Alan Govenar (54 page)

7.
Handbook of Texas Online.
www.tsha.utexas.edu/hanbook/online
.

8.
Gates and Fox.

9.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

10.
Ibid.

11.
For more information on Abe Hopkins and the Hopkins family, see
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/–txhousto/biographies/hopkins_Lightnin.htm
; Timothy J. O'Brien, “Sam Hopkins: Houston Bluesman, 1912–1960,” M.A. Thesis, University of Houston, 2006. O'Brien writes that Sam's mother's maiden name was Frances Washington. Ray Dawkins says her maiden name was Davis. However, the Leon County Web site about Lightnin', the one that presents solid census research on Abe, says her maiden name was Frances Washington, but she is also listed as Frances Sims pre-1903, and speculates that she may have been married before Abe.

12.
Thirteenth Census of the United States. Population Series: T635: 1828, p. 24.

13.
Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

14.
Clyde Langford, interview by Alan Govenar, March 21, 2008.

15.
Ibid., February 7, 2008.

16.
Ibid., February 6, 2008. For more information on the practice through which African Americans were sentenced to forced labor, see Douglas A. Blackmon,
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil to World War II
(New York: Doubleday, 2008).

17.
Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

18.
Ibid.

19.
Lee Gabriel, April 1, 2000.

20.
Ibid.

21.
Ibid.

22.
Ibid.

23.
Ibid.

24.
Lorine Washington interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.

25.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

26.
Paul Oliver,
Conversation with the Blues
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 44.

27.
Paul Oliver,
Vocal Traditions on Race Records
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 25–26.

28.
Henry Thomas
(Ragtime Texas),
Vocalion 1230, Chicago, June 13, 1928. Reissued on Mack McCormick, “Henry Thomas,” album notes and transcriptions, Herwin 209.

29.
Clyde Langford interview by Alan Govenar, February 7, 2008.

30.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

31.
Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

32.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Learn About the Blues,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

33.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

34.
Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin' Hopkins, Part 1,”
Jazz Journal
13, no. 11 (November 1960), pp. 22–24.

35.
Over the years, Mary Allen College expanded its curriculum, but the school ultimately ceased operation in the late 1970s.

36.
Blind Lemon Jefferson's two religious songs were “I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart” and “All I Want is That Pure Religion,” Paramount 12386.

37.
Laura Lippman, “Blind Lemon sang the Blues: Wortham man recalls his memories of musician,”
Waco Tribune-Herald,
June 2, June 2, 1982, 11A.

38.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Growed Up with the Blues,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

39.
For more information on Blind Lemon Jefferson, see Alan B. Govenar and Jay F. Brakefield,
Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds Converged
(Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1998), pp. 61–85, and
Black Music Research Journal,
Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2000.

40.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

41.
Ibid.

42.
Ibid.

43.
Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin' Hopkins, Part 2,”
Jazz Journal
14, no. 1 (January 1961), p. 18.

44.
Lightnin' Hopkins, “Needed Time, RPM 359.

45.
Lightnin' Hopkins, “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Tradition LP 1040/77 “Jesus Won't You Come by Here,” with Barbara Dane, Arhoolie LP 1022, “Jesus Won't You Come by Here,” Vault LP 129, “I've Been ‘Buked (and Scorned)” AoF LP 241 (Davon LP 2015), “Prayin' Ground Blues,” Sittin' In With 599, “Devil is Watching You,” Vee-Jay LP 1044, “Sinner's Prayer,” Bluesville LP 1061; (45) 822, “I'm Gonna Build Me a Heaven of My Own,” Prestige LP 7377. Lightnin' also sang one verse of “Oh Mary, Don't You Weep,” a song that was no doubt suggested by Pete Seeger on Folkways LP 2455.

46.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

47.
Ibid.

48.
Ray Dawkins, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.

49.
The Leon County Historical Book Survey Committee,
History of Leon County, Texas
(Dallas, Texas: Curtis Media Corporation, 1986).

50.
Mabel Milton, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.

51.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

52.
Paul Oliver,
Conversation with the Blues
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 57.

53.
Mack McCormick,
Jazz Journal
13, no.11 (November 1960), p. 23.

54.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “They was Hard Times,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

55.
John Jackson and John Dee Holeman, interview by Alan Govenar, 1992 and Ed Pearl, interview by Alan Govenar, July 17, 2008.

56.
Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP
Country Blues,
Tradition LP 1035.

57.
For more information on the Leadbelly release legend, see Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell,
The Life and Legend of Leadbelly
(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 85–87.

58.
According to Anna Mae Box, Sam and Lightnin' had a second child who was stillborn.

59.
Anna Mae Box, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002. Census records spell Elamer as Almer but this is incorrect, as evidenced by the marriage license in the possession of Anna Mae Box. The census also recorded another child, Maxine, born to Sam Hopkins and Diamond Lacy on June 5, 1934. Some researchers have mistakenly maintained that Almer (sic) and Diamond Lacy were the same person, when in fact they were not. There was a Sam Hopkins listed in the Houston city directory from 1943 onward. However, this Sam Hopkins was living with Diaman (sic) and working as a “helper Mosher Steel Co—r. 1308 Bailey [4th Ward],” By 1949, Sam and Diamond had apparently separated as only Sam Hopkins “(no wife) driver Universal Term Warehouse—r. 3417 Live Oak [3rd Ward]” appears in the city directory. In 1951 this Sam Hopkins had the same listing and there was a separate one for “Hopkins, Mrs. Diamond—waiter Simon Ice House—r. 1308 Bailey.” In 1953, there were listings for Sam Hopkins (no wife), “Mrs. Diamond Hopkins—Paramount Laundry & Dry Cleaners—r. 1506 Victor,” and “Saml Hopkins (Gloria) musician—r. 2703 Gray Ave. [3rd Ward].” So, in what appears to be a bizarre coincidence, a black man named Sam Hopkins in Houston County (next to Leon County) married a woman named Diamond Lacy, had a child named Maxine in 1934, and moved to Houston's Fourth Ward by 1943. By 1949, they were separated and this Sam Hopkins was living in the Third Ward, a couple of miles from the other Sam Hopkins. He had a steady job with the Universal Term Warehouse throughout the 1950s.

60.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “They was Hard Times,” track from My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370, 1965.

61.
Interview outtakes from
The Blues According to
Sam
Hopkins,
1969.

62.
Anna Mae Box, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002.

63.
Ray Dawkins, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008 and July 17, 2008.

64.
Ibid.

65.
“Ida Mae,” Gold Star 613, recorded at Quinn Studio, Houston, 1947

66.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

67.
Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP
Smokes Like Lightning,
Bluesville LP 1070.

68.
Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP
Country Blues,
Tradition LP 1035.

2. Travels with Texas Alexander

1.
For more information, see
http://blog.negroleaguebaseball.com/negro_league_blog/2006/08/negro_league_or.html#more
.

2.
For more information, see Alan B. Govenar and Jay F. Brakefield,
Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged
(Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1998).

3.
Paul Oliver, liner notes to “Texas Alexander, 11 August 1927 to 15 November 1928,” Document MBCD-2001.

4.
Oliver, Document MBCD-2001.

5.
For more information, see Paul Oliver,
Blues Off the Record
(Kent, England: Baton Press, 1984); Texas Alexander, “Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order,” Volumes 1, 2, and 3, Document MDCD-2001, MDCD-2002, and MDCD-2003.

6.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Meet Texas Alexander,” track from
My Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

7.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

8.
Hopkins, My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

9.
Hopkins, Prestige LP 7370.

10.
Paul Oliver, liner notes to “Texas Alexander, 9 June 1930 to 1950,” Document MBCD-2003.

11.
Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin' Hopkins,”
Jazz Journal
13, no. 11 (November 1960), p. 23.

12.
Hopkins, Prestige LP 7370.

13.
Ibid.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Frank Robinson, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002.

16.
Helen Oakley Dance,
Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story
(New York: Da Capo, 1987), p. 96.

17.
Alan Govenar,
Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008), p. 416.

18.
Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin' Hopkins,”
Jazz Journal
(January 1961), pp. 16–19.

3. The Move to Houston

1.
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/jch4.html
.

2.
Beginning in 1893 the
Texas Freeman
was published by Charles N. Love, with the help of his wife Lilla, in issues of four pages, later expanded to ten or twelve. Love advocated the annulment of the Jim Crow laws, equal pay for black teachers, the hiring of black postal workers, and the Carnegie Library for Negroes in Houston, completed in 1912. A weekly paper known as the
Houston Informer
was published by C. F. Richardson, Sr., from 1919 until January 3, 1931, when the paper was acquired by attorney Carter W. Wesley and two business partners and merged with the
Texas Freeman
to form the
Houston Informer and Texas Freeman.
Wesley expanded the paper into a chain of
Informer
newspapers in Galveston, Beaumont, Dallas, and Austin, Texas, and New Orleans and Shreveport, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and circulated a statewide edition in small Texas towns, including Groesbeck and Crockett. The
Informer
acquired a printing company, employed fifteen hundred people at its peak, and is credited with starting many black writers in their careers. The paper was subsequently published as a weekly and semiweekly that changed its name alternately to the
Informer
and
Informer and Texas Freeman.
In the 1990s the paper was known as the
Informer,
was published and edited by George McElroy. For more information, see
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/eeh11.html
.

3.
Alan Govenar,
Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound
(College Station: Texas A &M University Press, 2008), p. 245.

4.
“El Dorado” is spelled as two words in the text instead of the more common “Eldorado” because it was always spelled as two words in the
Informer
during the early years of its existence.

5.
www.artshound.com/venue/detail/58
and
http://projectrowhouses.org/El
Dorado-ballroom.

6.
Lightnin' Hopkins,
Walkin' This Road By Myself,
Bluesville 1057.

7.
Ted Williams, “Serenading the News,”
Houston Informer,
October 10, 1942.

8.
Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, My
Life in the Blues,
Prestige LP 7370.

9.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.

10.
Clyde Langford, interview by Alan Govenar, September 30, 2008.

11.
Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin' Hopkins, Part 3,”
Jazz Journal
15, no. 2 (February 1961), p. 19.