Pig Pidgeon

This band was a true icon of the “Woodstock Era”. “Pig Iron” evolved from a band known as “The Oz n’ Ends” that included keyboard player / vocalist Adam Ippolito aka “Ozzie” and drummer/lead vocalist Alan Abrahams. At that time the group had a lead guitarist known as “Fast Eddie”…

A quirky detour of late-'60s British progressive/blues rock, Blodwyn Pig was founded by former Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams, who left Tull after the This Was album. Abrahams was joined by bassist Andy Pyle, drummer Ron Berg, and Jack Lancaster, who gave the outfit their most distinctive colorings via his saxophone and flute. On their two albums, they explored a jazz/blues/progressive style somewhat in the mold of (unsurprisingly) Jethro Tull, but with a lighter feel. They also bore some similarities to John Mayall's jazzy late-'60s versions of the Bluesbreakers, or perhaps Colosseum, but with more eclectic material. Both of their LPs made the British Top Ten, though the players' instrumental skills were handicapped by thin vocals and erratic (though oft-imaginative) material. The group were effectively finished by Abrahams' departure after 1970's Getting to This. They briefly reunited in the mid-'70s, and Abrahams was part of a different lineup that reformed in the late '80s; they have since issued a couple of albums in the 1990s.

When blues fans Jerry Del Giudice and Edward Chmelewski started the Blind Pig label as an outgrowth of the live venue of the same name in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1977, there was no way they could have known the home they were creating for blues and Americana music would have over the next four decades. The number of legends who have recorded for the label is staggering, and their finest moments are collected on the brand new Blind Pig Records 40th Anniversary Collection. With 34 classic tracks on 2 CDs, the collection spans 40 years of blues history. This wide-ranging compilation, which boasts more than 2 hours of music, is a study in the genre, from current titans like Popa Chubby, Albert Cummings and Victor Wainwright & The WildRoots winners of Best Band at the 2016 Blues Musics to no fewer than 13 legends enshrined in the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, with James Cotton, Otis Rush, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Otis Clay and Magic Slim among them, not to mention a classic live recording by the one and only Muddy Waters.