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Frost, Texas

Frost, Texas · What Endures

Part Seven of 8

Five Weeks Later, in San Antonio

 

We started this series with a song. Here's the rest of it.

Alger “Texas” Alexander, about 1925.
Alger “Texas” Alexander, about 1925.Photographer unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On June 9, 1930, five weeks after the storm, Alger “Texas” Alexander walked into a recording session in San Antonio and cut “Frost Texas Tornado Blues” for the OKeh label, with the Mississippi Sheiks playing behind him. It came out as OKeh 8890. A copy of the record hangs at the Frost Heritage Center today.

The Mississippi Sheiks, who played behind Alexander on the Frost record.
The Mississippi Sheiks, who played behind Alexander on the Frost record.Photographer unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alexander was born in Jewett in 1900. He played no instrument. He carried a guitar anyway, in case somebody who could play it came along. He sang on his own clock, and musicians who backed him learned to follow rather than keep time. Lonnie Johnson said he was “liable to jump a bar, or five bars, or anything,” and that a day in the studio with him was “nine days work in one.”

OKeh 8890: “Frost Texas Tornado Blues,” Texas Alexander.
OKeh 8890: “Frost Texas Tornado Blues,” Texas Alexander.Frost Heritage Center; photographed with the permission of Velma Ballew

The kid who followed him around best was Sam Hopkins, who called Alexander his cousin. As a teenager Hopkins toured with him, playing house parties and picnics around Jewett, Buffalo and Crockett, then went on to record hundreds of sides as Lightnin' Hopkins and became one of the most influential guitar players the blues ever produced. Stevie Ray Vaughan said his “Rude Mood” was his take on a Hopkins tune, “Hopkins' Sky Hop.”

Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins, who called Alexander his cousin and learned from him.
Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins, who called Alexander his cousin and learned from him.Photograph by 33stradale, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Most of the world has never heard of Frost, Texas. But it's been listening to a song about it for ninety-six years.

Stevie Ray Vaughan (center) with Double Trouble, 1983. His “Rude Mood” was his take on a Hopkins tune.
Stevie Ray Vaughan (center) with Double Trouble, 1983. His “Rude Mood” was his take on a Hopkins tune.Publicity photograph by Don Hunstein, 1983. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to “Frost Texas Tornado Blues”.

Some things are built to endure.

Sources

  • Session and issue: Wirz, Mississippi Sheiks discography; the OKeh label.
  • Alexander: Handbook of Texas; AllMusic. Lonnie Johnson's words: Texas Monthly.
  • Hopkins with Alexander: Journal of Texas Music History, vol. 21. “Rude Mood”: Vaughan, 1988 interview.
  • Photographs: Texas Alexander, the Mississippi Sheiks and Stevie Ray Vaughan (Don Hunstein), public domain; Lightnin' Hopkins by 33stradale, CC BY-SA 3.0; all via Wikimedia Commons.