Blues Roadhouse

It’s always a pleasure to find out about a slice of blues history that I haven’t known about, especially if there’s some music connected to it.

This new find (for me) comes from reading an article in the July 28 issue of Texas Monthly about a long-gone bluesman named Alger “Texas” Alexander. The article is part of the series, “Texans You Should Know” highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history.

It’s very possible that Alexander may be well known to some of you, and if so, I apologize for underestimating your blues knowledge. If not, his music should come as a pleasant surprise — he is regarded as quite an important figure in early blues history — the late 1920s and early ’30s.

Prather’s article is titled “The Myths and Melodies of Forgotten Bluesman Texas Alexander,” and I would paste it all in here, except it’s a long read, and also, I might be violating copyright law! The author of the piece is music historian Coy Prather, who published the book “A Tombstone for Texas: Texas Alexander and the Blues Pioneers of Texas,” in spring of 2023.

Here’s a summary of Alexander’s work from Prather’s article:

Alexander was “one of the major singers of Texas, and indeed of the blues as a whole,” blues historian Paul Oliver wrote, “one whose work, more than that of any other blues singer, was rooted in the vocal traditions of the plantation and the penitentiary.” Fulson, who got his start in music by touring with Alexander, was another of the few who never forgot him. “When he sang you could hear him a block away,” Fulson later recalled. “He really had that big voice. He had a big chest and he didn’t sing, he just roared. . . . He filled every place he went in.”

Alexander did not play an instrument but sang in a haunting voice to the accompaniment of some of best early musicians, including future guitar giants Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang. His vocals combined the eerily primitive yet sophisticated style often found in the best early blues singers. His songs were mostly slow and mournful stories that seemed to be drawn from his own personal travails.

Alexander’s was prolific, recording 66 singles, of which Paul Oliver wrote: “He might well be said to have been the quintessential blues [singer] for all but one of his sixty-six issued titles . . . were blues of the most rural kind.”

In 1927, he began a recording career that continued into the 1930s, recording sides for Okeh Records and Vocalion Records. Over the years he worked with a number of other artists, including Lang, Johnson, King Oliver, Little Hat Jones, the Mississippi Sheiks, J. T. Smith, and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

After 1945, Alexander returned to performing and recording. His last recording was made in 1950 with Benton’s Busy Bees, with Leon Benton on guitar and Buster Pickens on piano. Alexander died in 1954, at the age of 53. He was buried in Longstreet Cemetery, in Montgomery County, Texas.^[2]

Here’s a list of his recordings, many of which were later issued in album form by a variety of labels. I found that my streaming service, Amazon Prime Music, will play many of his songs. YouTube offers choices as well.

Prather has also submitted to the Montgomery County, Texas, Historical Commission for a marker for Algernon “Texas” Alexander: Application for an Official Montgomery County Historical Marker.

If you’ve never heard Alexander, you should try his music, an important piece of early blues history.

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Here are a few of Alexander’s recordings. The first three are from the late 1920s and early ’30s. The last one is from his final session in 1950.

https://youtu.be/Kq3yYypvAmo

From 1950

https://youtu.be/roMkSnaN7bo