ALEX HARVEY sings his DELTA DAWN and REUBEN JAMES .... “Where’s Mama” - stunning anecdote.

How many hipsters, flippin' through the record rack bargain bin, thought, “Hey, is THIS guy the SENSATIONAL Alex Harvey? He sort of looks like him? No? Maybe not? These song titles don’t seem like him…uh….do I waste a buck to find out?”

Hmmm. No. "Alex Harvey" from Tennessee was completely different from Scotland's eternal delinquent, "Alex Harvey." All they have in common is they both recorded and are both dead.

Like so many others on this blog, Alex Harvey was not a household word, and not the type of artist that would have lonely bloggers in Holland crying out, "Here's an entire discography, PLEASE tell me you LOVE me with a NICE comment." Nor was he so hip, that clueless nitwits in Sweden, Croatia or Turkey would proudly swipe everything he did, say "I'm posting this for FUN," and expect a NICE comment like, "Keep going, you aren't some retired fart with no respect for music, you're another Clive Davis or Dave Marsh...you know it all." Or at least, know how to steal not only the music, but a few lines off "All Music" or somebody else for whom English isn't a second language.

You get more than an R.I.P. over here. You get the item below. 

It's Alex Harvey, doing what so many denizens who end up on the Illfolks blog did...performing in front of a very small audience for very little money. But that doesn't matter if the result is something moving, and artistic.

Yes, Alex Harvey performs his two best known songs, "Reuben James" and "Delta Dawn." But listen to how he introduces "Delta Dawn," and the story behind that song. It's memorable. Put it that way.

Thomas Alexander Harvey (Mach 10-1947-Apr 4, 2020) had a lengthy career as a singer/songwriter, but is remembered mostly as the latter…the writer of “Reuben James” (a hit for the late Kenny Rogers) and “Delta Dawn,” which kept coming back for more radio play via everyone from Tanya Tucker to Bette Midler. 

Those were the days when a hit song could buy you a HOUSE…and maybe even enough residuals to pay for its upkeep year after year. In fact, if you want to know, those were the days when a semi-hit could buy you a HOUSE, too, or a co-write of a hit (which is why so many pricks and cunts, from Al Jolson to Joan Jett, would want to put their names on a song they didn’t write, JUST because the songwriter, so they figured, wasn’t going to get on the charts without those talented tonsils.) 

Alex, in terms of vinyl, had his best luck in the 70’s, when he released (that’s DROPPED, for you youngsters) five albums in the decade. After only one in the 80’s and two in the 90’s, he averaged an album a year from 2001 to 2005, and issued his last in 2015 (“Texas 101”) and 2018 (“Heart of the Art in Song”). 

In Harvey’s day, “crossover” was not much of a word, and so “Delta Dawn,” now considered a standard, was Grammy-nominated in the “Best Country Song” category. And lost. Still, he won over so many with his songs and his performances, and always will. It would've been nice if the music biz hadn't collapsed before he did, and he'd been treated to one of those re-issie packages with great CD notes, rare unreleased tracks and super sound quality. But hell, let's give a thank ya to YouTube, for making this item available free. Money ain't everything.