Album Review: Various Artists, Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection

Chicago blues musicians had to meet the demands of their hard working, hard drinking inner-city audiences. So the volume went up, lyrics got tougher, the music was angry, sexual, cathartic and sometimes just a whole lot of fun.

Stars: 5/5
Verdict: The history of Chicago blues in Alligator's shoes across two exciting discs.

The Alligator label, founded in 1971, was home to exceptional blues talents: earthy bellower Koko Taylor, incendiary guitarist Albert Collins (pictured above), Li'l Ed with his Blues Imperials, Son Seals, Luther Allison, Lonnie Brooks, James Cotton .. .

Four decades on the label is still here - and this double disc retrospective showcases some of the fiery and white-knuckle artists it recorded under the banner "genuine houserockin' music".

This 38-song collection shows Alligator still pulling out great acts like JJ Grey and Mofro (Grey a white guy from Florida who played all the chicken-wire bars and juke joints), guitarist Tinsley Ellis, R&B belter Shemekia Copeland (daughter of guitarist Johnny) and Corey Harris.

Cornerstone names on Alligator grab attention even now. The late Koko Taylor sounds as menacingly sexual today on I'm a Woman ("I could make love to a crocodile") as she did in 1978. It's a helluva opener.

Thereafter start ticking off razor-sharp guitarists: Collins with I Ain't Drunk; Li'l Ed with the overdrive Icicles in my Meatloaf; Guitar Shorty whipping out threatening wah-wah; Johnny Winter; Coco Montoya who was in John Mayall's Bluesbeakers for a decade; Lonnie Mack with Stevie Ray Vaughan setting a land-speed record on Double Whammy; the barbed wire guitar sound of the late Hound Dog Taylor...

Alligator picked up where the Chess label left off, and its raw and raucous blues still speaks to us today. Shouts it sometimes too.

- TimeOut / elsewhere.co.nz