On March 28, 1928, country artist Prince Albert Hunt recorded for the first time in San Antonio. Hunt was a boisterous singer and fiddler from North Texas who, together with his band the Texas Ramblers, pointed the way to the danceable rhythms of western swing. He’s best-known, perhaps, for the infectious twang and rambler of a song from this session, “Blues in a Bottle.”
This capped a busy month for the Okeh Records field agents in San Antonio, and Hunt was by no means the only discovery they made there in 1928. On March 10, they cut their first records with Cuarteta Carta Blanca, including “El Rancho Grande” and “Monterrey.”
The quartet was a local family band that often performed in San Antonio’s plazas, notable for their close harmonies. While their name may not ring many bells, the name of the 12-year-old in the family often taking lead on vocals just might, as this was the first recording session for the legendary Lydia Mendoza.
The day before Lydia Mendoza’s debut, Okeh technicians were hard at work with what might have seemed an odd pairing of artists. It was a record for the street singer Texas Alexander, known for his incorporation of older folk styles into early recorded blues.
Alexander didn’t play an instrument, though, and so always had to be booked with a guitarist or other instrumentalist, his partners including everyone from the Mississippi Sheiks to King Oliver. In this 1928 San Antonio session, he sang alongside the deft guitarwork of guitarist Lonnie Johnson. The productive tension between Alexander’s grit and Johnson’s polish produced songs like “Bell Cow Blues.”
These records captured a rich snapshot of the vernacular sounds of 1920s Texas. The artists’ subsequent paths diverged. Prince Albert Hunt had one other recording session, in Dallas in 1929, and Texas Alexander’s recording career took a downturn during the Great Depression.
The Cuarteta Carta Blanca didn’t get much more work in Texas, relocating to Michigan for a time, but Lydia Mendoza’s 1936 return with the song “Mal Hombre” revealed that she was only at the very beginning of an iconic career.
