Big Road Blues

New Two Sixteen Blues (MP3) Two String Blues (MP3)

In our ongoing series of Chicago Defender blues ads we feature a pair by Texas guitarist George "Little Hat Jones." Okeh placed four ads in the newspaper on the following dates: September 7th 1929, June 21st 1930, June 28th 1930 and October 18th 1930. Jones was brought in for three sessions in San Antonio between 1929 and 1930 resulting in ten songs. At his first session he also backed Texas Alexander on eight sides. Jones was a fine guitarist who's playing is distinguished by fast rhythms and boogie runs. He was also an expressive, confident singer with a declamatory style that bears more than a passing likeness to Blind Lemon Jefferson.

What we know about Jones stems from the 1960's when Thomas Craig  interviewed Jones in 1962 and subsequently wrote a short article about him for the Texas Monitor for whom he worked as a reporter. Craig interviewed Jones later that year with the tape eventually ending up in the possession of Roy Book Binder. The contents of which were never transcribed or published. Knowledge of its existence came to light during a conversation between Robert Tilling and Book Binder in the 1970's. In 1998 Tilling wrote an article about Jones titled Long Gone And Got Away Lucky in the British Blues & Rhythm magazine.

The following is gleaned from Tilling's article. Little Hat was born in Bowie County, Texas in 1899. He earned his nickname while working construction in Garland, Texas. He states that he had a hat that he wore to work that had about half the brim cut off and the boss man started calling him "Little Hat", even making out his pay checks to "Little Hat" Jones. In addition to his documented sessions Jones also claims Okeh Records called him to New York, but there is no record of further recordings. During the interview, he states that he played with T. Texas Tyler and with Jimmie Rodgers. On the interview tape Jones plays a version of Rodgers' "Waiting for a Train." He also stated that he played in New Orleans, Galveston, Austin, and on one occasion went down to Mexico to play. By 1937 Jones was settled in Naples, married to Janie Traylor, his second wife. Of his work, he stated "I farmed a little bit, worked in the State Department some, railroads, sawmills, big chicken ranch, from that to janitor, working at old folks homes." His obituary states that he worked for many years at Red River Army Depot. Jones died in March 1981 at the Linden Municipal Hospital, and is buried in the Morning Star cemetery in Naples.

Show Notes:

Today's show is a sequel to a show I did about a year ago on the early Texas piano players. Today's program is wider ranging look at the early Texas blues scene.  The title  comes from Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Got The Blues" recorded in 1926. To quote Tony Russell from the Penguin Guide To Blues: "All the companies involved in the blues business in the '20s and '30s made frequent recording trips to Dallas and San Antonio, and the music they collected and issued is a rich, colorful mixture of theatre and club artists, street singers and pianists circuit-riding the logging camps."

In the 1920's Dallas became a recording center primarily because it is a geographical hub. The major race labels, those catering to a black audience, held regular sessions in Dallas. Okeh, Vocalion, Brunswick Columbia, RCA, and Paramount sent scouts and engineers to record local artists once or twice a year. Quite a number of sessions were also recorded in San Antonio with a few others cut in Fort Worth. Engineers came into the city, set up their equipment in a hotel room, and put the word out. As a result of Jefferson's commercial success, blues singers from around the south flocked to Dallas with the hope of being recorded. In addition to Blind Lemon Jefferson, there were other important blues musicians, who recorded in Dallas during the heyday of Deep Ellum and Central Tracks. These included Lillian Glinn, Little Hat Jones, Texas Alexander, Jesse Thomas, Ramblin Thomas, Sammy Hill, Otis Harris, Willie Reed, Oscar "Buddy" Woods, Black Ace and the young T-Bone Walker.

Blind Lemon Jefferson's records sold thousands of copies to blacks in the urban ghettos of the North, but in Dallas Jefferson was recognized primarily as street singer who performed daily with a tin cup at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue. Despite his limited commercial success in Dallas, he had a great influence on the development of Texas blues. Leadbelly credited him as an inspiration, as did T-Bone Walker. What distinguishes Jefferson from the other blues performers of his generation was his singular approach to the guitar, which established the basis of what is today known as the Texas style. Little is known about Jefferson's early life. He must have heard songsters and bluesmen, like Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas and "Texas" Alexander. Both Thomas and Alexander traveled around East Texas and performed a variety of blues and dance tunes. Legends of his prowess as a bluesman abound among the musicians who heard him, and sightings of Jefferson in different places around the country are plentiful. By his teens, he began spending time in Dallas. About 1912 he started performing in the Deep Ellum and Central Track areas of Dallas, where he met Leadbelly. The two became musical partners in Dallas and the outlying areas of East Texas. Jefferson was known to perform almost daily at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue in Dallas. In 1925 Jefferson was discovered by a Paramount recording scout and taken to Chicago to make records. Though he was not the first blues singer-guitarist, or the first to make commercial recordings, Jefferson was the first to attain a national audience. His extremely successful recording career began in 1926 and continued until 1929. He recorded 110 sides. Jefferson is widely recognized as a profound influence upon the development of the Texas blues tradition and the growth of American popular music. His significance has been acknowledged by blues, jazz, and rock musicians, from Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and T-Bone Walker to Bessie Smith. Jefferson died in Chicago on December 22, 1929.

Evidence suggests Henry Thomas was an itinerant street musician, a musical hobo who rode the rails across Texas and possibly to the World Fairs in St. Louis and Chicago just before and after the turn of the century. Most agree he was the oldest African-American folk artist to produce a significant body of recordings, supposedly born in 1874. Thomas's repertoire bridged the 19th and 20th centuries, providing a compelling glimpse into the pre-blues era. The 23 songs he cut for Vocalion between 1927 and 1929 include a spiritual, ballads, reels, dance songs, and blues.On many of his pieces, he simultaneously played the quills or panpipes, a common but seldom-recorded African-American folk instrument indigenous to Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. His lead-in on "Bull Doze Blues" was reworked 40 years later by Canned Heat in their version of "Going Up the Country."

Texas Alexander was well known in the Texas Brazos River bottomlands when he started recording in 1927. Unable to play himself, Alexander used a variety of accompanists including Little Hat Jones, Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang to the string band blues of the Mississipi Sheiks and the full on jazz of King Oliver's New Orleans band. Alexander's performing and recording career continued into the '30s with sessions for Vocalion. In 1940, he was sent to the state pen at Paris, TX, for killing his wife. After his release in 1945 he spent time in Houston, joining his cousin Lightnin' Hopkins for live shows and recording for the Freedom label with pianist Buster Pickens. By 1954 he was back in the bottomlands where he died of syphilis.

Oscar "Buddy" Woods was a Louisiana street musician known as "The Lone Wolf" and a pioneer in the style of lap steel bottleneck blues slide guitar. Not long after arriving in Shreveport, Woods began a long association with guitarist Ed Schaffer, and together they performed as the Shreveport Home Wreckers. Woods and Schaffer made their first two recordings as the Shreveport Home Wreckers for Victor in Memphis on May 31, 1930. From this first session up until his last, a field recording for the Library of Congress made on October 8, 1940, Oscar "Buddy" Woods was involved in the making of no less than 35 sides. The impact of Oscar "Buddy" Woods on the development of bottleneck slide playing was crucial; one musician he took under his wing around 1930 was Texas native Babe Lemon Karo Turner, who later assumed the name Black Ace. The Black Ace honed his skills playing at community functions during the '20s, then worked with Smokey Hogg at dances in Greenville, TX in the '30s. Hogg and Buddy Woods were frequent partners for Turner. Turner had a show on Fort Worth radio station KFJZ from 1936 – 1941. He recorded for Decca in 1937. After a stint in the army during the early '40s, Turner's jobs were mostly non-musical. He did make a 1960 LP for Arhoolie. Turner took his nickname from the 1936 recording "Black Ace."Rambling Thomas was the brother of Jesse Thomas. Thomas was discovered by recording scouts playing in Dallas, but prior to that had performed in San Antonio and Oklahoma. Thomas cut 16 sides for Paramount in 1928 and four sides for Victor in 1932.

J.T. "Funny Paper" Smith was a pioneering Texas blues guitarist who was also a gifted composer and singer. A contemporary of such legends as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Dennis "Little Hat" Jones, next to nothing concrete is known of his life; assumed to have been born in East Texas during the latter half of the 1880s, he was a minstrel who wandered about the panhandle region, performing at fairs, fish fries, dances and other community events (often in the company of figures including Tom Shaw, Texas Alexander and Bernice Edwards). Smith settled down long enough to record some 22 songs between 1930 and 1931, among them his trademark number "Howling Wolf Blues, Parts One and Two"; indeed, he claimed the alternate nickname "Howling Wolf" some two decades before it was appropriated by his more famous successor, Chester Burnett. His career supposedly came to an abrupt end during the mid-'30s, when he was arrested for murdering a man over a gambling dispute; Smith was found guilty and imprisoned, and is believed to have died in his cell circa 1940.

Little Hat Jones

George "Little Hat" Jones was born October 5, 1899, in Bowie County, TX. He was a well-known street singer in San Antonio in the mid-'20s, and made his first recordings there on June 15, 1929. At the same session he sat in on guitar for an additional nine tracks by Texas Alexander. OKeh brought Jones back six days later to record four more tunes and again a year later, on June 14, 1930, when he four more. For whatever reason, Jones never recorded again, leaving behind a legacy of ten songs, plus nine more as a sideman for Texas Alexander. He died in Naples, TX, in 1981.

Rambling Thomas was the brother of Jesse Thomas. Thomas was discovered by recording scouts playing in Dallas, but prior to that had performed in San Antonio and Oklahoma. Thomas cut 16 sides for Paramount in 1928 and four sides for Victor in 1932.

Among the other performers heard today are fine woman singers like Lillian Glinn, Hattie Burleson, Bobbie Cadilliac, Hattie Hudson, jug and string bands like the Dallas String Band and Frenchy's Stringband. Hattie Burleson was from Dallas and waxed only seven sides. She was discovered by fellow Dallas singer Lillian Glinn while she was singing spirituals in church. Glinn was born in 1900 in Dallas, Texas where she made her first recordings in 1927, recording 22 sides until December 1929.

John Henry (MP3)	Cottonfield Blues (MP3)

I've always been intrigued by the old blues advertisements and have been collecting them for some time. The bulk of these appeared in the Chicago Defender and I'm fortunate to have access to all the old back issues through a university library.  Other ads stem from promotional material sent by the record companies to record stores and distributors. Outside of scanning ads from the Chicago Defender I've grabbed additional ads from books, periodicals and the web. It should also be mention that record collector John Tefteller uncovered a huge cache of Paramount promotional material a few years back. Tefteller bought a huge cache of this artwork from a pair of journalists who rescued them from the rubbish heap some twenty years previously. The depression essentially killed off Paramount's advertising budget so many of these images were never sent out and hence have not been seen by anyone since they were first produced. Tefteller has been making these evocative ads available in his Classic Blues Artwork Calendars since 2004 with a book of these advertisements planned for the future.

As writer Elijah Wald summarizes: "For roughly ten years, from the dawn of the blues recording boom in 1920 until the Depression temporarily destroyed the 'race record' industry, blues was the most popular music in black America, and the Chicago Defender was the principle venue for record advertisements aimed at African American consumers." Wald has compiled a handy index of Chicago Defender ads on his website.

Mamie Smith Ad, 1922

The following background is taken from the Chicago Defender website: "On May 5, 1905, Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender in a small kitchen in his landlord's apartment, with an initial investment of 25 cents and a press run of 300 copies. The Chicago Defender's first issues were in the form of four-page, six-column handbills, filled with local news items gathered by Abbott and clippings from other newspapers. Five years later, the Chicago Defender began to attract a national audience. By the start of World War I, the Chicago Defender was the nation's most influential Black weekly newspaper, with more than two thirds of its readership base located outside of Chicago." The paper began publishing on a daily basis in 1956.

Once a week I will be presenting an ad or two with some background as well as audio clips. I don't plan on putting these up in any particular order and will omit the large number of early ads mainly devoted to the classic female singers like Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Sara Marin, Alberta Hunter, Lucille Hegamin and the like.  Since I'm doing a show on early Texas blues today I thought I'd reproduce the ads for Henry Thomas' magnificent two-part 78 debut, "John Henry" b/w "Cottonfield Blues" cut on July 1, 1927. Vocalion seem to have had faith in this new artist issuing separate ads for both sides. In 1928 Thomas issued six sides with Vocalion placing four ads in the Chicago Defender.

Henry Thomas, nicknamed "Ragtime Texas", was born in 1874 in Big Sandy, Texas by most accounts, a town which lies roughly between Dallas and Shreveport. The 1874 date marks him as one of the eldest-born blues performers on record. The honor for oldest goes to Johnny "Daddy Stovepipe" Watson born in Alabama in 1867 and who first recorded in 1924. "Flailing his guitar", Tony Russell writes, "in now forgotten country dance rhythms, whistling delicate melodies on his panpies, gruffly chanting rag songs and blues, Thomas is a figure of almost legend." The portrait Thomas presents on his twenty-three recordings cut for Vocalion between 1927 to 1929 provides, Russell notes, "a wholly absorbing picture of black-country music before it was submerged beneath the tidal wave of the blues." Thomas embodied the term songster, cutting blues, rags, country stomps, refashioned coon songs and square dance numbers. Thomas was the archetypal rambling musician who went wherever the railroads would take him. According to Mack McCormick, as told to him from a former railroad conductor, "Ragtime Texas was a big fellow that used to come aboard at Gladewater or Mineola or somewhere in there. I'd always carry him, except when he was too dirty. He was  a regular hobo, but I'd carry him most of the time. That guitar was his ticket." Speaking of his famous "Railroadin' Some", William Barlow calls it the most "vivid and intense recollection of railroading" in all the early blues recorded in the 1920's. As for his guitar, Stephen Calt ranked his work "with the finest dance blues ever recorded…its intricate simultaneous treble picking and drone bass would have posed a challenge to any blues guitarist of any era." The pan pipes also linked him to an earlier era and are most evocative in perhaps his best-known composition, "Bull Doze Blues", a song reworked by Canned Heat as "Going Up The Country", some 40 years after the original. After making his final recordings in Chicago in 1929, Henry Thomas disappeared completely from sight. Befitting his near-mythic stature some reports claim to have seen him perform as late as the mid-1950's on Texas street comers. It is believed that he most likely passed away sometime during this period. All of Thomas' recordings can be found on Texas Worried Blues on Yazoo and Henry Thomas ('Ragtime Texas') 1927-1929 on Document with little difference in sound quality although the Yazoo features detailed notes by Stephen Calt.

We wrap up our look at the recordings of Texas Alexander with sessions he cut in 1934 in the company of the Mississippi Sheiks, the jazz band His Sax Black Tams, the guitar duo of Willie Reed and Carl Davis and a lone 78 in cut in the post-war era. In part two we ended with Alexander's recordings with Carl Davis. Davis is likely the second guitarist with Willie Reed on eight sides on September 29 and 30th 1934. Reed cut two sides under his own name in 1928 and 1935 in Dallas along with several sides that were unissued. Despite not having recorded in five years, Alexander is in typically fine voice with the team of Reed and Davis provide excellent support, Davis likely taking the flat-picked leads with Reed providing the chording. It's clear through Alexander's songs that he was a man with a total disregard for religion which is perfectly summed up in "Justice Blues":

When you see a woman with a cigarette in her hand (2x)
She'll misuse her husband for her little kid man

Take me out of this bottom, before the high water rise (2X)
You know I ain't no Christian, and I don't want to be baptized

I've cried, "Lord, my Father, Lord, our kingdom come." (2X)
"Send me back my woman, then my will be done."

I never been to Heaven, people, but I've been told (2X)
Oh Lord, it's womens up there got their mouths chock full of gold

I'm gonna build me a Heaven, have a kingdom of my own (2X)
So these brownskin women can cluster around my throne

As Paul Oliver writes, the song is "sardonically humorous, his words are those of a man who claimed no religious convictions; they manifestly proclaim his disregard for the belief, prayers, the symbol and the ritual of the Church. His work was consistent and he did not record any gospel songs to confound the impression of a man totally uninvolved in Church doctrine. …The final verse…echoed one that was in general currency. A form of it had appeared in the recording entitled "Preachin' The Blues" made by Son House some four year before." The send-up of the Lord's Prayer also shows up in Frank Stokes' "You Shall" ("Now Our Father who art in heaven/The preacher owes me ten dollars he gave me seven") and is related to a large body of songs that poke fun at the preacher. The Lord's Prayer send-up, and his ambivalence to religion in general, show up six months prior in "Prairie Dog Hole Blues" at a session in San Antonio on April 9, 1934 where he was backed by "His Sax Black Tams":

I'm going out in West Texas, jump in a prairie dog's hole (2X)
If I don't find my baby, I ain't comin' here no more

I cried, "Lord, my Father, Lord, thy kingdom come" (2X)
"Send me back my baby, and my will be done"

Uhhh, uhh, eee, uhhh,
Send me back my baby, then my will be done
I said, "Lord, our Father, Lord, our kingdom come"

Says, I went to church and the people all called on me to pray (2X)
I set down on my knees and forgot just what to say

In "Bottoms Blues", recorded in 195o, he incorporates lines from both of the above songs. The rest of the Davis/Reed are quite strong particularly the frank sexuality of "Easy Rider Blues" and the lovely "One Morning Blues."

On April 9th 1934 Alexander was backed by the Mississippi Sheiks on eight numbers. The lineup featured Bo Chatman on violin, Sam Chatman and Walter Vinson on guitars. Lonnie Chatman who also played violin seems to be absent from this session. Alexander and the Sheiks seem very much in sync and the pairing is very effective with Alexander tackling a strong batch of songs. Bo's fiddle playing adds a nice contrast to Alexander's vocals and among the session's highlights are "Seen Better Days", "Texas Troublesome Blues" and "Last Stage Blues." Also from this session is "Frost Texas Tornado Blues", a rare topical blues from Alexander. Most sources rate this as an F4 tornado which destroyed the tiny town of Frost, Texas on May 6, 1930 leaving 41 dead. The Houston Chronicle wrote: "Bright sunshine today brought out in bold relief such a picture of death and ruin in the little town of Frost as has never been seen in this part of the state. There was no room in the little cemetery for the dead. The cemetery was covered with debris from the houses of the living. In three minutes Tuesday afternoon a black swirling monster swept out of the southwest and completely demolished a town which has been 43 years in the building, took the lives of 23 and injured a hundred more." In "Frost Texas Tornado Blues" Alexander gave the following account:

I was settin' and lookin', way out across the world (2x)
Says, the wind had sands twistin' almost in a swirl

Says, I've been a good fella just as good as I can be (2x)
Says, it's Lord, have mercy, Lord have mercy on me

Some lost their babies, were thrown for two, three miles around (2x)
When they come to thei' right mind, they come on back to town

The roosters was crowin', cows was lowin', never heard such a noise before
Oh, oh, Lordy Lord
Said, it seemed like Hell was broke out in this place below

On April 9th 1934 Alexander cut six sides with the jazz band His Sax Black Tams with unknown personnel which included a clarinetist/alto sax player, piano and guitar. Alexander sounds surprisingly at ease in this setting and the songs are generally quite good outside of the poppy sounding "Blues In My Mind", the first song of the session, where it sounds like Alexander and the band are still getting their bearings. Lyrically the most interesting number is the above quoted "Prairie Dog Hole Blues" although "Polo Blues"has a couple of tough concluding stanzas:

You can hand me my pistol, shotgun and some shells (2x)
I'm gonna kill my woman, send the poor gal to Hell

Get your milk from a polo, cream from a Jersey cow (2x)
Your pigmeat from your pig, your bacon from a no-good sow

The clarinetist on this number switches to alto sax to fine effect. The "polo" of the title is not the game, but, according to Paul Oliver was "a "polled animal whose horns had been removed so that its strength would go into beef and milk". The session's best number is perhaps the enigmatic "Normangee Blues" featuring a wonderful reading from Alexander and sympathetic backing from the band. Normangee is notable for being the town where Lightnin' Hopkins first ran across Alexander at a baseball game as he related to Samuel Charters: "I seen a man standing up on a truck with his hand up to his mouth and that man was singing. People was paying so much attention to him instead of the ball game. I accompanied him for quite a bit there in Crockett, Grapeland, Palestine, Oakwood and Buffalo and Centerville, Normangee, Flynn and Marquez and back in them places. I never followed Texas no further than Houston for a long way, 'cause he was a man to get up and go."

Alexander's final record, "Bottoms Blues" b/w "Cross Roads", was cut in Houston in 1950 for the Freedom label backed by Benton's Busy Bees which consisted of Buster Pickens on piano and Leon Benton on guitar. Oliver notes that Pickens was not happy with the session and Tony Russell calls it "an encounter rather than a meeting." Indeed it's a rather jarring collision of styles while Alexander has lost a fair bit of his former glory in the sixteen years since he had been in the studio. Lyrically "Cross Roads" is interesting for opening with lines generally associated with Robert Johnson:

Lord, I was standin' at the crossroad, I was tryin' my best to get a ride (2x)
Nobody seemed to know me, everybody was passin' by

"Bottoms Blues" on the other hand is a finely composed song with echoes of some of Alexander's earlier lyrics:

Take me out of this bottom, 'fore the high water rise (2x)
You know I ain't no Christian man and I don't want to be baptized

I went to church this morning, and they called on me to pray (2x)
I fell down on my knees and forgot just what to say

I cried, "Lord, my Father, Lord, our kingdom come" (2x)
"If you got any womens in Heaven, will you please, sir, save me one?"

Dear God, I never been to Heaven, but a black man sure been told (2x)
They got women up there, they got their mouths crammed full of gold

I want to build me a Heaven, Lord, a kingdom of my own (2x)
So all these brownskin women can cluster around my throne

You know a married woman, married woman, is the best woman ever been born
I say a married woman is the best woman ever born
Only trouble I have, tryin' to keep my woman at home

All of Texas Alexander's recordings have been reissued on three volumes on the Matchbox label with good notes from Paul Oliver but rather uneven mastering. Unfortunately there is no single CD collection of Alexander's since Catfish's "98° Blues" has been deleted. Also worth noting, although I have yet to track down a copy, is the LP "Texas Troublesome Blues" on Agram which contains a very detailed booklet on Alexander's life and music. The Agram booklet written by Guido Van Rijn incorporated most of Lawrence Brown's 1981 research conducted with friends and relatives in Richards, Texas (Alexander's last residence 1951-54) which may be the only source where that information can found.

Seen Better Days (MP3)

Normangee Blues (MP3)

Easy Rider Blues (MP3)

Bottoms Blues (MP3)

Lightnin' Hopkins – I Meet Texas Alexander (MP3)

In part one I discussed Alexander's sides with Lonnie Johnson, hands down his finest accompanist. That by no means is meant to take anything away from the rest of Alexander's output or his musical partners, it's just to point out the sheer genius of the Johnson sessions. After two sessions with Johnson, Alexander was paired with pianist Eddie Heywood on four numbers cut at back to back dates on August 16th and 17th of 1927. The pairing of the sophisticated Heywood with Alexander's musical unpredictability worked better than one would think particularly on "Sabine River Blues", a true masterpiece, a beautiful number with a gorgeous melody, sung with great feeling. Heywood's playing is sensational throughout. "Mama, I Heard You Brought It Right Back Home" has an equally attractive melody with almost a bit of a pop feel. There's a loose, light feel to the Heywood sides that are quite attractive and all four numbers are quite strong including "Farm Hand Blues" and "Evil Women Blues." Lyrically "Mama, I Heard You Brought It Right Back Home" is perhaps the most interesting as Alexander freely mixes traditional lyrics with strikingly original imagery:

If I leave here runnin', mama, don't you follow me (2x)
If I leave here walking, you can go with me

Sally went to cookin', man, but she didn't know how (2x)
Says, she put cayenne pepper, mama, in my hot bow-wow

Says, I'm goin' up the country, mama, don't you want to go? (2x)
Said I need another dozen, right on my right side, sho'

If I'm get lucky, mama, should happen to work (2x)
I'm gonna carry my money right on back home again

I'd rather see my coffin easin' through the world (2x)
Than to see my woman do me like she does

I'm scared to go down that big road by myself (2x)
'Fore I go, baby, I'll carry me someone else

These recordings makes one wish he had recorded more often with a pianist. It should be noted that Alexander seems to have given little thought to his accompanists. As Paul Oliver points out he "seems to have made little effort to vary his approach to blues singing, or to adjust to his accompanists; they had to fall in with him, and accept, both his timing and erratic verse structure."

In part one we discussed "Work Ox Blues" and "The Risin' Sun" which featured both Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang. Lang went on to back Alexander on "St. Louis Fair Blues" and "I Am Calling Blues" and plays in a trio with pianist Clarence Williams and New Orleans jazz legend King Oliver on "Tell Me Woman Blues" and "'Frisco Train Blues." Lang's playing is very fine but lacks the imagination and improvisatory feel of Lonnie Johnson although he seems to have no shortage of interesting ideas. King Oliver plays some beautiful, sympathetic cornet fills on both numbers with Lang taking a particularly lovely solo on "Tell Me Woman Blues."

On June 15th 1929 Alexander cut eight sides with Texas guitarist Little Hat Jones. Jones played in a classic Texas blues style and opens each number in up-tempo fashion before slowing down to accommodate Alexander. The two made a good team with Jones playing consistently interesting, varied runs behind Alexander's vocals. The best performance was "Ninety-Eight Degree Blues" sung with plenty of gusto and mixing traditional imagery with frank sexuality:

I'm gonna get up in the mornin', do like Buddy Brown (2x)
I'm gonna eat my breakfast, God, and lay back down
I say I'm gonna eat my breakfast, man, and lay back down

When a man get hairy, y'know he needs a shave (2x)
When a woman get musty, you know she needs to bathe (2x)

I've got somethin' to tell you, make the hair rise on your head (2x)
Got a new way of lovin' a woman, make the springs screech on her bed
I've got a new way of lovin' a woman, make the springs screech on her bed

"Someday, Baby, Your Troubles is Gonna Be Like Mine" is a lovely number featuring some exceptional playing from Jones while "Johnny Behren's Blues" is another stand out track. According to Oliver "Behren (or Behrens) was a local singer who had one extended blues on which he told of his skill as a sailor, jockey or other occupation, and how he 'learned' the women he knew". Alexander delivers it thusly:

When I was a sailor, sailin' on the deep blue sea (2x)
Say, I learned all the women, man, them ocean ways

Says, I learned a way that every woman crave (2x)
Say, it must be a new way that really won't behave

When I was a jockey, I learned my baby how to ride (2x)
Say, I learned her how to ride, man, from side to side

It's a reoccurring oddity in Alexander's songs that often the title not only doesn't appear in the song but bears no relation to the song itself.

On November 29 1929 Alexander was paired with another Texan guitarist, Carl Davis who fronted the Dallas Jamboree Jug Band which cut five sides in 1935. Davis also appears on eight sides (two others went unissued) with guitarist Willie Reed on a September 1934 session which ran over two days. Reed had cut solo sides in Dallas in 1928 and 1935. Regarding Davis' style, Oliver noted that he "had an arpeggio style which linked him with Lonnie Johnson and Gene Campbell, which he was flexible enough to fit around Alexander's notably erratic song structures." The highlight from this session is "Texas Special" sporting some terrific flat-picked guitar from Davis and wonderful singing including a gorgeous humming coda. The song is a fascinating grab bag of traditional, original and cryptic lyrics:

When the Blues come to Texas, they come 'round through the woods (2x)
Then they stopped by my house, done all the harm they could

When I leave this time, paint your windows green (2x)
Said, if I don't never die, woman, I'll be-e-e seldom seen

I'd rather see my coffin rollin' up to my back door (2x)
Than to hear my woman say she can't use me no more

I'd rather see my brother come in staggerin' drunk (2x)
Than to see my woman, Lord, packin' up her trunk

The "blues come to Texas" image is one drawn from Blind Lemon Jefferson as is the "matchbox" theme at the end of "Johnny Behren's Blues." He references Lemon again with the "piney wood" image in "Peaceful Blues", yet another lyrically interesting number:

Said, mama told me, told me, papa sat and cried (2x)
Say, "You're too young a man to have that many women your side." (2x)

Says, I woke up laughin', went down the road a-flyin' (2x)
Says, I always had Miss Margie on my mind

I'm gonna climb my woman's belly like a yoyo do a string (2x)
If I don't fix her up, I'll be in a dirty name

I love my woman better than a cow loves to chew her cud (2x)
Lord, that fool, she got mad, moved to the piney wood

Mmmmm, heeeumm,
Hee-ehhh, ummmuhh
Lord, that fool, she got mad and moved to the piney woods

"Perhaps both singers drew on a common source" Oliver conjectures. "We'll never know, but the evidence of his recordings reveal Texas Alexander to have been among the most individual of singers, and the least subject to the influence of others."

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

Sabine River Blues (MP3)

Ninety-Eight Degree Blues (MP3)

Johnny Behren's Blues (MP3)

Texas Special (MP3)