Abraham Alexander

One Liner:  Soulful buddy of Leon Bridges with a perfectly lovely voice.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - indie rock, soul rock, singer/songwriter

Home: Funky Town Forth Worth

Poster Position: Level 4 (17) 
Both Weekends.
Friday.

Thoughts: This one feels like someone who is on the cusp of greatness.  I can't understand why people wouldn't love this stuff.  My dude has a great voice and two top notch collaborators - Gary Clark Jr. and Mavis Staples.  Pretty big names to have on your debut (and only) album!  Which makes me really curious about who this guy is!  The Abraham Alexander in Wikipedia died in 1786, so I'm going to guess they are not the same.  

This fella was born in Greece to Nigerian immigrants, and then moved to Fort Worth when he was 11.  He says that they were dirt poor in Greece, and so his parents applied for a lottery visa to try to do better for their kids.  But it sounds damn hard.  Sadly, his mom was killed soon after they moved to Texas, and his physically abusive father was left to pick up the pieces for the boys. He didn't know English at the time either, and so school was obviously tough.  After his mom's death and father's abuse, he ended up in foster care and was adopted by a Fort Worth family who helped him flourish and get to college.  he even played semi-pro soccer at one point.

He had apparently never planned a career in music, but a friend-of-a-friend introduced him to fellow Fort Worth badass Leon Bridges and diverted his life.  He taught himself to play guitar using YouTube clips, and Bridges encouraged him to get onstage at open mike nights.  Since then he's opened for Bridges on tour and performed at major festivals like Bonnaroo.  And it is all deserved - the dude sounds amazing.

The top song is a single from before his album, that then was included on the album with Gary Clark Jr. providing guitar action.  This is "Stay" with 7.9 million streams.

Laid back and beautiful.  Super simple, but it just makes me want to vibe along. I want to float with him in that pool and listen to him sing to me.  It's a lot like the Leon Bridges sound, just more singer/songwriter-y and less smooth soul guy.  One cool factoid - the cover of his album is from an actual photo of him with his brother and friends, swimming in Greece before they moved.  It's a beautiful image - looks like a fine art piece, not just a snapshot.

The other top track is "Tears Run Dry," which is his only other one with more than a million streams at just over a milly.

Soulful and lovely, like a gospel love song.  This whole album is really good - even though sometimes the lyrics are sad - the dude has been through some trauma!  I like it.  I'd definitely go watch him do this thing in person.