Week 57: Levee Camp Moan Blues



Texas Alexander (with Lonnie Johnson)

The Man

Alger ‘Texas Alexander is one of the least know early legends of the blues. A short stocky man with a booming deep voice, he couldn’t play any instruments and wasn’t as popular as his fellow Texan Blind Lemon Jefferson, but he was a much bigger influence on all Texan blues men that came after. Nearly all modern singers can trace a part of their vocal styling to Texas Alexander.

Not a lot is known about his early life. Alger was born to Sam “Ernie” Alexander and Jennie Brooks in Jewett, Texas on September 12, 1900 and was raised by his grandmother Sally Beaver in Richards, Texas. He worked as a labourer in cotton fields and on the railroads, learning the blues by singing field hollers and railroad chants. He developed a big, deep voice that always attracted a crowd and by his 20s was regularly singing at fish fries, dances, street parties and around work camps.

Alger carried a guitar with him, but he couldn’t play. He would turn up to a dance, find someone to accompany him and start singing. His lack of any formal education in music means he sung straight from the soul and other musicians had a hard time accompanying him. His lack of traditional timing became known as “Texas Time”. He played with early greats like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Funny Paper Smith and Little Hat Jones through the Brazos River bottomlands and the Texan countryside. The pianist Sammy Price met Texas at a party in 1927 and arranged a recording session for him at Okeh records in New York.

A few years early, in 1925, a young guitarist from Louisiana named Alonzo ‘Lonnie’ Johnson had won a blues competition where the first prize was a recording contract at Okeh. Lonnie was a talented young musician, mainly interested in jazz, but had known a life of tragedy. A gifted musician at an early age, he had toured to England and Europe in a jazz big band for two years. On returning home he discovered everyone in his family except his brother had been killed in an influenza epidemic. He relocated to St Louis with his brother, determined to make a career out of music. After winning the contract with Okeh he became their go to session guitarist accompanying a wide range of blues artists.

In August of 1927 Lonnie was paired with Texas Alexander and impressed everyone with his natural ability to play along with Texas Time. Lonnie was known for being tight with the beat and improvising melodic solos; with Texas he showed he could forget about time completely and play straight from the soul. Lonnie played with Texas on 5 of the 7 tracks recorded in that first session; the other two featured a piano. Texas returned home, playing the parties and dances between labouring jobs, while later that year Lonnie played alongside the great Louie Armstrong and began to break out of the blues pigeon hole Okeh had forced him into.

Texas’ records were a success and he was invited back in 1928 for further sessions, recording 8 tracks with Lonnie in March and a further 4 in November. The following year Lonnie toured with Bessie Smith and relocated to Chicago while Texas continued to record for Okeh, but at their studio in San Antonio accompanied by his old friend Little Hat Jones and Carl Davis. Texas’ fame continued to grow throughout the south, and he became quite a successful singer. He continued recording in the 30s, backed by the Mississippi Sheiks featuring Bo Carter in a 1930 session, but like a lot of guys of the time the great depression effectively killed the blues genre and his recording output slowed own and finally stopped in 1934.

He continued playing parties and dances throughout Texas, and continued to be a massive influence on young blues players. At a baseball game in the early 30’s he met Sam Hopkins and took him under his wing. For most of the decade the pair toured Texas and the south, driving around from town to town in Texas’ Cadillac – “I ain’t never seen a Cadillac so big” said Sam – playing at places where Texas would get a straight up fee instead of relying on tips.

In 1939 Texas Alexander was arrested and imprisoned, allegedly for killing his wife (though recent research has suggested that is a myth). He served time for whatever reason, and was released in 1945, where he returned to performing. Sam had teamed up with a piano player named Wilson Smith, and the next year was invited out to Los Angeles to make a record. The record company wanted a more marketable name so they gave Smith the nickname ‘Thunder’. Sam became Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Texas only recorded once more, a piano based pair of songs recorded in 1950. He was a regular throughout his home state in the early 50s, but ill health reduced his appearances and he passed away on April 18, 1954, allegedly of syphilis. His is buried in Longstreet Cemetery, in Montgomery County, Texas.



The Song

The Levee Camp Moan is a tradition in blues; versions of it have been recorded for nearly a century and by such greats as Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Pete Williams and Lead Belly. The versions can be very different – from big band Jazz versions by Lucille Bogan and Ma Rainy, to Son House slide, to Fred McDowell’s electric version, to one chord moans like Williams and Texas Alexander.

In the late 1800’s work began on rivers like the Mississippi, Brazos and Yazoo. Freed slaves and poor itinerant workers were drawn to levee building because it paid more than share cropping. The abundance of willing workers was seen as disposable labour by the overseers of the projects, who ‘housed’ the workers in temporary makeshift camps with little to no care for the employees. As a result conditions in the camps were atrocious: crime was rampant, exploitation was rife and murders were common. Songs developed based on these experiences and were sung by the labourers as they worked to call and response rhythms.

Ma Rainey recorded one of the earliest versions in 1925, singing how the camp kept her man from home. Lucille Bogan, an early female jazz/blues star, recorded a version in 1927 from the perspective of one of the camp prostitutes. Texas Alexander sang from the perspective of a labourer and recorded this version in his first sessions in New York in 1927, backed by Lonnie Johnson.

The song is a study in how to play blues using the major scale. It is wholly in E, played in standard tuning. It never changes chord and barely leaves the E major scale. Most blues relies on the minor or minor pentatonic scales to achieve tension and release, but this clearly illustrates the blues inherent in simply playing around with the chord tones of the major scale.

It is quite repetitive, but no two bars are the same. Texas and Lonnie were old friends and musical partners and Lonnie’s guitar line follows Texas’ voice perfectly, and it is all completely improvised. There’s no really timing, Lonnie follows Texas’ lead and goes wherever the song wants to go. This is a great song for beginners learning blues, because to play it you have to think in terms of what sound you are playing and what sound you want to come next – how to create tension and how to resolve it. Thinking in sound is a skill that separates the good from the great, and none of us seem to practice as much as we should!

The Lyrics

Mmmmmm Lord, they accused me of murder, but I haven’t harmed a man Accused me of murder, I haven’t harmed a man They have accused me of murder, and I haven’t harmed a man They have accused me of forgery and I can’t write my name Lord, They have accused me of forgery and I can’t write my name Went all around that whole corral I couldn't find a mule with his shoulder well I couldn't find a mule with his shoulder well Worked all morn and I worked to bell I couldn't find a mule with his shoulder well Mmmmmm, mmmmmm mmmmmm Lord, that morning bell Lord, she went up the country, yeah, but she’s on my mind Well she went up the country, but she’s on my mind If she don’t come on the big boat, she better not last If she don’t come on the big boat, bog boat, she better not last Lord, If she don’t come on the Big Boat, I mean she better not last

The Progression