Photo courtesy The Southern Folklife Collection, the University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill (1902-1984) Genre: Country Western Influenced: All other "honky-tonk" singers from Floyd Tillman and Jim Reeves to Waylon Jennings

Al Dexter almost single-handedly established the concept of honky-tonk with his 1937 recording of "Honky Tonk Blues." His 1943 release of "Pistol Packin' Mama" brought him enormous fame, was recorded by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters, and made him a wealthy man. It also encouraged the likes of Floyd Tillman to chronicle the hard-drinkin', hard-loving lifestyle.

Clarence Albert Poindexter got the vision of honky-tonk while working as a housepainter. Longing to express himself, he assembled several bands in the early thirties to play his own music. As early as 1935 he was recording for Vocalion Records, but it was his "Honky Tonk Blues," for the American Recording Corporation (ARC) that used the term "honky-tonk" for the first time in a song title. Al Dexter, as he was now professionally known, knew whereof he wrote, for in the late thirties he owned a honky tonk called the Roundup Club in Turnertown, Texas.

With the help of his ARC producer, Dexter arranged to record with Gene Autry's backup band one of the early classics of the genre, "Pistol Packing' Mama." It remained at number one in Billboard's charts for eight weeks and set Dexter up for a national tour. Other country number one hits followed throughout the forties, but none was ever so memorable again.

In the fifties Al Dexter opened his Bridgeport Club in Dallas, where he occasionally sang, but otherwise largely retired from entertaining to concentrate on his business interests. Singing about honky-tonking had made him a wealthy man.