Jessi Alexander "Honeysuckle Sweet" new album, Jessi Alexander new album out March 1 (on Columbia/Sony Music).

"Honeysuckle Sweet" (Columbia Recrds), the "promising first album" (NY Times) from Jessi Alexander, is garnering early critical praise. Elle magazine summed up the album's mix of genres as "kind of Country-Soul, kind of roots, kind of wonderful. . . remarkable." Tracks magazine concludes Alexander is an "auspicious talent" living up to her musical influences of Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt and adding "Alexander's raw yearning sounds divine." Dirty Linen named the single "Canyon Prayer" (a song once recorded by Kathy Mattea as "'Til I Turn To You"), "the strongest piece" on the "well-crafted" album while Tracks singles out "Unfulfilled" for its "quiet desperation".

Jessi Alexander's colleagues are also singing her praise. Roots musician Rodney Crowell said "When I think of Jessi Alexander, Emmylou and Lucinda come to mind. Beauty, humor talent and brains has long been my favorite artistic combination. Jessi oozes them all."

"Honeysuckle Sweet" will be released on Columbia Records March 1, 2005.

It's no surprise that Jessi Alexander was born in a small town halfway between Memphis and Nashville. Her sultry voice expresses the pain, longing, and despair of the music and life of the region.

"Growing up, I had such a wide range of influences," she says. "I remember thinking that Linda Rondstadt was country. So was Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs and Dolly Parton. I didn't have the same kind of boundaries you see in music today."

So she listened and absorbed. The Band, Bob Wills, Karla Bonoff, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Bobbi Gentry, Jackson Browne, Hank Williams and, always, Patsy Cline. In fact, when she realized, at age 10, that she could sing, it was Cline's vocals she tried to channel. So much so that young Jessi Alexander eventually had to work to stop sounding like Cline. That memory brings a laugh from Jessi.

"Then I started sounding too much like Bonnie Raitt. When I moved here, I really wanted to start to create Jessi."

She moved to Nashville after leaving Middle Tennessee State University, where she studied social work by day and played in bands by night. Instead of playing for tips in the bars along Broadway, she sought out musicians she could learn from, who could help her develop from bar singer to full-fledged artist.

That happened through songwriting, she says, and the results are evident in the 11 cuts of "Honeysuckle Sweet," each of which she at least co-wrote. Working with co-producer Gary Nicholson and writing with Nicholson, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Gary Louris (The Jayhawks) and Darrell Scott, among others, Jessi found her musical self. What comes through is a new voice, strong and proud, unafraid to tap into the best of the past while forging its own sound. Kind of what popular music used to be like before it was so strictly subdivided.

"I wanted this record to be very much a portrait of all my sides, all my influences. I wanted this to be a good template. This is Jessi. This is the platform on which I start," Jessi Alexander says.

"Honeysuckle Sweet" might never have happened had it not been for some mischievous friends who submitted one of her tapes in a best unsigned artist contest in Nashville a few years ago. To her surprise, Jessi Alexander got a call saying she had made the second round of a contest she didn't even know she had entered.

Jessi Alexander not only won the contest, she attracted the interest of MCA, which signed her to make "Honeysuckle Sweet." By that measure, Jessi Alexander is already a success. She spent some time as a Warner-Chappell music writer, and Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless and others on country's A-List have recorded her songs.

And there's one more measure of success she's looking forward to. "I hope some day some little girl goes, 'I want to sing like Jessi.' How cool would that be?"

Jessi Alexander "Honeysuckle Sweet" CD: ORDER IT NOW.