Hot Wax: Albert Collins, Robert Cray & Johnny Copeland’s Showdown! (1985/2024)

Esteemed blues label Alligator Records has been reissuing a truckload of hot-off-the-griddle flapjacks this year, culminating in this superstar collection of head-cutting axe-wranglers. Originally released on vinyl in 1985, Showdown! features seasoned blues veterans Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland spanking the strings alongside (relatively) new guy Robert Cray. The results are enough to warm the heart of even the most diehard blues traditionalist, then and now. While Stevie Ray was forging his own blues pathways during the ‘80s, this trio of talented cats were showcasing their own considerable skills for the hottest label in town. Showdown! earned the trio a Grammy™ Award for “Best Traditional Blues Recording” and the record has since become considered a classic of blues guitar.

Bluesmasters Albert Collins, Robert Cray & Johnny Copeland

Texas-born Albert Collins, a/k/a ‘The Ice Man,’ was the old head in the studio, the guitarist making his bones by playing juke-joints and dive bars in the rough ‘n’ tumble Southeastern region of the Lone Star State while still a teenager with his band the Rhythm Rockers. After a few years of banging around Houston, Collins – then only 22 – was joined in the Rhythm Rockers by 17-year-old Johnny Copeland, who soon split out on his own to record singles for labels like Duke, Mercury, and Golden Eagle Records. Many of Copeland’s early releases, regional hits like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lily” and “Down On Bending Knees,” spotlighted his soulful vocals above his fiery guitarplay. It wasn’t until Copeland signed with Rounder Records and released albums like 1981’s Copeland Special and 1985’s Bringin’ It All Back Home, that Copeland’s six-string skills really came to be appreciated by blues fans.

Collins released his own first single, “Freeze,” in 1958 for the regional indie Kangaroo Records, but it was his 1964 recording of “Frosty” that would become the guitarist’s signature song. Collins’ various singles were collected on his first album, 1965’s The Cool Sound of Albert Collins. A friendship with boogie-rockers Canned Heat led to the guitarist’s relocation to California, where he found a modicum of success in the rock ‘n’ roll world, touring with bands like the Grateful Dead and contributing his fretwork to albums by artists like Ike & Tina Turner. It was his association with Alligator Records that propelled him to blues stardom, however, albums like 1978’s Ice Pickin’ and 1980’s Frostbite placing Collins squarely in the center of the ‘80s blues revival.

Robert Cray, the youngest of our three six-string wizards, was a good two decades behind his mentors when he launched his own individual voyage into the blues. Inspired by seeing Collins perform at his high school graduation party, Cray formed his namesake band in the late ‘70s with fellow legend Curtis Salgado. Cray appeared in as the uncredited bass player with the fictional Otis Day & the Knights band in the 1978 movie National Lampoon’s Animal House and released his debut album, Who’s Been Talkin’, in 1980 for the soon-to-be-bankrupt Tomato Records label. A subsequent deal with the far more stable Hightone Records label resulted in 1983’s critically-acclaimed Bad Influence album, which announced Cray’s talents to the blues world, followed by 1985’s False Accusations, which edged the guitarist into the mainstream.

Showdown!

All three artists have since been honored with induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, among their many other accolades, so getting talents of this caliber together in the studio to record together was a significant move. In a 2011 interview, Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer chose Showdown! as his favorite release, telling this writer that “it’s won every kind of blues award, but musically speaking, it was a record by three men that really loved each other and really loved making music together. I think that a lot of that love, and some of the competitiveness, and some of the father-son relationship that Albert had with both Johnny and Robert, was captured in the musical performances. The guys came in, they knew they were doing something special, and for myself and Dick Shurman, my co-producer, a lot of our job was to get out of the way and let it happen.”

Showdown! does not disappoint – the three guitarists’ talents mesh well together on the album’s ten tracks. The chosen material is largely comprised of blues and R&B covers – albeit relatively obscure ones – with a handful of original songs (two by Copeland, one each from Collins and Cray) thrown in to spice up the gumbo pot somewhat. The classic “T-Bone Shuffle” kicks off the festivities, the signature song of Texas guitarist T-Bone Walker who influenced, really, all three men. It’s a jaunty, smooth-as-silk performance with all three artists sharing the microphone and ripping off terrific solos – Copeland’s a sharp, stinging flurry of notes; Collins’ his typical natural-bred cool; and Cray’s a jazzy flourish to finish up the song. Copeland’s “Lion’s Den” is a real roadrunner, his larger-than-life vox matched by his over-the-top solo; by contrast, Collins veers closer to rock ‘n’ roll turf with his razor-sharp licks incorporating a rockabilly vibe.

The other Copeland original on Showdown!, “Bring Your Fine Self Home,” is a moody blues torch-song that showcases the enormous talents of all three musicians. With Collins blowing a mournful harp and adding scraps of emotional lead guitar, both Copeland and Cray provide texture with flowing rhythm guitarplay; Johnny provides the song’s heartbreak vocals. The trio’s take on Houston bluesman Hop Wilson’s voodoo vamp “Black Cat Bone” opens with verbal interplay between Copeland and Collins and launching into a deep groove (courtesy of drummer Casey Jones and bassist Johnny B. Gayden) before turning into an exciting guitar battle between the two bluesmen. Cray’s “The Dream” is a slow-burning blues heavy on atmospherics and featuring Cray’s soulful voice with Collins’ guitar underlining the lyrics. “Albert’s Alley” is a swinging, up-tempo instrumental while a cover of Ray Charles’ “Blackjack,” which closed the original 1985 LP, allows each guitarist to stretch out and strut their stuff.       

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There’s not a duff track to be found on Showdown!, the album’s light-handed production allowing the three guitarists the freedom to cut loose and just revel in the joy of music-making. This clear vinyl deluxe reissue, with a gatefold cover featuring unpublished photos and Alligator head honcho Bruce Iglauer’s memories of the sessions, is even ten percent better than the original, as it includes a bonus track in the form of a fiery cover of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones’ “Something To Remember You By,” a performance every bit as red-hot as the first nine tracks. If you’re a fan of blues guitar, you owe it to yourself to track down this Showdown! reissue. Honestly, it just doesn’t get any better than this, a super-session featuring three of the genre’s greatest talents. Grade: A+ (Alligator Records, released November 29th, 2024)

Buy the vinyl from Amazon: Albert Collins, Robert Cray & Johnny Copeland’s Showdown!

CD Review: Alligator Records 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music (2021)

Alligator Records celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – no mean feat for a staunchly independent label – and they have good reason to be proud. The Chicago-based label has released a lot of great music in the five decades since that first Hound Dog Taylor record, and Alligator’s catalog of over 300 titles features some of the best and brightest roots ‘n’ blues artists that have traveled the backroads of America. 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music is budget-priced (three discs for under $30) anniversary box set offering up a whopping 58 songs and nearly four hours of music, taking the listener for an entertaining stroll through the label’s storied history.

Alligator Records: 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

Disc one includes legends like the aforementioned Mr. Taylor (whose “Give Me Back My Wig” defined the label’s mission statement of “genuine houserockin’ music”); the great Koko Taylor (whose “I’m A Woman” puts Muddy in his place); and skilled guitarslingers like Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, Fenton Robinson, and Johnny Winter, who explore a variety of styles. You’ll also find harp maestros Big Walter Horton and James Cotton, and much-beloved artists like Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, and Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women. Throw in some blues-rock jams by the Paladins, and honky-tonk piano-pounding by New Orleans legend Professor Longhair and you have a nearly-perfect 18-track album.

If that’s not enough to get yer motor revving into overdrive, disc two will melt your brain with incendiary tracks from talents like the late, great Michael “Iron Man” Burks, the always-rowdy Little Charlie & the Nightcats, and more harmonica wizardry from masters like Carey Bell and Billy Boy Arnold. Disc two showcases the label’s incredible diversity, mixing songs from soul-blues outfits like the Holmes Brothers and the Kinsey Report with performances by great singers like Janiva Magness, Mavis Staples, and the underrated Katie Webster. The legendary “Steady Rollin’” Bob Margolin is represented here, as are talented cats like Kenny Neal and Joe Louis Walker, and lesser-known but influential artists like Corey Harris and Michael Hill. Throw in some classic Zydeco from C.J. Chenier and a track from the innovative blues-rock outfit the Siegel-Schwall Band, among other fine performances, and you have 21 red-hot tunes that will torch your stereo speakers with pure flamethrower blues…

Still not enough for ya? Man, you drive a hard bargain…how ‘bout disc three and 21 houserockin’ tracks from skilled bluesmen and women like Marcia Ball, Billy Branch, Toronzo Cannon, and Roomful of Blues. There’s no shortage of skilled fretburners like Tinsley Ellis, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Selwyn Birchwood, and Coco Montoya to be found, and bands like Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, the Nick Moss Band (featuring the extraordinary harp player Dennis Gruenling), Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, and Tommy Castro & the Painkillers are among the most popular (and hardest-working) blues gangs haunting your local juke-joint these past few years. Shemekia Copeland and Curtis Salgado are two of the most talented blues singers on the scene today, and you can’t overlook legends like Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, and Guitar Shorty.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Altogether, 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music does a great job of documenting a half-century of Alligator Records’ irreplaceable and invaluable contribution to American music. The three-disc set includes a 40pp color booklet and provides the listener a veritable roadmap of the evolution of roots ‘n’ blues music over the past five decades. It’s a great sampler of the wealth of talent the label has to offer, and if you pick up this box set and don’t immediate order a dozen or so discs from the featured artists, I have to seriously question your taste in music…maybe you’d be happier with a shiny new Justin Bieber album? For the rest of us, there’s nothing but “genuine houserockin’ music” on the menu. Kudos to Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer and his staff for this incredible musical milestone! (Alligator Records, released June 18th, 2021)

Buy the CD from Amazon: 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

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Bruce Iglauer - Bitten by the Blues book review
Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection CD review

Book Review: Brucer Iglauer & Patrick A. Roberts' Bitten By The Blues (2018)

Whether label founder Bruce Iglauer would admit it or not, Alligator Records is an American treasure. From the label’s initial 1971 release – the white-hot self-titled album by Chicago blues trio Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers – and throughout the ensuing decades, Alligator would become the foremost champion of that most American of music genres, the blues.

With a deep catalog of over 350 albums released over the span of almost 50 years, Iglauer and Alligator Records has documented and preserved music by both blues legends and lesser-knowns alike, sometimes dabbling in Americana, R&B, blues-rock, and even reggae music (!) without moving far from the label’s core mission.

Alligator’s legacy is built on the blues, however, with albums from the aforementioned Hound Dog Taylor – whose raucous sound would become the template for the label’s future releases (the label’s slogan is “Genuine HouseRockin’ Music”) – and bona fide greats like Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, and Charlie Musselwhite building a foundation for the business. There are also artists like Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, and Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women, among several others, whose careers were nurtured by the label and with whom the artists’ fortunes have long been tied.   

Bruce Iglauer’s Bitten By The Blues

I first met Alligator’s Bruce Iglauer at a NAIRD music trade group convention in Nashville back in the 1990s and would get to know him a little better during my tenure as the About.com “Blues Expert” circa 2008-2014. I’ve found him to be a smart, generous, supportive individual who you’d never guess ran a successful record label, a dolphin swimming among sharks as it were. As a couple of interviews we’ve done over the years has shown, Bruce is also a great storyteller, so it’s only natural that nearly a half-century after launching the label that would become his life’s work that Iglauer would get around to putting some of those stories down in print. Working with noted writer and Northern Illinois University associate professor Patrick A. Roberts, Iglauer has produced Bitten By The Blues: The Alligator Records Story, a book that is part autobiography and part label history, the man and his work forever joined at the hip.

Bitten By The Blues tells the tale of blues music in the latter part of the 20th century and the early 2000s, with art and commerce intersecting in often interesting ways. Iglauer has been intimately involved in the blues music scene since his late 1960s college days, and has been deeply immersed in the business of music nearly as long. Bitten By The Blues digs deep into the hidden mechanisms of the music biz, offering up a fascinating portrait of the ups and downs of running what, at this point, is one of American’s longest-running independent record labels. Unlike men in similar positions in the industry, Iglauer isn’t afraid to tell the whole story, warts and all, and the book offers reminders of bad business decisions, or situations where the blues-lovin’ Bruce went into a bad deal following his heart rather than his head. 

Iglauer’s triumphs far outweigh his failures, however, and his successes have led to some mighty fine music. Bitten By The Blues is chockful of inside stories about working with Alligator artists like Koko Taylor, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan, and Albert Collins as well as Bruce’s friendships with legends like Junior Wells and Luther Allison. Sometimes Alligator’s triumphs aren’t readily apparent, or they’re the result of a stroke of luck, like the recording of New Orleans music legend Professor Longhair’s final album, Crawfish Fiesta. Iglauer writes of loss – the impact of the death of Alligator’s raison d'être, Hound Dog Taylor is notably significant, as was the loss of Michael “Iron Man” Burke – as well as the challenges and obstacles of running an old-school record label in the era of streaming and diminishing sales of physical media like vinyl and CDs.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Iglauer imbues Bitten By The Blues with the same wit, humor, and charm that he evinces in person, and his larger-than-life personality shines through every page. Iglauer admits that while he’s always envisioned Alligator Records as a big family, not every artist or employee has always been happy. Although he’s known as a straight-shooter who does right by his artists, a few have complained of royalties they thought they deserved or of slights by the label and, to his credit, Bruce addresses these controversies in the book. It’s telling, though, that not only has Alligator had several artists who enjoyed lengthy careers with the label, they’ve also had more than a handful of talents who have left the Chicago institution’s ranks only to return and record some of the best music of their lives.

Most importantly, perhaps, Bitten By The Blues reveals some of Bruce’s vision for the future of the label, a future that’s not carved in stone by any means, but is strengthened by the label’s discovery and development of young talents like Shemekia Copeland and Selwyn Birchwood as well as the addition of road-tested blues veterans like Tommy Castro, Nick Moss, and Tinsley Ellis to the label’s ever-evolving roster. Bitten By The Blues is an insightful and entertaining read for any blues music fanatic or anybody interested in the business of music. The only (admittedly minor) quibble I have with the book is that I’d loved to have seen more photos, but extra credit to Bruce for including a complete Alligator Records discography that we rabid collectors can use as a convenient shopping list. Grade: A+ (University of Chicago Press, published October 19, 2018)

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Brucer Iglauer & Patrick A. Roberts’ Bitten By The Blues

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Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection CD review