Linsey Alexander

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. His family was "poor but honest and hardworking" sharecroppers. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his mother and a sister when he was 12 years old.

In Mississippi, Alexander worked as a porter in a hotel laundry room and later as a bicycle technician. He performed for audiences in New York, Canada, and Europe and appeared at the Mississippi Blues Festival. Alexander was a regular performer at Kingston Mines.

Alexander died in Chicago on February 22, 2025, at the age of 82.

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." Alexander plays his own style of electric blues, influenced by soul, R&B, and funk. 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. 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."

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 on the crossroads myth." 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."

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.

A critic described Alexander's music and live show as "loud, raw, rocked out and raucous". Another critic called Alexander a "character" and wrote that his live show was "not to be missed."

As of 2014, the Linsey Alexander Blues Band included Alexander as vocalist and guitarist, Breezy Rodio on guitar, Big City Blues honored Alexander with a "Best Fan Interaction" award in 2012. On June 8, 2014, Alexander was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame at the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends.

Discography Someone's Cookin' in My Kitchen (2004), Linsey Alexander/The L.A.B.B. My Days Are So Long (2006 ), Hoochie Man Music Been There Done That (2012), Delmark Records Two Cats (2017), Delmark Records Live At Rosa's (2020), Delmark Records