Who is Charles Alexander?
The hip thing to do here is to have your bio read in the third person. But I’m not that hip…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve sung. My mom says I sang complete verses before I spoke complete sentences. My kindergarten teacher wrote in my report that I daydreamed a lot and sang all the time.
I get my music from my late dad’s side of the family. I sang with my cousins growing up and we even had a family band. I learned to play the guitar cause one of my older cousins played guitar. He seemed to be popular with the girls in the neighborhood so…
Then at thirteen someone broke my heart and I wrote a song. And the rest as they say is history.
I began to play the pubs in Kuala Lumpur, my hometown. The capital city in Malaysia. By seventeen I was playing half a dozen smoky bars/clubs in town for tips and not much money. Almost all covers. You had to have 3 songs in your repertoire. John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven.”
Needless to say I’ve forgotten how to play all three.
When I was 21 I came to the United States to go to school in Rochester, New York. I didn’t perform much until I graduated. At which point I was part of an a cappella rock group called “Pink Dakota.” It was a lot of fun and we were kinda minor celebrities in Rochester. We were so popular we were asked to play a tractor pull at the Caledonia Fair. I kid you not.
After I met my wife and married her and soon after she graduated from school, we moved to Nashville. It’s been an amazing, wonderful journey and I just love this city.
I get to play The Bluebird Cafe on a semi regular basis. Write with some amazing folks. And work with some ridiculously talented people.
Not bad for a kid from KL, Malaysia. This is a dream. Pinch me.
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