Linsey Alexander

{{Short description|American blues songwriter, vocalist and guitarist (1942–2025)}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Linsey Alexander

| image = Linsey Alexander at the Legends.JPG

| caption = Alexander in performance, 2012

| alias = Hoochie Man

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1942|7|23}}

| birth_place = Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2025|2|22|1942|7|23}}

| death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

| instrument = Guitar, vocals

| genre = Chicago blues, electric blues

| occupation = Musician, songwriter

| years_active = 1960-2025

| label = Delmark, Linsey Alexander, the L.A.B.B.

| website = http://www.linseyalexander.com

}}

Linsey Alexander (July 23, 1942 – February 22, 2025) was an American blues songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist. He was a fixture in clubs on Chicago's North Side for nearly two decades and played with numerous blues musicians, including Buddy Guy, A.C. Reed, Magic Slim, and B.B. King.

Life and career

Alexander was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in an area along the Mississippi Blues Trail.{{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander: Live at B.L.U.E.S. October 2011|url=http://www.chicagobluesnetwork.com/Shows/Listen/linsey-alexander-34|website=ChicagoBluesNetwork.com|accessdate=25 January 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130215170733/http://www.chicagobluesnetwork.com/Shows/Listen/linsey-alexander-34|archivedate=15 February 2013}}

His family was "poor but honest and hardworking"{{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander Biography|url=http://www.linseyalexander.com/Bio.htm|accessdate=25 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614155347/http://www.linseyalexander.com/Bio.htm|archive-date=14 June 2012|url-status=dead}} sharecroppers.{{cite web|last=Stephenson|first=Mike|title=Linsey Alexander Interview|url=http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk/documents/BR274-Linsey-Alexander.pdf|publisher=Rhythm & Blues|accessdate=6 February 2013}} He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his mother and a sister when he was 12 years old.

Alexander's interest in music started when a family friend he knew only as Otis taught him enough that when Otis left his guitar as a gift at Alexander's home, he was able pick it up and play. Alexander concentrated on singing as a teenager and later developed his guitar playing. His early influences were blues, country music, and rock and roll, including the blues keyboardist Rosco Gordon and the rock-and-roll artists Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.{{cite journal|last=Whiteis|first=David|title=Linsey Alexander: Liner Notes from His New CD Been There Done That|journal=Rhythm & News|year=2012|series=2012 Festival Issue|issue=729|pages=9|url=http://delmark.com/pdfs/rn729-all.pdf|accessdate=25 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109181938/http://delmark.com/pdfs/rn729-all.pdf|archive-date=9 November 2013|url-status=dead}}

In Mississippi, Alexander worked as a porter in a hotel laundry room and later as a bicycle technician. In 1959, he pawned his first guitar to help pay his way to Chicago by Greyhound bus, following a girl he had met in Memphis. In Chicago, he had a series of jobs, working for a car dealer, at a gas station, and as a cook and busboy. He received a pension after he was wounded while working for the Chicago Police Department.

Alexander was pulled into the Chicago South Side music scene, where he heard soul artists like McKinley Mitchell and Bobby Day and the bluesman Howlin' Wolf. His first guitar was never recovered from the pawnshop, but he bought another guitar and formed a band, the Hot Tomatoes, which was "good enough to enter a talent show at the well-known nightclub on 63rd Street called The Place." Alexander went on to form another band, the Equitable Band, which played at the Launching Pad, at 75th Street and Stony Island, for about eight years. When Alexander was playing at Red's, a Chicago club at 35th Street and Archer, he was approached by an agent who introduced him to the popular North Side blues clubs B.L.U.E.S. and Kingston Mines. His entry into "Blue Chicago" (downtown) exposed him to tourists to whom he started selling independently recorded CDs, which are still selling well. Alexander was a fixture in Chicago North Side clubs for nearly two decades and played with blues notables including Buddy Guy, A.C. Reed, Magic Slim, and B.B. King.{{cite web|author= |title=Linsey Alexander: Been There Done That|url=http://www.chicagobluesguide.com/reviews/cd-reviews/linsey-alexander-cd/linsey-alexander-been-there-cd-page.html|website=ChicagoBluesGuide.com|accessdate=26 January 2013}} He performed for audiences in New York, Canada, and Europe{{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander – Someone's Cookin' in My Kitchen (2004)|url=http://www.israbox.com/1146406654-linsey-alexander-someones-cookin-in-my-kitchen-2004.html|website=IsraBox.com}} and appeared at the Mississippi Blues Festival.{{cite web|last=MacFarland|first=Karen|title=Blues Fest Set to Wail July 1–3 in Davenport|date=15 December 1936 |url=http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=549246|publisher=Quad-Cities Online. Qconline.com|accessdate=28 January 2013}} Alexander was a regular performer at Kingston Mines.{{cite web|url=http://www.kingstonmines.com/schedule.html |title=Schedule – Kingston Mines |website=kingstonmines.com |publisher=Kinston Mines |accessdate=April 28, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425031019/http://www.kingstonmines.com/schedule.html |archivedate=April 25, 2015 }}

Alexander died in Chicago on February 22, 2025, at the age of 82.[https://bluestownmusic.nl/linsey-alexander-passed-away-1942-2025/ Linsey Alexander Passed Away (1942–2025)]. Bluestown Music. Retrieved September 24, 2025.

Music and performance style

Music critic Jim White called Alexander a "still-present, real-deal bluesman" with "deep, rich, gritty vocals" and "guitar work as strong as his vocals."{{cite news|last=White|first=Jim|title=Blues Vet Linsey Alexander Emerges from Chicago|url=http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/blue-notes/34258-blues-vet-linsey-alexander-emerges-from-chicago|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|accessdate=28 January 2013}}

Alexander plays his own style of electric blues, influenced by soul, R&B, and funk.{{cite news|last=Marcus|first=Richard|title=Music Review:Linsey Alexander – Been There Done That|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=20 August 2012 |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-Review-Linsey-Alexander-Been-There-Done-3802620.php|accessdate=28 January 2013}}

The original material he wrote contributed to the survival of the blues genre. His sense of humor shown in his music and his act set him apart from most other blues players. He was known for playing his guitar "with the energy of a 20 year old."{{cite web|last=Malhotra|first=Ankur|title=Linsey Alexander – Chicago Blue Tuesdays|url=http://madisonmusicreview.com/HTML/Artists/LinseyAlexander/LA_Frequency030309.htm|website=MadisonMusicReview.com|accessdate=28 January 2013}} Reviewer Greg Szalony wrote that "at times [Alexander's] vocal approach is more akin to talking than singing" and noted that his "distorted guitar tones" and vocals as "uncannily close to the late Son Seals."{{cite web|last=Szalony|first=Greg|title=Linsey Alexander – Been There Done That|url=http://www.thebluesblast.com/bluesartists/linseyalexander.htm|website=TheBluesBlast.com|accessdate=28 January 2013}}

The music critic David Whiteis wrote that Alexander's guitar style showed "lively improvisational imagination" and was in "good taste" and said Alexander was especially gifted as a songwriter "in command of a lyric vividness." Whiteis described Alexander's song "Saving Robert Johnson" as "a full-scale theatrical vignette set to music ... [that] take[s] on the crossroads myth."{{cite magazine|last=Whiteis |first=David |title=CD Reviews October 2012 – Linsey Alexander |url=http://www.livingblues.com/index.php/inside-living-blues/cd-reviews.html |magazine=Living Blues |accessdate=28 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216015055/http://www.livingblues.com/index.php/inside-living-blues/cd-reviews.html |archivedate=16 December 2014 }} Greg Szalony observed that Alexander brings the blues into the present with the lyrics "I want you to e-mail the devil, I want you to poke him on Facebook." "Saving Robert Johnson" was included in the Mississippi Blues Project, a review of Mississippi blues produced by WXPN in Philadelphia.{{cite web|last=Meister|first=Jonny|title=The Mix: The Mississippi Blues Project|website=NPR |date=October 2012 |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/161816032/the-mix-the-mississippi-blues-project|publisher=NPR Music|accessdate=28 January 2013}}

The Chicago blues historian Karen Hanson wrote in 2007,

Veteran guitarist Linsey Alexander, the "Hoochie Man", plays classic Chicago blues spiced up with the occasional joke or double entendre. Watch him take his guitar for a crowd walk-through, where he'll stop often to flirt with the pretty women. ... These days Alexander is one of the hardest-working bluesmen in the city, appearing as many as six nights a week at Chicago clubs.{{cite book|last=Hanson|first=Karen|title=Today's Chicago Blues|year=2007|publisher=Lake Claremont Press|location=Chicago|isbn=9781893121195|page=118}}

A critic described Alexander's music and live show as "loud, raw, rocked out and raucous".{{cite web|last=Mandeville|first=Liz|title=Three Flavors of Chicago Blues: Big Ray, Linsey Alexander, Donny Nichilo|url=http://www.chicagobluesguide.com/features/liz-mandeville/three-cd-reviews-by-liz-page.html|website=ChicagoBluesGuide.com|accessdate=28 January 2013}} Another critic called Alexander a "character" and wrote that his live show was "not to be missed."{{cite web|last=Ankur|title=Linsey Alexander "The Hoochie Man": Live at the Harmony Bar|url=http://madisonmusicreview.com/?p=2331|website=MadisonMusicReview.com|date=2 February 2010 |accessdate=28 January 2013}}

As of 2014, the Linsey Alexander Blues Band included Alexander as vocalist and guitarist, Breezy Rodio on guitar, and Ronald Simmons on bass.

Awards

A1 Blues Podcast called Alexander's first international release, Been There Done That, "pure blues of the finest quality" and named it "Blues CD of the Year".{{cite web|title=Blues CD of the Year – Linsey Alexander – Been There Done That|url=http://a1artistspotlight.com/|publisher=AB1 Blues Podcast – Blues Music and Interviews|accessdate=January 25, 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125103821/http://a1artistspotlight.com/|archivedate=January 25, 2013}}
Big City Blues honored Alexander with a "Best Fan Interaction" award in 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.bigcitybluesmag.com/HappyAwards2012.html |title=2012 Happy to Have the Blues Awards |author=|year=2012 |website=Bigcitybluesmag.com |publisher=Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine |accessdate=December 22, 2014}}
On June 8, 2014, Alexander was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame at the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends.{{cite web|url=http://www.blueshalloffame.com/Local_Blues_Talent/Local_Blues_Talent_of_Chicago_Illinois_2014.html|title=Chicago Blues Hall of Fall 2014 Inductees|author=|year=2014|website=BluesHallofFame.org|publisher=Chicago Blues of Hall Fame|accessdate=May 23, 2014}}

Discography

Someone's Cookin' in My Kitchen (2004), Linsey Alexander/The L.A.B.B.{{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander: Discography|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/linsey-alexander-mn0001740453|website=AllMusic|accessdate=28 January 2013}}
My Days Are So Long (2006 [2009]), Hoochie Man Music
If You Ain't Got It (2010), Hoochie Man Music{{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander Discography|url=http://airplaydirect.com/music/bands/36071/discography.php?forinclude=true|website=AirPlayDirect.com|accessdate=28 January 2013}}
Been There Done That (2012), Delmark Records
Come Back Baby (2014), Delmark Records {{cite web|title=Linsey Alexander |last=Thompson |first=Mark |url=http://www.chicagobluesguide.com/reviews/cd-reviews/linsey-alexander-cd/linsey_alexander_come_back_baby_cd_page.html|website=ChicagoBluesGuide.com |accessdate=October 20, 2014}}
Two Cats (2017), Delmark Records {{Cite web|url=http://www.discovery-records.com/product-ST92602/linsey-alexander/two-cats.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123092211/http://www.discovery-records.com/product-ST92602/linsey-alexander/two-cats.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=November 23, 2017|title=Linsey Alexander, Label Delmark Records|website=Discovery-records.com|access-date=2017-06-12}}
Live At Rosa's (2020), Delmark Records