Alger "Texas" Alexander

Infobox musical artist | Background = solo_singer | Instrument = Guitar
Name = Texas Alexander


Img_capt =
Birth_name = Alger Alexander
Born = birth date|1900|9|12|mf=y
Jewett, Texas, U.S.A.
Died = death date|1954|4|16|mf=y
Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
Genre = Country blues, Texas blues, Blues
Instrument = Vocals, Guitar
Years_active = 1927 - 1950
Associated_acts = Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins
URL =

Alger "Texas" Alexander (September 12 1900 - April 16 1954 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hcfyxql5ld6e~T1 All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008] ] ) was a blues singer from Jewett, Texas.

Career

A short man with a big, deep voice, Alexander started his career performing on the streets and at local parties and picnics in the Brazos River bottomlands, where he sometimes worked with Blind Lemon Jefferson. [http://www.redhotjazz.com/talexander.html Redhotjazz.com biography] ] In 1927 he began a recording career that continued into the 1930s, recording sides for the Okeh and Vocalion labels in New York, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.

In November 1928, Alexander recorded what is believed to be the earliest version of "The House of the Rising Sun." Other songs he recorded include "Mama's Bad Luck Child," "Sittin' on a Log," "Texas Special," "Broken Yo Yo" and "Don't You Wish Your Baby was Built Up Like Mine?". His early records for Okeh are notable not only for the personal originality of his songs, but for the musical motifs against which they are set.

Alexander did not play an instrument himself, and over the years he worked with a number of other musicians, including King Oliver, Eddie Lang, Lonnie Johnson, Little Hat Jones, Eddie Lang, the Mississippi Sheiks, and his cousin, Lightnin' Hopkins. He sang in the free rhythm of work songs, such as the migrant cotton pickers he performed for might have sung, which posed a challenge for those accompanying him. Indeed, his singing is difficult to follow, and on his gramophone records his accompanists can often be heard resetting their watches to Alexander Time.cite book
first= Tony
last= Russell
year= 1997
title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
edition=
publisher= Carlton Books Limited
location= Dubai
pages= p. 88
id= ISBN 1-85868-255-X] His finest collaborator was Lonnie Johnson, who devised free-form guitar melodies in counterpoint to the vocal lines.

In 1939, Alexander murdered his wife, resulting in a stay in the state penitentiary in Paris, Texas from 1940 to 1945. After that he returned to performing and recording, and Alexander made his last recording in 1950 with Benton's Busy Bees (Leon Benton, guitar and Buster Pickens, piano), before dying at the age of 53 of syphilis in 1954, in Houston, Texas. [http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/mus_ata.htm Thebluestrail.com mini-biography article] ]

Alexander's body is buried in Longstreet Cemetery, Grimes County, Texas. [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1539987 Everything2.com biography of Texas Alexander - accessed January 2008] ]

ee also

* List of blues musicians
* List of Country blues musicians
* List of Texas blues musicians
* List of Electric blues musicians
* Kokomo Records

References

External links

* [http://www.redhotjazz.com/talexander.html Discography] at [http://www.redhotjazz.com/ The Red Hot Jazz Archive]
* [http://www.texasmonthly.com/mag/issues/2000-05-01/feature3.php "Birthplaces of the Blues" by Michael Hall] from [http://www.texasmonthly.com/ Texas Monthly]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:brq8b594tsq0 All Music Guide Entry]