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IDENTIFICATION AND BIO: Rock Singer/Songwriter, Guitarist In 1995 the singer Travis John Alford succeeded in landing a contract with Twist Management. He had recorded ten 16-track demos in two years, and was planning to turn the demos into fully-produced songs when his health took a turn for the worse. Many of his musician friends, including Kid Congo Powers and members of the bands L7 and The Geraldine Fibbers, held a benefit to pay the studio costs to produce the songs and release the album posthumously as Lucky Pierre. The recording has been described as "a labor of love and a tribute, similar in spirit to that of the Michael Callen Legacy disc" (Gregg Shapiro, Out Magazine, 1996) and "a tip of the hat to William S. Burroughs and Jean Genet, Travis' literary heroes" (Shane, Vividzine). Erik Jackson wrote in the June 1997 issue of Poz: "Though often ailing, Alford managed to craft this album full of remarkably assured songs ranging from transcendent pop ("Tumble-weed") and atmospheric anthems ("Make It Last") to hard-driving, rude punk ("Lucky Pierre"). Like the best rock rebels, Alford consistently walks on the wild side (musically and lyrically, if nothing else), but in "Weep Below the Waist," he sings tenderly to a boy who is facing positive status: "So they told you that you're dying, well, don't take it so hard." Travis John Alford died of AIDS at the age of 26 in December 1995, two months after he recorded the last track on Lucky Pierre. —Nurit Tilles
Lucky Pierre — World Domination (1996)
FILM Alford was among the artists included on the soundtrack to the film By Hook Or By Crook, screened at the Sundance Festival. Other artists: The Make-Up, Jessamine, Blonde Redhead, Low, The Monomen, The Geraldine Fibbers, Whiskey Biscuit, The Knoxville Girls, Joan Jett, Cornertour, Emma Peel, Shotwell.
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