Back in 1971, Bruce Iglauer, a 23-year-old blues fan, used his meager savings to record and produce his favorite band, Hound Dog Taylor & the HouseRockers.  Following his heart, he quit his day job with Delmark Records and began promoting Hound Dog Taylor and his new record company full-time.  Over 30 years later, that company, Alligator Records, is home to some of the world’s premier blues and roots rock talent and is regarded by fans and the media alike as the top contemporary blues record label in the world.

With a catalog of over 200 titles, Alligator Records is the largest independent blues label in the world.  Its recordings have won more awards than any other contemporary blues label, including a total of 34 Grammy© nominations (two wins), 18 Indie Awards from the Association For Independent Music (AFIM) and three Grand Prix du Disque awards.   Alligator and its artists have won a total of 70 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the blues community’s highest honor.  Between 1996 and 1998, Luther Allison won 12 W.C. Handy Blues Awards—including three consecutive Entertainer Of The Year awards. Koko Taylor holds an astonishing 24 W.C. Handy Blues Awards—more than any other blues artist.  In 2004 she received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Shemekia Copeland won two W.C. Handy Blues Awards in 2001 (Blues Album Of The Year for Wicked and Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year).  Both Koko Taylor and Shemekia Copeland received Grammy© nominations in 2000, for Royal Blue and Wicked respectively.  In addition, both Roomful of Blues’ That’s Right! and Marcia Ball’s So Many Rivers received Grammy© nominations in 2003.

Alligator’s recordings consistently top many critics’ “Best Of” lists and readers’ polls and Alligator artists often find themselves on national television and radio.  New Yorker Michael Hill’s groundbreaking debut album, Bloodlines, was named Debut Blues Album Of The Year by Living Blues magazine. The Living Blues Critics Poll named both of C.J. Chenier’s Alligator albums, 1995’s Too Much Fun and 1996’s The Big Squeeze, as Best Zydeco Album Of The Year.  Young Shemekia Copeland appeared twice on "Late Night With Conan O’Brien" and was the subject of a seven-minute feature story on the CNN program "Entertainment Weekly."  She also appeared on "The Late Show With David Letterman," "The CBS Saturday Early Show," "Austin City Limits," and can be seen in the Martin Scorsese-produced concert film, "Lightning In A Bottle."  And the national spotlight continued to shine on Alligator, as The Holmes Brothers performed on "The Late Show With David Letterman," public radio’s "A Prairie Home Companion," "Weekend Edition" and "The CBS Saturday Early Show."  Mavis Staples sang at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and was greeted with radio features on public radio’s "All Things Considered," "On Point" and "The Tavis Smiley Show," as well as print features and reviews in The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, USA Today, the Associated Press newswire, No Depression, DownBeat, Rolling Stone, Billboard and many others.

As much as anything else, these artists and their respective awards and high-profile media attention help tell the Alligator Records story.  The early days of recording only Chicago blues artists to the addition of national and international artists to the label’s commitment to younger acts, Alligator has continually taken chances and looked toward the future. “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,” says Iglauer.  “I want the future of the blues and the future of Alligator Records to be one and the same.”  If the last three decades are any indication, the future for Alligator and for the blues looks very bright indeed.