News

Alligator Records, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, is pleased
to announce "Queen of the Blues" Koko Taylor won one W.C. Handy Blues Award and
young blues-belter Shemekia Copeland won three W.C. Handy Blues Awards presented
by The Blues Foundation. The awards ceremony was held at the Orpheum Theatre in
Memphis on May 24, and hosted by New Orleans legend Dr. John.

With her win in the Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year category, Taylor now holds a total of 21 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, more than any other artist, male or female. Her latest CD, Royal Blue, received a Grammy nomination

A previous W.C. Handy Blues Award nominee, Copeland's statues for Blues Album Of The Year (for Wicked) and Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year -- and a statue going to Rick Vito, author of Song Of The Year for "It's 2 A.M.," (Wicked's lead cut) --mark the first two Handy wins in her career, and make her -- along with blues great B.B. King -- the most celebrated artist at this year's presentation.

Like Taylor, Copeland's latest CD, Wicked, also received a Grammy nomination.

Copeland — along with fellow Alligator artists Koko Taylor, Cephas & Wiggins, Carey Bell, Ann Rabson (of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women) and Marcia Ball — are also nominated for a total of 15 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, which will be presented by The Blues Foundation on May 24 in Memphis.

Indie Award winners were announced on May 5, 2001 at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles during the AFIM Indie Awards Show. For more information on the Indie Awards, visit www.afim.org. For more information on Alligator Records, visit www.alligator.com.

Sherman & Wendell Holmes along with fellow "brother" Popsy Dixon, helped kick off Austin's annual South by Southwest Music Conference. The band performed in front of an awestruck crowd on March 14 at Antone's, and then, the following morning, The Holmes Brothers stunned a virtual music industry "who's who" with a 45-minute set of chilling gospel harmonies mixed with funky, juke-joint stomp. The Chicago Sun-Times' pop music critic Jim Derogatis raved, "Only at South by Southwest could you see a crowd of jaded, pierced, tattooed and hung over music-biz pros transported by a transcendent version of Amazing Grace." Major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Associated Press Newswire, The Austin Chronicle, The Austin American Statesman,Wall Of Sound, and Allstar included extremely favorable mentions of The Holmes Brothers performance in their coverage if South By Southwest.        

The Holmes Brothers are currently touring to support their debut album on Alligator Records, the Joan Osborne-produced SPEAKING IN TONGUES. On March 9, Wendell Holmes and Osborne appeared together on CNNfn's The Biz to talk about the album. National Public Radio's Weekend Edition aired a 9-minute feature on March 17, and The Holmes Brothers have appearances booked on World Café, Mountain Stage, Woodsongs and Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES has been featured or reviewed in Billboard, The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and many other regional and national publications. And the March 18 edition of The London Times chose SPEAKING IN TONGUES as its "Record of the Week," saying "their rhythms take over your body while their voices go straight for your heart."