Alligator Records — 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

We’re doing some catch-up. A lot of catch-up, to be honest. (So much catch-up I’m creating a new category for it so I can go back and alphabetize these things properly later.) Since my pace through the alphabet of my collection slowed, and my pace of purchasing new records picked up, I now have a whole bunch of pre-M records to add to this list. But being that I’ve only had them for a few months, they won’t be inspiring any deep reveries.

This is a fabulous, brand-new Alligator Records collection. Several Alligator collections have been central to my blues section, at least on CD, for a long time. Their Genuine Houserockin’ samplers from the late ’80s were pivotal, and I bought the 20th Anniversary Collection (1991) and the 25th Anniversary Collection (1996) on their release … and now, the 50th anniversary collection, released last year (2021), which I grabbed the minute I saw it in the nicely stocked blues bins at Forever Changes last December. Like all of these collections, it’s just excellent, top to bottom. It’s wide ranging, with some of the biggest names in blues and some lesser known but still amazing artists. Alligator was founded in and based on the Chicago blues, but there’s also some delta and New Orleans blues on here, and it just kills. Anyone out there who is like I once was, wanting to get into the blues but not really sure where to begin – this would be a fantastic sampler. Excellent liner notes, too.

Basically, if you like the blues, and you see a record by Alligator, buy it. That’s my TikToky life advice.