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Bruce Iglauer. June 2012 - Part 3

Bruce Iglauer
June 2012

Interview contributed by Sean McCarthy

It is our absolute pleasure to bring you this series interviews with Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records (one of the world’s leading Blues record labels), as well as a personal friend of such legendary artists such as Hound Dog Taylor, Albert Collins and Koko Taylor.

Bruce is without doubt one of the most important men, in what is the untold and, for many, the unknown back story of the blues.

He has so much to tell that despite all the material Bruce has provided us with, we could really only scratch the surface.
So the interview series is broken down into three parts.
In Part One we discussed how Bruce got started and some of the history of the Alligator label.
Part Two is all about the modern day Alligator records and some of the artists Alligator has signed to its label.
In the third and final part we talk in more details about Hound Dog Taylor and Albert Collins history.

Welcome to Part Three.

ABC: The label started with Hound Taylor of course, but can you describe just how hard the beginnings of Alligator were?

BI: The beginnings of Alligator were very hard, but also very exciting and often fun. I was really taking on almost an impossible task, but I didn’t realize that. I was living in a one-room apartment, sleeping on a mattress on the floor and driving my mother’s old car.
I had $2500 that I inherited from my grandfather. That was my ‘seed money’. With that money, I needed to pay the band, the studio, the photos, design and printing of covers and the pressing of LPs. I also needed to find distribution, create radio play and press coverage. If I couldn’t sell enough copies of “Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers”, there would never be a second Alligator record. So I had to record very fast and cheaply.
We made that first album in two evenings in the studio (a good studio) and mixed it as we recorded it. There was no way to repair anything. If the song didn’t come out well, I asked them to play it again. We used their regular cheap guitars and amps because I didn’t want to clean up the sound. The first cover design, done by a great photographer named Peter Amft, was done as a favor at no charge. When I had 1000 albums pressed, I loaded most of them into my car and started driving, visiting radio stations and then distributors.
It was a good time for radio. Rock and roll had just begun to be played on FM radio and the formats were very loose. There was no list of songs for the DJs; they just played what they liked. A lot of them were of my generation, “hippies” with long hair who had gone to college in the 1960s, like me. The format was called “progressive rock” and it included not only rock album cuts (not just the hits) but also folk, jazz, blues, old soul…whatever the DJ liked. I went from Chicago to Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, Hartford, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., visiting the stations, meeting the DJs and asking them to play Hound Dog. I was surprised and pleased how many were happy to. It became clear that “Give Me Back My Wig” would be the song they liked best (probably because of the name).
As soon as I got radio play, I went to the distributor I had chosen and solicited him to take my record.
At that time, each city had its own distributors. Because I had radio play happening already, they were happy to experiment with a new, one-record label. In fact, the Cleveland distributor was so impressed that he gave me some money in advance, and I sent it back to Chicago to have more albums pressed. Within the three weeks that I was on the road, I established Hound Dog’s name at a lot of key stations and began to see sales. Then I returned to Chicago (and my job at Delmark) and worked nights and weekends running Alligator. I began to book Hound Dog out of town, and sometimes to go on the road with him, carrying LPs to sell. It was a 24 hour per day job; it still is today.

ABC: So Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers was the first Alligator recording… and that legendary album is so raw and powerful. There’s no overdubs, no no studio effects, just the real thing, plug and play. Can you tell us a bit about those sessions?

BI: The sessions were very simple. We recorded the entire album in two evenings, and mixed it as it was recorded, directly to 2-track stereo. My co-producer Wesley Race and I had made a list of every song that we heard the band play live, and simply requested songs. We made one or two takes of each song and chose the best performances.
For the recording, we set up the band just like the played live, with Hound Dog on the left, Ted Harvey on drums in the middle and Brewer Phillips on the right. They played the same guitars and amplifiers as in the clubs.
Hound Dog had a very cheap Japanese guitar called a Kingston. His amplifier was also cheap, a Silvertone sold by the Sears & Roebuck department store. Two of the speakers were cracked.
Brewer Phillips played the bass parts on a regular guitar, his old Fender Telecaster. His amp was a Fender also.
Ted Harvey’s drum kit was also not expensive; it was a Slingerland. He played almost entirely snare, bass drum, hi hat and ride cymbal. We had a few baffles around the drums but the amplifiers were on a hard linoleum floor which gave some natural echo.
Rather than using headphones, we put the vocals in the studio speakers so they could hear. Hound Dog sang sitting down, which was normal for him. You can hear the sound of his guitar change a little when he was singing, because his amplifier was leaking into his vocal mic. When he sang, his head blocked the sound of his amplifier in the vocal mic, so the sound changed.
The band was very excited and happy to be recording. I’m not sure if Ted and Brewer had ever seen a recording studio before, but they knew how to play with Hound Dog. Also, the session was fueled by a lot of alcohol—Canadian Club whiskey for Hound Dog and Brewer, vodka for Ted.
Although these days I don’t record direct to stereo, I still try to capture very much of a live feel in my studio recordings. We record almost everything live in the studio, though we separate the tracks so we can repair mistakes. Sometimes the vocalist will want to re-sing the song, or someone will want to do a different solo. We separate to make this possible. However, ultimately we still try for the magic performance. If we’re not happy with the feel of the performance, we do the song again. I don’t worry too much about the tempo being perfectly even from beginning to end. In real life, many songs speed up as they go along. I like that feel, that additional energy. For Hound Dog Taylor, speeding up the song as it went along was normal. That way, people danced faster and faster, which was part of his goal.

Bruce Iglauer. May 2012 - Part 2

Bruce Iglauer
May 2012

Interview contributed by Sean McCarthy

It is our absolute pleasure to bring you this series interviews with Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records (one of the world’s leading Blues record labels), as well as a personal friend of such legendary artists such as Hound Dog Taylor, Albert Collins and Koko Taylor.

Bruce is without doubt one of the most important men, in what is the untold and, for many, the unknown back story of the blues.

He has so much to tell that despite all the material Bruce has provided us with, we could really only scratch the surface.
So the interview series is broken down into three parts.
In Part One we discussed how Bruce got started and some of the history of the Alligator label.
Part Two is all about the modern day Alligator records and some of the artists Alligator has signed to its label.
In the third and final part we talk in more details about Hound Dog Taylor and Albert Collins history.

Welcome to Part Two.

ABC: How does Alligator operate on a nuts and bolts level? Are you primarily responsible for making financial decisions, public relations and production or do you delegate tasks to others? Were you originally a one-man band?

BI: I have a staff of fifteen very good people who do plenty on their own. A sales manager, two publicists, two radio promo people, a new media/new technology director, an international sales manager, a guy who handles both our music publishing and our TV/film/ad placements, a financial controller, a mail order director, an art director/designer, a general office person, a warehouse manager and warehouse worker.
However, all of them would tell you that I’m very much of a control freak. I approve most expenditures, negotiate all deals and write the contracts (I’m not a lawyer but I often pretend to be one), proofread and sometimes rewrite almost all the press releases and artist bios. I’m also responsible for all of our on-line sales deals, including making and supervising our deals with Itunes and Amazon’s download service, Rhapsody, Napster, HD Tracks, etc. etc.
And, as I said, I often produce the records or bring songs to artists. for example, I supervised the mastering of a Roomful of Blues' album, though I didn’t produce it. The producer did a few of small remix tweaks to please me. I also did the final songs choices (with input from Shemekia and the Alligator staff) and supervised the mastering for our Shemekia Copeland's “Deluxe Edition”, which is like a fancy “Best Of.” I’ve also choose the songs for our two-CD 40th Anniversary Collection, that was release in 2011. I also listen to submitted demos and first round entries for the Blues Music Awards, for which I’m a nominator.

ABC: How would an artist, without a track record, attract your attention?

BI: How would an artist attract my attention? By having a unique and personal musical vision, based loosely in the blues tradition, but not recreating what has already been done before. You’d be amazed how many demos I receive with Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson or Stevie Ray Vaughan songs, all done in an attempt to sound like the original. Not only does this show a complete lack of imagination and knowledge about the tradition (if you don’t have original songs, is there no one else to cover?) but how do you beat the original versions of these songs? You don’t. So I look for artists who understand the traditions but want to take them in their own directions.
I need the artists to have an instantly identifiable sound and style. I always go to live performances as I need artists who can really communicate their music to a live audience. We can’t count on much commercial radio or major media coverage, though we work hard to get it. We have to depend on the strength of the artist in live performance as our best selling tool. And I need artists who “get it” about working with us in a team effort, as I described above.
I have a wonderful roster of artists who are smart, motivated and can absolutely kill in live performance. Our artist lineup includes: Marcia Ball, Lonnie Brooks, Buckwheat Zydeco, Michael “Iron Man” Burks, Tommy Castro, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, James Cotton, Tinsley Ellis, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, JJ Grey & Mofro, Guitar Shorty, The Holmes Brothers, Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Janiva Magness, Charlie Musselwhite, Anders Osborne, Roomful of Blues and The Siegel-Schwall Band.

ABC: Do you still go out to clubs to seek out new acts or do you count on acts submitting CDs to you?

BI: I go out to clubs fairly often, though I admit not as often as I used to. I'll fly to L.A. to look at an artist who sent a good demo and comes recommended by a friend with good ears. Right now our roster is quite full and I’m not looking hard for another artist, but that doesn’t mean I’m not always listening. I love going out to hear music in clubs but I don’t always feel as lively the next day as I’d like to.

Bruce Iglauer. April 2012 - Part 1

Bruce Iglauer
April 2012

Interview contributed by Sean McCarthy

It is our absolute pleasure to bring you this series interviews with Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records (one of the world’s leading Blues record labels), as well as a personal friend of such legendary artists such as Hound Dog Taylor, Albert Collins and Koko Taylor.

Bruce is without doubt one of the most important men, in what is the untold and, for many, the unknown back story of the blues.

He has so much to tell that despite all the material Bruce has provided us with, we could really only scratch the surface.
So the interview series is broken down into three parts.
In Part One we discuss with Bruce how he got started and some of the history of the Alligator label.
Part Two is all about the modern day Alligator records and some of the artists Alligator has signed to its label.
In the third and final part we talk in more details about Hound Dog Taylor and Albert Collins history.

Welcome to Part One.

ABC: Hi Bruce, it is extremely nice and a great thrill to speak with you. Could you please give us a little bit of a history lesson… How did you get interested in blues music?

BI: In the 1960s, I was interested in folk music. There was a small folk music ‘boom’ going on, and I liked the acoustic sounds and the somewhat more serious lyrics, which seemed more ‘honest’ to me than the commercial rock and roll on the radio. Some of the songs I heard at that time were blues tunes, but done in a folk style.
The first real blues by a real blues musician that I heard wasn’t until I was in college. That was about 200 miles from Chicago. My sister was at the University of Chicago and they had a very good folk festival (much more traditional music, not like the commercial folk music that I had heard). I came to Chicago in January of 1966 for that festival and heard Mississippi Fred McDowell. It was like a revelation for me—a magic moment when the music leaped across 20 rows of seats and grabbed me by the throat and shook me.
Although Fred was an illiterate, poor, middle-aged black man from the South and I was a young, well-read, middle-class white college student, his music seemed aimed directly at me. And it seemed more honest, more real, than any music I had heard before. It made the commercial folk music I was listening to seem “plastic” and false.
I returned to the small town where I went to college and ordered the one available Fred McDowell album (on Arhoolie). It took six months for the store to locate a copy, so I learned something about small, independent record labels as well as learning a little about the blues. This began my fascination, and I began to buy all the blues records I could find (not very many).
Within a year or so I was hosting the blues program on my college radio station.

ABC: So Blues music was the reason you moved to Chicago?

BI: I had read about the Chicago blues scene and of course bought as many blues records as possible, though there were very few available. I knew Chicago was a huge blues capitol, and also that almost all the music was played in clubs in the black ghetto.
Starting about 1968 I wanted to go to Chicago to see the clubs and hear the music by the real bluesmen and women. I had read that the man who knew all about the scene was Bob Koester, the founder of the Delmark Records label and the owner of a store called the Jazz Record Mart. Having only this information, I took the bus to Chicago and found the store, which was small, shabby and fascinating.
As promised, Bob Koester, a very outspoken and charismatic man, became my guide to the Chicago blues clubs, and took me to places like Theresa’s, The Blue Flame and Pepper’s. I met musicians like Junior Wells, Lefty Dizz, Eddie Shaw and Otis Rush. In 1969, I continued to visit when I could and became fascinated with this “parallel universe” of music that was not listed in the newspapers or played on the radio stations, but played in 40 blues clubs in the ghetto every weekend.
Finally I decided to move to Chicago to be on the blues scene. I expected to stay for a year and then continue my college education. I began to hint to Bob Koester about a job. Meanwhile, I presented Luther Allison, a Delmark Records artist, in a small concert at my college. I did a very aggressive promotion job for the concert and people came from as far as 100 miles. We sold out and did a second show. Bob Koester was impressed.