Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story

It began with the searing sound of a slide guitar soaring up the fretboard of an electric. In 1970, twenty-three-year-old Bruce Iglauer walked into Florence's Lounge, nestled in the heart of Chicago's South Side, and was overwhelmed by the joyous, raw Chicago blues of Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers. A year later, Iglauer produced Hound Dog's debut album in a mere eight hours and pressed a thousand copies, the absolute limit of his financial resources. From that single album grew Alligator Records, now the largest independent blues record label in the world.

Bitten by the Blues is Iglauer's candid memoir of a life utterly immersed in the blues – and the often-unpredictable business of the blues. Arguably no single individual was present at the creation of more significant contemporary blues music than Iglauer: he personally produced albums by the likes of Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Professor Longhair, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Son Seals, Roy Buchanan, Shemekia Copeland, and countless other major figures in the genre.

Within these pages, Iglauer takes us behind the scenes, sharing unforgettable stories of those charismatic musicians and the classic recording sessions they forged. He delivers an intimate and unvarnished look at the realities of working alongside the true greats of the blues. The book paints a vivid portrait of some of the extraordinary musicians and larger-than-life personalities who brought America's music to life in the smoky bars and packed clubs of Chicago's South and West Sides.

Bitten by the Blues also serves as an expansive history of half a century of blues in Chicago and across the globe, tracing the blues recording business through massive transitions. It explores how a genre of music originally created by and for Black southerners adapted to an influx of white fans and musicians and ultimately found a worldwide audience. While many of the smoky bars and crowded clubs that fostered the vibrant Chicago blues scene have long since disappeared, their soul – and their sound – endures. As authentic and audacious as the music that shaped it, Bitten by the Blues is presented as a raucous and thoroughly engaging journey through the world of Genuine Houserockin' Music.