Listening to the music of Texas Alexander, like fellow Texan Henry Thomas, transports the listener back to a time before the blues, a time when the unaccompanied sounds of the field holler and work song rang out all over the south. Alexander’s style was described by Paul Oliver as “a personal, tweed-textured holler which did not employ falsettos but moaned in long, sad cadences.” While Paul Garon astutely noted that “Alexander’s style, so often consisting of lengthy moans and hums, often drawn out over unevenly spaced measures, sounds very close to the field holler. Indeed, combining a field holler with the shouts of the section gang caller-where Alexander once worked-and tailoring it into a recordable blues song would produce a sound very similar to Alexander’s.”

Alexander was a Texan through and through, born in Jewett, Texas in 1900, passing in 1954 in Richards some seventy miles south (both towns lie about halfway between Dallas and Houston) and who was vividly remembered by fellow Texas bluesmen such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lowell Fulson, Buster Pickens and Frankie Lee Sims. Alexander didn’t play an instrument, although he did carry a guitar around in case their was a guitarist around who could accompany him when he sang on city streets or bars. Alexander’s songs had a distinctly rural, southern viewpoint as evidenced in song titles such as “Corn-Bread Blues”, “Levee Camp Moan Blues”, “Farm Hand Blues”, “Bantam Rooster Blues”, “Bell Cow Blues”, “Work Ox Blues”, “Rolling Mill Blues” and “Prairie Dog Hole Blues” among others. “To the renters and ‘croppers”, Oliver wrote, “who had left the farms and bottom land plantations for the city, the voices of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rambling Thomas or Texas Alexander were singing for them, sharing their own experiences and predicament. Crowds would cluster round them on Central Tracks and the coins would clatter-nickels and dimes-in their hats and tin cups.” Alexander’s lyrics are consistently interesting, often drawing on traditional motifs but stamped forcefully with his own personality, many of which finding their way into common blues parlance. Throughout his songs there is a frankness about sexuality that goes beyond the stock double entendre as well as strong anti-religious streak.

Alexander was popular and prolific, cutting sixty-four issued sides between 1927 and 1934, first for Okeh and then for Vocalion. He had he good fortune to work with superb accompanists such as guitarists Little Hat Jones, Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Carl Davis, Willie Reed to the string band blues of the Mississippi Sheiks and the jazz bands of King Oliver and the mysterious His Sax Black Tams. Alexander didn’t fare well in the post-war era; he was supposedly passed over by an Aladdin talent scout in favor of his then partner Lightnin’ Hopkins (a demo tape was purportedly made) and made one final, rather unsatisfactory record for the Freedom label in 1950 before passing in 1954.

Range In My Kitchen AdAlexander made his greatest records in the company of Lonnie Johnson at six sessions cut for Okeh between August 1927 and November 1928 at recording dates in San Antonio and New York City. Alexander’s erratic sense of timing made him a challenge to work with as Lonnie Johnson related to Paul Oliver: “He was a very difficult singer to accompany; he was liable to jump a bar, or five bars, or anything. You just had to be a fast thinker to play for Texas Alexander. When you been out there with him you done nine days work in one! Believe me, brother, he was hard to play for. He would jump–jump keys, anything. You just have to watch him, that’s all.” Johnson’s approach is a thing of beauty; he plays almost no chords, just melodic, single string lines achieving a gorgeous tone, answering and underscoring Alexander’s magnificent vocals, his moans and hums with a subtle delicacy and empathy. In the notes to the Matchbox series, which collect Alexander’s entire output, Oliver writes: “Johnson alone is completely at ease, anticipating and elaborating with astonishing fluency; this was the period of his most remarkable guitar solos and he seems to be at the peak of his abilities.” The very first song they recorded, “Range In My Kitchen Blues”, sets the template, a beautiful number with Johnson’s opening and closing the number in elegant fashion. Songs from these sessions find Alexander at his most primal; “Levee Camp Moan Blues”, ‘Section Gang Blues” and “Penitentiary Blues” show, as many have written, that Alexander likely had intimate knowledge of the Texas penal system. In “Levee Camp Moan Blues” he sings:

Mmmm,mmmm,mmm
Lord, they accused me of murder, murder, murder, I haven’t harmed a man
Lord, they accused me of murder, I haven’t harmed a man
Oh, they have accused me of murder and I haven’t harmed a man.

Mmmm, they have ‘cused me of forgery and uhh I can’t write my name
Lord, they have accused me of forgery and I can’t write my name.

“Section Gang Blues” is something of a companion piece and like the above song harks back to the era of the unaccompanied work song and field holler:

I’m been workin’ on the Section, Section 32
I’ll get a dollar and a quarter, I won’t have to work hard as you
Lord, I’ll get a dollar and a quarter, I won’t have to work hard as you

Oh, nigger licks molasses, and the white man licks ‘em, too
I wonder what in the world is the Mexicans gonna do?
Lord, the nigger licks molasses, the white man licks ‘em too

Waterboy, waterboy, bring your water ’round
If you ain’t got no water, set your bucket down
Waterboy, waterboy, bring your bucket ’round

“Oh, Captain, Captain, what time of day?”
Oh, he looked at me and he walked away

“Penitentiary Blues” is a particularly vivid prison number with Alexander making reference to Bud Russell who brought convicts to the Texas prisons:

Spoken: If I had-a listened, Mama, when you was tellin’ me these things, I wouldn’t have to worry with these old rusted chains

I wonder what’s the matter with poor Annie Lee?
Lord, the Captain whupped here and she ain’t been seen
Mmmmm, mmmmmmm
Lord, the Captain whupped her and she ain’t been seen

Oh, if it hadn’t've been for the red mule’s head
Lord, the Captain’d killed ol’ Annie dead
Mmmmmm, mmmmmmmm
Lord, the Captain killed ol’ Annie dead

If you get buggy want to see Red River red
Lord, Bud Russell will take you and you won’t be dead
Mmmmm, mmmmmm
Lord, Bud Russell will take you and you won’t be dead

As Oliver notes “the ominous words refer to washing in river water after being beaten with the ‘Black Betty’ leather strap used by Russell.”

As mentioned earlier Alexander’s took a particularly frank view of sex in his songs. A wonderful example is “Boe Hog Blues” a song full of surprising imagery and a remarkably poignant conclusion:

Oh, tell me, mama, how you want your rollin’ done. (2x)
Set your face to the ground and your noodle up to the sun

She got little bitty legs, gee, but them noble thighs (2x)
She’s got somethin’ under yonder, works like a boe hog’s eye

Wanta be your doctor, and I’ll pay your doctor bill
I’ll be your doctor, pay your doctor bill
Says, if the doctor don’t cure you, I’ve got somethin’ will

Mmmm, Mmmm, Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawd
I say if the doctor don’t cure you, I’ve got somethin’ will

Says, I looked up at the Good Lord in the sky
Says, I looked up at the Good Lord’s in the sky
Says, I heard a keen voice, says, “Papa, please don’t die.”

Particularly rich are “Work Ox Blues” and “The Risin’ Sun” cut on November 15, 1928. featuring the addition of the brilliant white guitarist Eddie Lang. The rapport between him and Johnson is extraordinary as they weave a rich tapestry around Alexander’s strong vocals. It’s a shame they didn’t back Alexander on more numbers. Six months later Lang and Johnson would record the first pair of a series of landmark duet instrumentals.

*Thanks with lyric transcriptions to John M and the members of  Weenie Campbell

Levee Camp Moan Blues (MP3)

Bell Cow Blues (MP3)

Penitentiary Blues (MP3)

Work Ox Blues (MP3)

Share/Save