Born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Linsey Alexander discovered on

Chicago's south side a down to earth city that truly understands and appreciates music.
He grew up in a poor but honest and hardworking family, learning early on that music
has the power to lift the spirit and comfort the soul. In Linsey's own words, "Blues music
is not hard- it's just a documentary about life." His first guitar - a gift from a family friend
who played on the front stoop of Linsey's home in Memphis - was never retrieved from
the pawn shop where he left it almost 50 years ago. Using the money to help pay his
way to Chicago, he now plays a variety of Gibson and Fender guitars, and since 1959,
Linsey Alexander has been perfecting the art of entertainment blues for the sheer and
simple pleasure of it. His easy smile and unpretentious personality define a charismatic
entertainer who loves to perform; and perform he does! Although having played with
B.B.King, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Little Milton, Magic Slim Johnnie Taylor, A.C.Reed,
Larry McCray, Bither Smith, John Primer, Otis Clay, Eddie Clearwater and other great
blues performers., Linsey Alexander has remained resolutely true to his own style. His
first cd’s release, Someone’s Cookin' In My Kitchen, My Days Are So Long and his
release If You Ain't Got It is a compilation of original Blues and R&B tunes. He is
thankful for the good things in his life, and now at last, seems willing to realize that the
friends who encouraged him to keep playing over the years may have known a thing or
two about talent. Maybe, just maybe, he's ready to believe .
An Interview With Linsey Alexander written by Dew Wiuff from Mississippi Blues
Club.
Linsey Alexander is one of those unique “Bluesmen” we have the pleasure of listening to
today. Linsey is 69 years old, and began playing the Memphis region in 1959. He has
seen many changes in the industry, but still remains true to his passion of “the blues”. I
had the pleasure of speaking with Linsey a couple different times this year. He opened
the three day Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in Davenport, Iowa (see our Live Blues
Event Reviews for coverage). We recently spoke more in depth about what is happening
with Linsey Alexander.
DEW: Let’s start out with the greatest question I can think of, what is the meaning of
“The Blues” to you?
LINSEY: The blues are a documentary of life, the way you came up, good and bad
memories. Living the things in life, are the blues. We all relate to these things, these are
the blues.
DEW: Can you explain what it was like on Beale Street in Memphis as a performer
starting out?
LINSEY: I began playing the blues in 1959. At that time Beale Street was a segregated
area. There were four main clubs to play music, but segregation did not allow many of
the great blues performers to play in the clubs, or on Beale Street back then. Many
performers such as myself relocated to Chicago where it was easier to play the clubs.
DEW: What is the process for creating your music with the band now, and what does a
session of playing or recording involve?
LINSEY: The process is instantaneous. I pray and ask to be guided for the strength and
wisdom to do it. Then, it just comes out, we do not rehearse. Many times I just scribble a
few things on paper, and ask the band to follow me. Many songs are made up on stage
as we play, and later recorded.
DEW: I noticed the inside cover of “If You Ain’t Got It” states “This Work Is Dedicated To
Jehovah”. Were you guided spiritually when you created the recording “If You Ain’t Got
It”?
LINSEY: Yes, that is what the song is about. If you ain’t got it, then you better go and get
it. If you wait for that millisecond after midnight which is labeled tomorrow, you will end
up waiting for another tomorrow… tomorrow is just a word. We only have this moment to
live, the rest is our destiny from a greater power, mine is Jehovah. No matter how we try
to control it, what is meant to happen in the moment will happen. The hardest thing in life
is to live for now.

DEW: Is there anything else you would like to mention to the blues community?
LINSEY: Yes, there are a lot of talented and deserving musicians that are not being
heard by the general public. Many perform during the “off nights” and are asked to step
off the stage on the weekends, they also deserve an opportunity to be recognized and
heard.
I realized after doing this interview just what kind of a person is considered a true
“Bluesman”. What attracted me to the great quality of music coming from Linsey
Alexander became obvious. The uniqueness of his music is uplifting to the soul,
because it comes from a Bluesman with a great soul!

Ronald Simmons on bass

==
By Dave van Bladel
Chicago Blues Festival 2013 on Tour in Rotterdam was a concert with multiple faces. A
few weeks earlier we could hear in the same room Mud Morganfield, Tail Dragger and
Bob Corritore (to name just a few). With such a prestigious name as Chicago Blues
Festival do you expect something or what ..... A comparison is then quickly made.
Fabrizio ' Breezy ' Rodio (& vocals guitar) opened with the connecting Ronald Simmons
(bass) and the entire show outstanding Pooky Styx (drums). Mervyn "Harmonica" Hinds
was the first "Star" who was brought to the stage. His singing was disarmingly hoarse
and raw, but of his harmonica play I had expected more. Even his tribute to mentor
Shakey Horton knew little finesse.
Fabrizio 'Breezy' Rodio thought he was acting for a stupid public and ad nauseam
repeated shouting after every solo two or three times the name of the artist. Meanwhile, I
enjoyed one of the two real stars of the evening: Pooky on drums. The other Star, Linsey
Alexander made my whole evening great. Years ago Morris Holt, now in blues heaven,
told me that Linsey was one of his favorites. And Yes! His CD's I already had, but now
I've seen him live, I know that the real "Chi-Art" still lives. What a cocktail of lyricism,
virtuoso guitar playing, then again use of silence, then again soft vocals, then again
piercing guitar playing with out-crying vocals and dancing on the space between the
beat, compelling emotion, stage performance and straight from the heart sung blues!
THE REAL THING!!! Everything what than comes next is having a hard time. Nellie
Travis has everything. A great vocal range, a good act and she knows to communicate
with her audience. But after more than 40 years concert visiting, I get increasingly
difficult to hear gnawed to the bone songs in a new arrangement. Her own composition
"Koko Queen Of The Blues", a tribute to her mentor, on the other hand, was a gem.
Ronald Simmons surprised me with a beautiful tribute to Louis Armstrong. Then I no
more awaited any encore- in the expectation that yet another "Sweet Home Chicago"
could spoil my wonderful evening-. What a wonderful world! Linsey and Pooky, you guys
were my stars!
LINSEY ALEXANDER INTERVIEW By Mike Stephenson
(Many thanks go to Jim Feeney for arranging the interview)

Linsey’s new album ‘Been There, Done That’ on Delmark is getting excellent reviews.
He has been in Chicago since 1960 and has cut a number of fine albums which have
been released on small labels or have been self-released. Mike interviewed Linsey at his
home in Chicago in June of this year

I was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi maybe 1941 or 1942 and I think I stayed there
until I was about twelve or thirteen. We had to sharecrop and my father lived in one
place and my mother lived in another, and I’m not sure if my mother and father were
ever married. I just know my father had four kids with my mother. At some stage, I don’t
know the year, my mother left and left me with my sister and she moved to Memphis and
got a job there. One night we were in the house me and my sisters and brothers, the
four of us and we looked down the road and saw some lights coming and we wondered
who it could be and it was my mother and my older brother from the other side, she had
seven kids that I know of.
 Photo by Eric Coehoorn

So they took us to Memphis from Holly Springs and I had never seen such beauty in my
life. They had the streetcar and it had the trolley wires and stuff, and then I grew up in
Memphis, and mother died in 1958, then I had to stay with my brother. There was a guy
named Otis and he would come by the house and he had a guitar, and instead of me
going off to play football, I would stay there and listen to him play the guitar.

I would just listen and listen and then he asked me if I wanted to try and he taught me to
play ‘Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley’ and he wouldn’t take his guitar home at night
and I used to play it and one day he came by the house, played the guitar and he told
me he would see us later and he never came back, and I never saw him again.

So he left me the guitar and I would take it with me when I played football, and I used to
play it when I walked home and the neighbors used to know I was coming. I got a job in
a hotel in the town, right onside of the Mississippi river and my whole family used to
work there. I was a porter in the laundry room. I quit that and went to work at a bike store
as a bicycle technician. My brother, who is older than me, said we should get out of town
and we had a brother in Chicago, so me and him relocated to Chicago between 1959
and 1960.
When I got here I lived with my brother, and the brother who came to Chicago with me
got sick and he went back to Memphis and I stayed in Chicago, and my brother took me
out and got me a job at a car dealer, and I took one of their cars somewhere and had an
accident so they fired me. My brother had five kids so I then used to babysit them. I met
a guy named Robert and he had pretty cousins and later on I had two kids by one of
them and me and him got a place together and we were working at a gas station on 24th
Street. I then got a job as a cook and bus boy at Marlene’s Restaurant and I started
hanging out, and I used to go and see Howlin’ Wolf at The Playhouse at 43rd Street and
we would go there every Wednesday to see him and we didn’t have to pay anything to
get in.

Then we would go down to 39th Street and see Lefty Dizz. Six or seven years later I met
a guy and we thought we would get a band together, but I had stopped playing, so I
started playing again and I was the guitarist and he was on bass. We got a drummer and
we got in the garage and practiced and we used to call ourselves the Hot Tomatoes. We
got our first gig out in Phoenix at a place called Boots And Saddles and it was a New
Year’s party and it was so cold, and they had us on the stage and the drummer got
drunk and the snare drum jumped off and the snare drum rolled down the aisle and the
drummer got off his seat and tried to get it and everybody thought it was part of the act.
I then started hanging around with the likes of Garland Green and Artie White. There
used to be a place called The Place on 63rd Street and that’s where we, the Hot
Tomatoes, would go there with the talent show every Sunday and play one song, and
every two weeks we would come out with a new song. I got more advanced than my
band and they started holding me back, so I got rid of the drummer and we got another
bass player and we got a gig at a place called The Magic Touch in Brookfield.

It was one of those strip joints and they made us sit back behind the curtains to play. We
got rid of the drummer, as he was a weed head. I then got another guitar player so that
made us a four piece and that was my brother-in-law. We got a group and named it
Equitable Blues Band and we kept that name for a while and we played a lot of gigs, and
we played at a place on 75th and tone Island called The Launching Pad and we played
there for about eight years.

We left there and went to 35th and Archer and played for about ten years and after that
this guy who had been coming in to watch us asked us why we were playing there. We
told him that there was nowhere else to play but the money wasn’t that good, we got
about $150 on average to pay four guys. This guy wanted to be our agent. So he came
by and took some pictures of me and the band, and we then went out to different clubs.
 We went to B.L.U.E.S on Halsted and the band The Rhythm King Blues were playing
and they let me sit in. The guy who wanted to be my agent told Doc from Kingston Mines
to come over and watch me when I sat in and he liked me, and the agent called me up
and told me that he had got me a Tuesday night at Blue Chicago. I was now under my
own name so I got this gig at Blue Chicago and they gave me every other Tuesday and I
have now been working that for fourteen years and a weekend a month.

I have also been working at Kingston Mines regular too. I was playing there on a Sunday
and a Wednesday and then I was playing at B.L.U.E.S., and along with playing at Blue
Chicago I was now in the business. I then went and cut me a CD, a four track CD that
had ‘I’m Tired’, ‘Rainy Night’, ‘User’ and ‘Higher’ on it. I had about $4,000 saved up and
Ric Hall had a studio and we went ahead and made that CD and printed up 1,000 of
them. I was selling them for $10 and I took 25 of them to my gig and sold them all after
the first set and I thought, well this is going to be fun.

I have sold about 8,000 in all of that CD at $10 apiece. J.W. Williams was playing
Kingston Mines along with Kid Dynamite and Kid got sick and J.W. Williams had to cover
the gig and that didn’t work out and they then gave me that spot and I was starting to
make some good money then.
I then went and made another CD called ‘Someone’s Cookin’ In My Kitchen’ with Ric
Hall again, and this time we had a whole band on there including a brass section, and
we released it in 2003 although we had been recording it since about 1998 as Ric was
busy playing with The Dells, doing studio work and playing with me, so it took that long. I
must have sold about 1,0000 of that CD and it’s still selling at the price of $20.

I then did another CD called ‘My Days Are So Long’ and I did that with Pete Galanis who
played with Howard And The White Boys and it was done at DuPage College. I had
Chico Banks and Carlos Showers on guitars, Andre Howard on bass who plays with
Magic Slim and a girl drummer named Janet Kramer on that disc. It turned out to be
pretty good as well. Then my next CD has the front cover of me sitting on my bike and
that was done by Pete Galanis, and I had Mike Wheeler and Fabrizio Rodio on guitars,
Stanley Banks on the keyboards and Pooky Styx on drums and two horn players, one of
them being a girl named Ayako Minami, and the CD has done very well for me and it’s
called ‘If You Ain’t Got It’.

I gave the CD to Bob and his wife Sue at Delmark and they liked it. How I connected
with Delmark Records was Steve Wagner was doing one of his live broadcasts and
Toronzo Cannon was there, and Toronzo let me sit in.
 I got up and played some stuff and Steve liked it, and I gave him some of my CDs and
he said he would let Bob Koester hear them and I called them back one day and I spoke
with Bob and he told me that Delmark Records were going to record me. So they set up
a contract with me, and what Bob wanted to do was to buy all of my CDs and maybe put
them out on his label but what he wanted to do was make a CD for him and Delmark
first. For the recordings I didn’t have a song ready for the sessions so I had to get busy
writing and I came up with about seven numbers for the session, so I started taking
songs off of my own CDs that hadn’t got air play so I had then about thirteen songs.

So I did some new recordings on ‘Been There And Done That’ and ‘Going Up On The
Roof’. I went and got the musicians like Mike Wheeler on guitar, Roosevelt Purifoy on
the keys, Greg McDaniel on bass, and Billy Branch as special guest amongst others. We
had three days to do this so I went into the studio and did most of it live right there, and I
didn’t have to re-dub nothing and they said it was one of the quickest recordings they
have done.

I wasn’t in any booth in the studio, I was in the middle of the floor playing and singing
with the band and all I had to do was go back in to do two guitar solos. It’s all original
material except for one cover, which was a Willie Kent number ‘Look Like It’s Going To
Rain’. I had told Willie before he died that I would like to record that song one day.
I had thought about recording it on one of my other CDs but they wanted a lot of
money for copyright so I didn’t do it, but Delmark said they would take care of it for me.

Over the years I have played with Bobby Rush, Artie ‘Blues Boy’ White, B.B. King, and
before Buddy Guy got to be where he is today, I played with him at his club on 43rd
Street, there was me and Johnny Drummer and a couple of other musicians and we
were Buddy’s house band and we played behind Lefty Dizz and Buddy. Buddy liked us
so well that he wanted to take us to Argentina on tour but the money wasn’t good
enough for me to leave my day job.

I’ve played behind Carlos Thomas, Super Chikan, and I played for a short while with
Howlin’ Wolf when he was with Hubert Sumlin years back. In the past I have worked for
Chicago Police Department but I can’t say too much about that and I get a pension from
that. I got wounded and they then sat me behind a desk, but I didn’t want that so they
gave me a job in expediting people, like bringing them back from say New York and then
they would give me some days off which allowed me to play my music.

I got tired of doing this so they told me I could get an advanced pension. I took it and
then I could play my music. I took the pension in about 1999 and 2000, about the same
time I made that first CD and music has been a full time thing for me since then.
I’m now keeping very busy playing and last night I did an acoustic thing with another
artist but I don’t like doing that too much. I’ve been a guest on one of Toronzo Cannon’s
CDs and I’ve done some recordings with Bonnie Lee, a 45 named ‘I’m Good’ and I’ve
done some work with Big Bill Collins on his label called ‘I Love You But I’m Not In Love
With You’ and it was going to be a 45 but I don’t think it came out but it would have been
on Collins’ label which was Big Boy Records.

Another boy named Phil Loman, I did a 45 with him and he had his own label but it didn’t
go nowhere. No other recordings that I can think of. None of my songs have been on
paper, they just come to my mind and I play and record them. That song on my Delmark
CD ‘My Mama Gave Me The Blues’, when we recorded it that was off the top of my
head, although nobody knew that at the time. I’ve got a twelve years old son who plays
guitar and I have had him up on stage at the jam sessions at Kingston Mines and he
really surprised me and it gave me a warm feeling!
==
Linsey Alexander - Two Cats (Delmark) By Robin Zimmerman

As one of the last few bluesmen who has “come up” from Mississippi and emigrated to
Chicago, Linsey Alexander commands respect. But, he’s also made his mark in other
ways. Alexander has played with everyone from B.B. King and Bobby Rush to Magic
Slim and other big names. A longtime fixture at North Side blues clubs like Kingston
Mines and Blue Chicago, Alexander has helped spread the Chicago blues gospel to
tourists from all over the world. As the Windy City’s own “Hoochie Man,” Alexander turns
in electrifying live performances that blend the best of blues, funk, soul and R & B. With
his gritty vocal delivery, often punctuated by spoken word, Alexander has been one of
the city’s most popular performers since he came on the scene in 1959.

While Alexander certainly possesses an impressive blues resume, his songwriting skills
stand as one of his signature accomplishments. His ability to turn a phrase are front and
center on his Delmark release, Two Cats. But, Alexander is no one-trick pony as he has
serious guitar skills, too. Two Cats is Alexander’s third collaboration with Delmark.
Before signing with this iconic local label, the enterprising “Hoochie Man” hustled and
hawked his own homemade CDs at his shows. Fortunately for those who didn’t get an
Alexander original, Delmark has reprised several tracks on “Two Cats.”
 The collaboration between this landmark
label and local fan favorite works on many
levels. Both of his previous Delmark
releases, Been There, Done That and Come
Back Baby were very well received.

Delmark has also helped assemble a brilliant

cast of musicians, including an impressive
horn section, that are perfectly suited to
Alexander’s musical style. Two Cats was
produced by Alexander and Steve Wagner.
The horns are right out of the gate as the first
track, “I’m Not Your Problem,” features a
Stax-style R & B groove that’s perfect for
Alexander’s somewhat world-weary delivery.

Kenny Anderson is credited with playing

trumpet and crafting the horn arrangements
for Hank Ford (tenor sax) and Norman Palm
(trombone). Anthony Palmer's guitar
provides the perfect counterpart to
Alexander's sizzling solo work. They are
joined by EG McDaniel who plays a solid
bass throughout the duration of the album.
Breezy Rodio steps in to play guitar on the
title track as well as “Comb Over Blues.”

The Hoochie Man by Robert Pasenko

Romp is the operative word on “Where Did You Take Your Clothes Off?” Featuring a
Buddy Guy style guitar riff, Alexander then rips into the woman who did him wrong. Paul
Hanover’s magnificently mournful harp work is perfectly timed to highlight every one of
Alexander’s grievances. "That Ain’t Right” follows a similar theme with Alexander
skillfully using spoken word to enunciate his take on immortal blues lines like “let you live
in a penthouse/ you said it was a shack/ and gave you seven children/ now you want to
give them back.” Despite its mournful title, the next track, “Why I Sing the Blues” is a
bouncy number, which features some fine rhythms by keyboardist Roosevelt Purifoy on
piano and Bryant Parker on drums.

The old “blues” laws certainly could apply to the racy title track “Two Cats.” Here, the
Hoochie Man lives up to his name with a lascivious blend of double entendre lines.
However, the musicians keep it clean with stellar performances on every level. James
Wilson comes on to play drums behind Alexander’s cat tale. Alexander’s lyrics range
from risqué to humorously topical on the next track.
Linsey Alexander and Floyd Wilson by Robert Pasenko

On this cut, he laments the fact that he lives with a “Facebook Woman” and only sees an
“Apple, Macintosh and PC” on the dinner table. But, Alexander literally has the last word
as he plans on leaving her for the older women he can troll on “MySpace!”

Alexander’s unlucky-in-love laments continues with, “I’m in Love with a Woman.” On this
track, Alexander finds himself fancying a woman “who has a woman, too.” Again,
Alexander and the band don’t miss a beat on the musical front. The band then segues
into a soulful “Til I Kissed You,” which features Alexander conjuring up visions of Isaac
Hayes with his deep and hypnotic vocal delivery.

This track is brought back at the end of Two Cats, with J. Parker coming in as a guest
rapper on “The Kiss Revisited.” After more slow grooves and smooth harp on “How
Could You Do Me Like You Do,” Alexander slides into an entirely different topic. His
“Reefer and Blow” is a cautionary tale about yet another love interest making him the fall
guy after smoking weed and “tooting cocaine.” Meanwhile, Purifoy is busy laying down
some really arresting piano lines!

Following the blues-rock beat of “Thinking About Me,” Alexander moves on to the many
ways he plans on living right “Starting Monday.”
This track will strike a chord with those
who resolve to do better after a
weekend bender. Alexander tears into
the state of the union with his “Comb
Over Blues.” Loosely based on
“Eisenhower Blues,” he sings about
“Twitter makes me jitter, what we
gonna do?” He wraps up with spoken
word about “plans as big as my hands!”
Alexander and Delmark should be
given a big hand for their collaboration
on Two Cats. This new release
showcases Alexander’s musicianship
as well as his ability to keep blues
relevant by penning topical material. In
this era of pre-fabricated musical tracks
and predictable song lyrics, Alexander
stands out as a true blues original.
==