his intense, racing solos into blues, spirituals and crashing rock jams. His playing on Hellfire has garnered comparisons to Hendrix himself.
--NPR Music

Alligator Records has set an April 10 street date for Soul Shot (AL 4947), the blistering new album (and label debut) from award-winning vocalist/songwriter/harmonica icon Curtis Salgado. Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year, Salgado effortlessly mixes R&B, funk and blues, with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt. He moves with ease from the tenderest ballads to the most full-throated stompers.

Soul Shot was produced by funk and R&B guitarist Marlon McClain, drummer Tony Braunagel and co-produced by Salgado. "I wanted to make a soul record that you can listen to and dance to," says Salgado. And that's just what he and members of The Phantom Blues Band, along with additional guest musicians, did. Soul Shot speaks loud and clear to contemporary audiences, carrying on the timeless spirit of 1960s and '70s R&B. The album features four Salgado originals and seven carefully chosen covers. Songs by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, George Clinton, Otis Redding and Bobby Womack flow into and out of Salgado's own compositions. Each track - the slow-burning ballads and the driving rockers - is delivered with the vocal power and passion of a musical master. "Soul Shot was the most challenging recording of my career," he says, "and it's the solid best thing I've ever done. That's a fact."

Born February 4, 1954 in Everett, Washington, Salgado grew up in Eugene, Oregon. His home was always filled with music. His parents' collection included everything from Count Basie to Fats Waller, and his older brother and sister turned him on to the soul and blues of Wilson Pickett and Muddy Waters. He attended a Count Basie performance when he was 13 and decided then and there that music was his calling. Curtis began devouring the blues of Little Walter and Paul Butterfield, fell in love with the harmonica and taught himself to play.

Salgado played his first professional gigs when he was 16, and by 18 he was already making a name for himself in Eugene's bar scene. Salgado quickly developed into a player and singer of remarkable depth, with vocal and musical influences including Otis Redding to O.V. Wright, Johnnie Taylor, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson I and II, Lightnin' Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Spann and Magic Sam. With his band The Nighthawks, he became a must-see act in Eugene and throughout the Northwest. Salgado earned a reputation for high-intensity performances and a repertoire that was informed by his encyclopedic knowledge of blues, soul and R&B music.

In 1977, comedian/actor John Belushi was in Eugene filming Animal House. During downtime from filming, Belushi caught a typically balls-out Salgado performance. Afterwards the two got to talking and a friendship grew. Before long Salgado began playing old records for Belushi, teaching him about blues and R&B. Belushi soaked up the music like a sponge and soon developed his idea for The Blues Brothers, first as a skit on Saturday Night Live and then as a major motion picture and a best-selling record album and concert tour.

As Salgado was getting more serious about his career, he realized some of his band mates were not. It was then that Salgado joined forces with his friend Robert Cray and began playing together as The Robert Cray Band. As the stature of the group grew, Salgado found himself sharing stages with blues icons like Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and Bonnie Raitt. The band performed a transcendent set at the 1977 San Francisco Blues Festival to thunderous ovation before backing up the great Albert Collins.

After Salgado and Cray parted ways in 1982, Curtis went on to front Roomful Of Blues, singing and touring with them from 1984 through 1986. Back home in Oregon, he formed a new band, Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos, and was once again tearing it up on the club scene. He wrote many new songs, and honed his band to a razor's edge before releasing his first solo album in 1991. His friend and fan Steve Miller invited Curtis and his band to open for him on a summer shed tour in 1992. Two years later, Salgado spent the summer on the road singing with Santana. In 1997 he performed in front of an audience of millions on NBC television's Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Salgado then joined forces with Shanachie Records in 1999, putting out four critically acclaimed albums over the next nine years and finding his biggest audience yet.

In 2006 Salgado was sidelined when he underwent a successful liver transplant and then shortly afterwards was diagnosed with and then beat lung cancer. Like so many musicians, Curtis had no health insurance. His medical expenses were paid for in part by a huge outpouring of love and money from his fellow musicians and his huge Northwest fan base. He bounced back with a perfect bill of health in 2008, releasing Clean Getaway.

Blues master Joe Louis Walker's Alligator Records debut Hellfire reached  number 38 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart for the week ending February 5, 2012. It also hit number 11 on the magazine's Blues Chart. The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot declares Hellfire is Walker's "most rock-oriented release," bringing "the kind of fierce embellishments that Jimi Hendrix might've conjured" and that his guitar playing "spins ever wilder and wider into outer space with each solo." The Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli says, "Walker's raspy, powerhouse voice is out front while his stinging guitar cuts through the uncluttered arrangements."

Blues harmonica master James Cotton will join Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland and many other musicians live at New York's famed Apollo Theater to pay tribute to the late guitarist Hubert Sumlin. The event will take place on Friday, February 24 and is a benefit for the Jazz Foundation Of America.

Other artists scheduled to appear are Doyle Bramhall II, Gary Clark, Jr., Billy Flynn, Barrelhouse Chuck Goering, David Johansen, Steve Jordan, Danny Kortchmar, Dr. John, Keb Mo, Todd Mohr, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Larry Taylor, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Jimmie Vaughan, Jimmy Vivino, Willie Weeks, Jody Williams, Kim Wilson and special surprise guests.

Cotton's latest CD is the Grammy Award-nominated Giant.

For more information, go to:

http://www.apollotheater.org/calendar/details/240-howlin-for-hubert-hubert-sumlin-tribute

For the second year running, he was named Best Guitarist. He also won for Best Roots Rock Artist. According to Osborne, winning is "a miraculous experience. It's hard to believe where I was just three years ago. The gratitude and love I feel for all the people who held me up and supported me is great. I am a blessed man. I would like to thank OffBeat for arranging the award show in celebration of what the [New Orleans] music community does every year. And most of all, a huge 'Thank You' to all the fans voting for me. It's an honor."

Osborne is currently finishing work on his follow-up to 2010's best-selling American Patchwork. Tentatively titled Black Eye Galaxy, the album will be available later this spring.