Tag Archives: Texas

Timely 1003 – Otis Hinton – 1954

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In our continuing examination of the Texas blues, we have taken a look at some of the most renowned figures—like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and “Texas” Alexander—as well as some of the more obscure—like “Stick Horse” Hammond, Gene Campbell, and Jesse Lockett.  Now, let us turn our attention to one of the obscurest of them all, Dallas bluesman Otis Hinton, and his one record (which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest ever made).

Otis was born Odis Hinton in Jacksonville, Texas, on June 8, 1916 (or 1918), one of eleven children of the Reverend Claude A. and Mae Ollie Hinton.  Prior to revelatory research by blues historian Bob Eagle, he was believed to have hailed from Shreveport, Louisiana.  After receiving a third grade education, Hinton relocated to Dallas around the age of ten.  There, he was surely exposed to the blues scene flourishing in Deep Ellum and its surrounding neighborhoods.  As an adult, Hinton stood six feet tall, of dark complexion, and was blind in his right eye.  In the early 1940s, he married Rachael Mae Washom, the daughter of a family with whom he had lived for some time prior.  The couple had at least two children, Tommie and Odell, the former of whom died in infancy.  Though he evidently made his living working menial jobs in white folks’ yards, Hinton was a proficient musician in a style similar to many of his fellow Texas musicians.  His skills were presumably of some local renown, as they earned him a listing as a musician in the Dallas city directory.  He traveled to New York, purportedly in 1953, to wax four sides for Apollo Records—”No More to Roam”, “Railroad Woman” (or “Beloved Woman” per copyright filing), “Little Woman”, and “Hinton’s Boogie”—none of which ever saw release.  Copyrights were filed for all four unissued Apollo recordings on September 9, 1955, perhaps suggesting that they may at one time have been planned for release, or that they were recorded later than attributed (the latter, in my opinion, is the more likely scenario).  In 1954, he recorded two additional sides for Apollo founder Hy Siegel’s new record label, Timely, which were released this time around.  Back home in Texas, he found work for the Binyon-O’Keefe Company, a storage and moving business in Dallas-Fort Worth.  Just over three years after his only record’s release, Hinton was pronounced dead from pneumonia—the same ailment that had claimed his infant son years earlier—at Parkland Hospital on November 18, 1957.  He was interred at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, where his father had previously been buried, as would many more of his family members in years to come.  Otis Hinton’s two released recordings have been featured on several reissue compilation since the folk-blues revival of the 1960s.  His younger brother “Little Joe” Hinton (1937-2022) was also a noted singer and songwriter, recording a series of soul singles in the 1960s and ’70s.

Timely 1003 was recorded in New York City, probably in early 1954.  The date has often been cited as July 7, 1954, however this seems improbable, as it was advertised as a “New R&B Record” in Billboard magazine on June 26, 1954.  Otis Hinton accompanies himself on guitar and is joined by an unidentified rhythm section consisting of bass and drums.

Hinton’s “Walkin’ Down Hill” is a loose variant of the classic “Big Road Blues”, made famous by Mississippi bluesman Tommy Johnson in the 1920s.  Billboard’s review opined that “Southern blues fans should enjoy this bright reading of a bouncy down-home effort sung by Otis Hinton.  He accompanies himself solidly on the guitar.  Side could catch loot in the South.”  This is one of my favorite sides of all time.

Walkin’ Down Hill, recorded 1954 by Otis Hinton.

“Emmaline” seems to be a variant of the blues standard popularized by Little Son Jackson as “Rockin’ and Rollin'”, also known as “Rock Me, Mama”.  Although Hinton’s country blues style might seem somewhat dated in the days of rock ‘n’ roll—and indeed, his record does not seem to have sold particularly well—it would foreshadow the revival of traditional blues that was on the horizon at the time.

Emmaline, recorded 1954 by Otis Hinton.

Paramount 12855 – Will Ezell – 1929

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At Old Time Blues, we have developed a tradition of honoring both the legends and the lost of recorded American music—and quite often both are one and the same.  In that vein, let us take a look herein at the life and career of Texas native ragtime pianist, boogie-woogie pioneer, and Paramount recording star Will Ezell, and a record that some have hailed as the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.

William Ezell was born in Brenham, Texas, on December 23, 1892, one of six children born to Lorenza and Rachel Ezell.  Beginning in his teenage years, Will was playing piano in juke joints and lumber camp barrelhouses around eastern Texas and western Louisiana—the country where boogie-woogie was born.  As an itinerant piano player, Ezell was known to have played in various locations from Dallas to New Orleans, where he was living by the time of the First World War.  It was perhaps during this time in Louisiana that he encountered blues singer Elzadie Robinson—a native of the Shreveport area—and the two struck up something of a partnership.  Around 1925, Ezell and Robinson traveled north to Chicago, where they made their phonograph recording debut for the New York Recording Laboratories of Port Washington, Wisconsin, manufacturers of Paramount Records.  Subsequently, between 1926 and 1931, Ezell recorded somewhat prolifically for Paramount, both solo and as an accompanist.  He became well known around Chicago as well as Detroit, alongside Charlie Spand and fellow Texas pianist Hersal Thomas.  A few of his notable piano recordings include “Barrel House Man”, “Heifer Dust”, “Mixed Up Rag”, “Bucket of Blood”, and “Pitchin’ Boogie”.  As an accompanist, Ezell played piano behind such blues singers as Lucille Bogan, Bertha Henderson, Side Wheel Sally Duffie, Blind Roosevelt Graves, and of course Elzadie Robinson.  In 1929, he appeared with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Papa Charlie Jackson, Charlie Spand, and the Hokum Boys on the “Hometown Skiffle”, a “descriptive novelty” record featuring Paramount’s top stars.  It has been reported, of uncertain veracity, that Paramount commissioned Ezell to escort the body of their star recording artist Blind Lemon Jefferson home to Texas upon his untimely demise in late 1929.  When the Great Depression struck and severely affected Paramount’s recording activities, Ezell’s output slowed considerably, and he made his final known recordings in early 1931, accompanying Sam “Slim” Tarpley on one record.  Although he made no further recordings, his existing body of work began to see reissues as early as the 1940s.  Subsequently, he reportedly went back on the road, returning for a time to Louisiana, before settling in Chicago permanently by the end of the 1930s, where he found work for the WPA.  According to John Steiner—who revived the Paramount label in the late 1940s—Ezell later made appearances alongside fellow former Paramount artists Blind Leroy Garnett and Charlie Spand at the Big Apple Tavern in Chicago, owned by prolific pianist Cripple Clarence Lofton.  Ezell called Chicago his home for the rest of his life, and he died there on August 2, 1963.

Paramount 12855 was recorded at the Starr Piano Company’s recording laboratory in Richmond, Indiana, on September 20, 1929.  Will Ezell is on the piano, and is accompanied by Blind Roosevelt Graves on guitar, his brother Uaroy Graves on tambourine, and probably “Baby Jay” James on cornet.

Ezell’s hard-driving “Pitchin’ Boogie” is often suggested to be an early antecedent of rock ‘n’ roll, with its stomping barrelhouse piano beat coupled with the guitar and cornet of the Graves brothers’ Mississippi Jook Band making for a prototype of the early rock band lineup.

Pitchin’ Boogie, recorded September 20, 1929 by Will Ezell.

On the “B” side (which the original owner evidently enjoyed more than the former), “Just Can’t Stay Here” dishes out more of the same stuff, but arranged more as a standard twelve-bar blues song than a rent party rollick.

Just Can’t Stay Here, recorded September 20, 1929 by Will Ezell.

Columbia 15510-D – Lubbock Texas Quartet – 1929

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This record likely contains the earliest audio recordings of music from Lubbock, Texas, and quite possibly such from the Llano Estacado region in the Panhandle of west Texas (a number of southwest Texas “cowboy country” musicians had recorded previously, such as Jules Verne Allen).

Preceded by a number of earlier vocal groups in Lubbock town in the 1910s and beginning of the ’20s, the group known as the Lubbock Texas Quartet was formed in earnest around 1922 by Tony Q. Dyess a musical entrepreneur and promoter of the “shape note” tradition.  Dyess was born in Brazos County, Texas, on December 15, 1881, and lived in Vernon prior to taking up residence in Lubbock.  In its early years, the quartet was often known locally as the “Lubbock Peerless Quartet”, the “Home Brew Quartet”, or the ‘Lubbock Quartet”—or simply by the names of its members: Dyess, Holland, Wendell, and Wilson.  The group soon affiliated itself with the successful Stamps-Baxter music publishing company in Dallas, and were accordingly promoted variously as the “Lubbock Stamps Quartet” or sometimes simply “Stamps Quartet”, sharing the latter title with a number of other Stamps groups.  The quartet’s Personnel varied throughout its  years of existence, but from the late 1920s through the early 1940s members included Tony and Doc Dyess, Clyde Burleson, Cecil and Glenn Gunn, Wilson Carson, Minnis Meek, Louis Brooks, and Homer Garrison, with the occasional addition of pianist Marion Snider.  In December of 1929, the quartet traveled three-hundred miles to Dallas to record but a single phonograph record for Columbia, who were conducting a series of session in the city on one of their field trips south. The group never recorded again subsequently, but they continued to perform in the Texas Panhandle throughout the following decades, they sang on Lubbock’s KFYO and other stations, in addition to frequent live performances throughout Texas and the surrounding states, even venturing as far as West Virginia.  The group appears to have dissolved around 1943, as the war was escalating in Europe.

If you are interested in reading a more exhaustive examination of the Lubbock Texas Quartet and all of their history, I recommend a look at Curtis L. Peoples’s essay The Lubbock Texas Quartet and Odis “Pop” Echols: Promoting Southern Gospel Music on the High Plains of Texas, published in the Journal of Texas Music History in 2014, from which most of the information included in this article was sourced.

Columbia 15510-D was recorded on December 9, 1929, in Dallas, Texas; their only two recordings. The Lubbock Texas Quartet likely consists of tenors Clyde Rufus Burleson or possibly Cecil Lee Gunn, baritones Minnis Monroe Meek and Wilson Lloyd Carson, and possibly bass Louis M. Brooks, though all are unconfirmed; they are accompanied by an unknown guitarist, probably Carson.  It is reported to have sold a total of 12,776 copies, and remained in “print” until at least Columbia’s “Royal Blue” era around 1933-34; this pressing dates to around 1931.

Their first song, and without a doubt the better remembered of their two due to its appearance in several reissue compilations, is “Turn Away”, composed by prolific songwriter and Methodist Reverend B.B. Edmiaston and published by the Stamps-Baxter Music Company of Dallas, Texas.

Turn Away, recorded December 9, 1929 by Lubbock Texas Quartet.

The mournful “O Mother How We Miss You” is quite a lovely song in spite of its rather morose theme, and includes a brief solo guitar passage by the group’s accompanist.  It has been suggested that this song was the more popular of these two in its own day.

O Mother How We Miss You, recorded December 9, 1929 by Lubbock Texas Quartet.

Martin M103 – Joe Petek’s Orchestra – c. 1947

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“[Texas Czech music] was not like it sounded in Europe; this had much more of the Southwest swing to it.  A year later I heard the Joe Patek Orchestra in person at a dancehall in north Houston.  There were many of these bands in the area, but Patek’s was the best of them.”

— Chris Strachwitz

Out of the myriad of ethnic groups that comprise the melting pot of modern-day Texas, the Czechs have had a particularly significant impact on the culture of the Lone Star State.  Arriving first in the early days of Anglo settlement in Texas and settling largely in the southeastern quadrant of the state, there now number more individuals of Czech heritage in Texas than in any other state in the union.  And with them, they brought bountiful treasures which are appreciated by Texans of every race, color, and creed, including kolaches, klobasneks, bock beer, polka music, the SPJST, and Czech Stop.  In their honor, October has been declared Czech Heritage Month by the Texas State Legislature, and it would seem remiss to allow the month to pass by without paying tribute to their rich musical contributions to Texas culture

Of the many Bohemian bands in central and south Texas—Rhine Winkler’s, Rudy Kurtz’s, Frank and Adolph Migl’s, the Baca family’s, and others—perhaps none exceeded the renown of Joe Patek and his family band.  Hailing from Shiner, Texas—home of the eponymous Shiner Bock beer—at the heart of Texas’ Czech community, Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra has been hailed as the greatest renowned of the numerous such bands in the region, though they claimed to have only played for their own amusement.  The Patek family band was founded in 1895 (or 1920) by Czech immigrant John Patek, Sr., who had been a musician in the old country.  One of six Patek brothers, Joseph Patek was born in Shiner on September 14, 1907, and took over leadership of his father’s band from his older brother Jim in the 1930s.  Once the reins were in his hands, Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra recorded seven sides for Decca during their field trip to Dallas in February of 1937, of which only one record was released, and which sold quite poorly.  Patek attributed that commercial failure to the band being rushed by the recording director.  They would not record again until the rise of small, regional record companies in the years following World War II, beginning with a series of discs on the tiny San Antonio label Martin.  Subsequently, they recorded somewhat prolifically for the FBC (Fort Bend County) and Humming Bird labels out of Rosenberg and Waco, respectively.  Transitioning to the 45 RPM and LP era, Patek’s band cut records for San Antonio’s illustrious Tanner ‘n’ Texas (or TNT) and Bellaire Records from the Texas town of the same name.  They continued to record into the 1970s, with albums remaining in print on CD to the present day.  In addition to recording, Patek’s orchestra also had a weekly radio program on KCTI in Gonzalez, Texas, in the mid-1940s, and toured central and south Texas dance halls and picnics.  Their repertoire consisting of polkas, waltzes, and marches, many with Czech vocals, they became as well known as the beer that made Shiner famous.  Under Joe’s leadership, the Patek orchestra incorporated jazz and Latin influences in a uniquely Texan blend unheard in traditional Bohemian music. In addition to music, Patek operated a grocery store, meat market, and slaughterhouse, still in business today in Shiner.  The Patek orchestra dissolved following a 1982 New Year’s Eve dance at the Shiner American Legion.  Five years later, Joe Patek died in Victoria, Texas, on October 24, 1987.

Martin M103 was recorded around 1947 by the S.W. Martin Distributing Company.  The actual date of recording is untraceable and may be lost to time.  It was their first record for Martin.  The label misspells Joe Patek’s  last name as “Petek”.

On the A-side, Patek’s band plays what is surely their most widely and perhaps fondly remembered piece, the “Shiner Song” (“Když jsme opustili Shiner”), an “all-time favorite song” of the Texas Polka Music Association, derived from the older “Praha Polka” and rededicated to the popular beer produced by the Spoetzl Brewery of their hometown of Shiner, Texas.

Shiner Song, recorded c. 1947 by Joe Petek’s Orchestra.

On the reverse, they play a waltz dedicated to our great nation titled “Beautiful America” (“Krásná Amerika”), a number which they recorded again for TNT in the decade that followed.

Beautiful America, recorded c. 1947 by Joe Petek’s Orchestra

Globe 122 – Jesse Lockett with Earl Sims’ Sextette – 1946

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Performing and recording alongside more famous contemporaries like Lightnin’ Hopkins, L.C. Williams, and Melvin “Little Son” Jackson, blues shouter Jesse Lockett was a big figure on the 1940s Houston blues scene and a pioneering vocalist in the postwar Texas record industry—notable for making the first blues record to appear on a Texas-based label—yet very little is known of him and his scant recording career today.

Jesse Eugene Lockett was born on September 23, 1912, in Trinity County, Texas.  He grew up in Houston, where he attended Wheatley High School.  In adulthood, he was described as a heavyset, dark complected man, about five feet, ten inches tall and weighing as much as three-hundred pounds, and was called at point a “buxom and vociferous singer of the blues (all gut bucket).”  While living in Houston in the summer of 1935, Lockett—despite a plea of not guilty—was convicted of burglary and theft and sentenced to seven years on the Clemens State Farm in Brazoria County beginning on September 11, 1935.  There, on April 16, 1939, noted folklorist John A. Lomax recorded him singing “Worry Blues” and accompanying himself on the guitar in one of his prison recording trips for the Library of Congress.  Only a few months later, he was released early, walking free on September 14, 1939.  Soon after his release, he formed a band called the Blue Five, which was well received in Houston in the early-to-mid-1940s, making appearances at both public venues and private functions.  Known for composing most of his own material, he earned regular mention in the local black newspaper, the Informer and Texas Freeman, in which he was hailed as “Houston’s gift to the music world.”  Some of his known appearances included regular revues at the Lincoln Theatre at 711 Prairie Street, nightclub shows, including a bi-weekly “Harlem Review” at Lee Curry’s New Harlem Grill and opening night at Sutton Batteau’s Blue Room, and at least one concert at the City Auditorium.  He was often joined in these shows by tap dancer Jimmy De Barber and blackface comedian “Cream Puff” Smith, and he shared the stage at times with such noted bands as LeRoy Hardison’s Carolina Cotton Pickers and I.H. Smalley’s Rockateers.  In the early 1940s, Lockett had a string of engagements on the East Coast, and around the same time was purported to have been a “Decca recording artist,” with some of his songs listed as “Defense Blues” and “The New Sugar Ration Blues”, though no evidence of these songs or of Lockett ever recording for Decca appears to exist.  A few years later, around late 1945, he made his documented commercial recording debut for Bill Quinn’s Houston-based Gulf label with “Boogie Woogie Mama” and “Blacker the Berry”, the first and only known blues record to appear on the first record label based in Texas.  An October 1945 newspaper article reported that Lockett had recorded ten sides for an unnamed “local record company” (presumably Gulf), but only the aforementioned two are known to have been released.  Soon after, he ventured out west to join Earl Sims’ Sextette on a pair of jump blues sides recorded for the Los Angeles-based Globe label.  Following this stint in California, Lockett returned to Houston, at which point he recorded once again for Bill Quinn—whose Gulf label had become Gold Star—cutting four sides as a vocalist with Will Rowland’s Orchestra (who had apparently traveled with him from California) in late 1948, including “Run Mr. Rabbit Run” and “Reefer Blues”.  Afterwards, he seems to have gone back to California, where—apparently finding it hard to stay out of trouble—he was incarcerated again by 1950, this time in the Los Angeles County Jail, ostensibly putting an end to his promising career in music.  After serving his sentence again, Lockett remained in California, where he died in San Luis Obispo on March 14, 1966.

Globe 122 was recorded sometime in 1946 in Los Angeles, California, and released the same year.  Earl Sims’s Sextette consists of Sims on alto saxophone, Doc Jones on tenor sax, Jimmy Moorman on trumpet, Laurence Robinson on piano, C. LeChuga on string bass, and Felix Gross on drums.

On the record’s first side, Jesse Lockett sings a slow blues of his own composition titled “Mellow Hour Blues”.  Lockett seems to have been both a fine singer and songwriter, drawing inspiration from the folk blues tradition.

Mellow Hour Blues, recorded c. 1946 by Jesse Lockett with Earl Sims Sextette.

On the “B” side, Lockett sings a “jump boogie” titled “Hole in the Wall”, not to be confused with the different song of the same name recorded by fellow Texas blues singer L.C. Williams around two years later.

Hole in the Wall, recorded c. 1946 by Jesse Lockett with Earl Sims Sextette