Some of the sweetest soul music is born from childhoods scarred with pain. It’s the story of Aretha Franklin and James Brown, of Ray Charles and Etta James....
The album’s title refers to the famous biblical passage about the seasons. There are seasons for being born and dying, for breaking down and building up, for laughing and for crying.
Before he was born, his parents moved to Athens from Nigeria. They were part of a wave of West Africans emigrating to Greece, including the family of future NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, a childhood acquaintance of Alexander’s. He sings about her in “Today,” a gospel ballad about advice she gave to her sons and premonitions she had of her death. As a child, he was too young and grief-stricken to process the tragedy.,” he says softly, barely audible over the hum of conversation from patrons inside Fort Worth’s Cherry Coffee. The setting for our interview, it’s one of his favorite hangouts in the Magnolia neighborhood.
After an ACL injury ended his soccer career and left him in a deep funk, Alexander picked up a guitar. He'd piddled around with the instrument as a child to try to bond with his father, a guitarist. This time it stuck. As a teen, in wake of his mom’s death and his father’s abuse, Alexander was placed in foster care and later adopted by a loving Fort Worth family. The stability “felt like magic,” he recalls.
He started writing and recording songs, too, including “America,” a seething protest of police violence against Black citizens. The tune caught the ear of Mahogany Records, which flew him to London to record a four-song EP at Abbey Road Studios. It led to his current contract with Dualtone Records, a Grammy-winning Nashville label.
Browder, who later died by suicide, was the subject of an acclaimed 2017 documentary film. Mavis Staples, a fan of Alexander’s after he opened for her in Austin, read the song’s lyrics and quickly agreed to sing on it.
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