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It's no surprise that Jessi Alexander was born in a small town halfway between Memphis and Nashville. Her sultry voice expresses the pain, longing, and despair of the music and life of the region.
"Growing up, I had such a wide range of influences," she says. "I remember thinking that Linda Rondstadt was country. So was Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs and Dolly Parton. I didn't have the same kind of boundaries you see in music today."
'Honeysuckle Sweet', Alexander's debut album released in March of 2005 on Columbia, introduces an artist without boundaries, whose confidence in herself and her roots shines through in each cut.
Jessi grew up in west Tennessee, spending summers with her father in Memphis after her parents divorced when she was just a preschooler. She remembers walking along Beale Street before it was sanitized for tourists, stumbling over winos, seeing fights, and just taking in the scene and the music. Like many musicians, Jessi remembers the Christmas as a child that an acoustic guitar appeared under the tree. But she showed her stubborn streak early on by refusing to play it. You see, she wanted a bass, having heard one growl on a B.B. King record and asking her father for "that low thing."
"Other kids were into soccer and all I wanted to do was listen to these records. Having my dad's stack of records was a great starting point," she says.
So she listened and absorbed. The Band, Bob Wills, Karla Bonoff, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Bobbi Gentry, Jackson Browne, Hank Williams and, always, Patsy Cline. In fact, when she realized, at age 10, that she could sing, it was Cline's vocals she tried to channel. So much so that young Jessi eventually had to work to stop sounding like Cline. That memory brings a laugh from Jessi.
"Then I started sounding too much like Bonnie Raitt. When I moved here, I really wanted to start to create Jessi."
She moved to Nashville after leaving Middle Tennessee State University, where she studied social work by day and played in bands by night. Instead of playing for tips in the bars along Broadway, she sought out musicians she could learn from, who could help her develop from bar singer to full-fledged artist.
That happened through songwriting, she says, and the results are evident in the 11 cuts of 'Honeysuckle Sweet,' each of which she at least co-wrote. Working with co-producer Gary Nicholson and writing with Nicholson, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Gary Louris (The Jayhawks) and Darrell Scott, among others, Jessi found her musical self. What comes through is a new voice, strong and proud, unafraid to tap into the best of the past while forging its own sound. Kind of what popular music used to be like before it was so strictly subdivided.
"I wanted this record to be very much a portrait of all my sides, all my influences. I wanted this to be a good template. This is Jessi. This is the platform on which I start," she says.
'Honeysuckle Sweet' might never have happened had it not been for some mischievous friends who submitted one of her tapes in a best unsigned artist contest in Nashville a few years ago. To her surprise, Jessi got a call saying she had made the second round of a contest she didn't even know she had entered.
Jessi not only won the contest, she attracted the interest of MCA, which signed her to make 'Honeysuckle Sweet.' Mergers and regime changes are the norm, and Jessi now finds herself releasing "Honeysuckle Sweet" for Columbia.
"I think more than anything, this is the first chapter of a long history. I think success would be to know the songs have touched someone because they've been living in me for so long. Some are four, even six years old. To know the transfer has happened - that I've written songs and someone has heard them. That's success."
By that measure, Jessi is already a success. She spent some time as a Warner-Chappell music writer, and Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless and others on country's A-List have recorded her songs.
And there's one more measure of success she's looking forward to. "I hope some day some little girl goes, 'I want to sing like Jessi.' How cool would that be?"
Cool indeed. And with the release of the sparkling 'Honeysuckle Sweet,' probably not too far off in the future.
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