Personnel: Arthur Alexander (vocals); Gary Nicholson (acoustic & electric guitars, background vocals); Dann Penn (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Tommy Spurlock (pedal steel guitar); Ben Vaughn, Reggie Young (guitar); Jim Spake (saxophone); Donnie Fritts (piano, electric piano, maracas, claves, background vocals); Thomas Cain (piano, organ, cowbell, tambourine, background vocals); Spooner Oldham (keyboards); Mike Leech (bass); Gene Chrisman (drums); Ashley Cleveland (background vocals).

Additional personnel: The Nashville String Machine.

Recorded at Studio 19 and Creative Workshop, Nashville, Tennessee between February 7-12, 1992. Includes liner notes by Ben Sandmel.

This is part of Elektra's American Explorer series.

After a fifteen-year hiatus from making music (during which time he worked as a bus driver and janitor) Arthur Alexander made a dramatic return in 1993 with this strong album. Picking up where his classic early sixties hits like "Anna" left off, LONELY JUST LIKE ME, is a treasure trove of thoughtful, country-soul that lets listeners hear why Alexander's music has influenced everyone from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones.

Backed by producer/guitarist Ben Vaughn and fellow Muscle Shoals music scene veterans like Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Alexander gives assured performances of striking new songs like "If It's Really Got To Be This Way" and fresh sounding remakes of obscure older songs, including broken hearted ballads like "Everyday I Have To Cry" and "In The Middle Of It All," and the down-and-dirty grind of "Sally Sue Brown." With his warm, compassionate voice and songwriting ability as strong and sure as ever, Alexander was all set to make a well-deserved comeback when he unexpectedly died only weeks after this disc was released.

Rolling Stone (8/5/93, p.64) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...[a] stunning album....If extraxcting beauty from pain is what art is often all about, then Arthur Alexander was one of pop music's most enduringly noble artists..."

Q (10/93, p.103) - 3 Stars - Good - "...LONELY JUST LIKE ME reunites [Alexander] with Muscle Shoals buddies Spooner Oldham, Donnie Fritts and Dan Penn, and rekindles the flame of a rare individuality.... When it succeeds, the effect is blissful..."

Uncut (p.96) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he record is stunning....[Alexander delivers] desolate, gritty, stomach-churning vocals that surely held Lennon and jagger in sway some three decades before."

Musician (6/93, p.89) - "...a minimum of fanfare and solid, unpretentious production values...a man who has lost neither his knack for concise, to-the-heart songwriting nor his wonderfully sorrowful baritone... he sounds relaxed and confident..."

Village Voice (3/1/94, p.5) - Ranked #32 in the Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

Q (Magazine) (p.123) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "HIs sweet ache of a voice is largely intact, while such country-soul veterans as Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham sprinkle their magic dust over reworkings of some of Alexander's best songs..."