Country's Soul: The Music Of The Late Arthur Alexander Still Provides A Living Link Between Hillbilly Twang And R&B

ON MARCH 18, 1993, Arthur Alexander was the guest star at Jimmie Dale Gilmore's birthday party at the Broken Spoke dance hall in Austin, Texas. It was Alexander's fourth public performance in 15 years, and the Flatlanders' Gilmore introduced him as the only songwriter in history to have had compositions recorded by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. The 52-year-old Alexander had spent most of the previous 20 years working as a community-center bus driver in Cleveland, but now he had a new album, Lonely Just Like Me, and a second chance at a singing career.