Bruce Iglauer interview: 40 years of Alligator Records
Bruce Iglauer started Alligator Records in 1971 because Hound Dog Taylor’s music gave him no other choice. If he didn’t do it, who would?
That imperative – the sense that the world must hear this, right now – guides Iglauer to this day. He has put out more than 250 albums by some of the pivotal blues artists of the last 40 years, including Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter, Son Seals, Luther Allison, Corey Harris, Mavis Staples and Shemekia Copeland (some of Alligator's classic albums listed HERE).
At his office in the three-story Alligator building on the North Side, he remains undeterred by a business that has dealt him his share of heartache: several of his closest friends, most recently the great blues singer Koko Taylor, have died; the record business has been in a decade-long economic decline; and the blues is a mere sliver of the U.S. music market, representing less than 1 percent of its sales.
Yet Iglauer remains an enthusiast, a vigorous advocate for the blues who runs his label with an energy that can verge on manic. He puts in long days, doing everything from producing records and listening to demos to assisting artists who need help paying bills and drumming up overseas business. He is currently exploring a licensing deal with a Shanghai media conglomerate to bring Alligator recordings to China. With a staff of 15, Iglauer’s Alligator Records remains a blues cornerstone, a $2 million a year business that dispenses $500,000 in royalty checks to artists annually.
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