(photo: Joshua Huver)
Tommy Alexander, the college baseball standout turned troubadour, released a brand new album last week. The album, baby you’re blue is a collection of songs new and old. Alexander has been road-testing most of them since 2016, including the title track.
He’ll be playing a ton of local Bay Area dates in support of the record this August. The tour kicks off on Thursday, August 15 at Bottom of the Hill here in SF. On Saturday the 17th, the band will be playing the bar at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael before shooting down the coast. On their way back up the following week, catch the band at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz.
Tommy has been a solo artist for much of his career. Following the release of his previous full-length record Old News, Alexander experimenting with different band members and crafting a wonderfully versatile rock and roll machine. The framework he’d labored over was solid. Recruiting members of local PNW bands like Left Coast Country, Alexander was onto something good.
Alexander is joined on the record by guitarist Adam Witkowski, bassist Ian Wade, drummer Buddy Weeks, and multi-instrumentalist and indie rock producing legend Mike Coykendall. The album was mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk. A prolific technician, his recent credits also include work on both CAKE‘s recent single “Sinking Ship” and the remastered release of Sun Ra’s Of Mythic Worlds.
He’s been catching a lot of ears lately, too. Especially from Michael McDonald, who has been singing Alexander’s praises for the better part of a year now. McDonald even picked Tommy and his band to open the sold-out show with Chaka Khan at the Oregon Zoo last week.
According to a recent review that captured two different sides of Alexander — the solo, melancholy troubadour one night and a high-energy rock and roll frontman the next day, “It’s not as if Tommy disrespects genre lines. It’s as if he doesn’t know (or care) that they exist. They’re not pertinent to his survival. He’s a cross between poet, arena rocker, and dive bar star.”
Earlier this year, the band released a music video for the track “Too Many Miles.” Push play and make plans to catch Tommy and his band at an upcoming show near you.
Papa Bear and the Easy Love, Tommy Alexander, Taylor Kingman
Bottom of the Hill
August 15, 2019
8:30pm, $12 (21+)
Tommy Alexander, Taylor Kingman
Terrapin Crossroads
August 17, 2019
8pm, FREE (21+)
Bobcat Rob Armenti, Tommy Alexander, Taylor Kingman
The Crepe Place
August 24, 2019
9pm, $10 (21+)
