Pistol Packin’ Mama” made Al Dexter, who both wrote the song and sang the original recording, a household name in the 1940s. A bouncy little number about a gal who barges into a tavern looking to gun down her cheating man, it sold a million well before the year was out and also became the first country song to top the pop-music charts. It boiled out of nearly every jukebox in the nation for far too long and was covered by some of the biggest pop singers of the day, including Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
His “Mama” wasn’t kidding around when she “filled him full of lead,” but Dexter sure sounded like he was having a jolly good time recording “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” Despite the bitterness and violence that burns through the song’s lyrics (“she kicked out my windshield and hit me over the head”), Dexter delivered them with a smile on his face. Then again, this was the era that produced the Three Stooges, who showed us just how funny a smack in the face could be.
Novelty tunes with a gnarlier subtext, “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” “You’ve Been Cheating Baby”— perhaps a better example of his pei-sonal philosophy (“I’m not the kind to get a gun, I’ll go out and have some fun”) – and other Dexter ditties were the middle ground between vaudeville and the grittier honky tonk that was emerging at the time. Setting “Pistol Packin’ Mama” in a tavern (Dexter called it a “cabaret”) and talking openly of (gasp) beer – drinking even caused a minor uproar. It wasn’t long, however, before such lascivious references became as commonplace as the uberpatriotism of Elton Britt’s “There’s A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere” and the squeaky-clean morals of Jimmie Davis’ “You Are My Sunshine.” Like it or not, “Pistol Packm’ Mama” was a milestone.
Al Dexter was born Clarence Albert Poindexter on 4 May, 1905 near Jacksonville, Texas. He came of age during the oil boom that hit east Texas during the ’20s and ’30s, playing parties and dances for the workers and writing songs, too. He worked with an all-black dance band for a while before forming his own group, the Troopers. They first recorded in 1934 for a local label and a couple years later were signed to ARC. One of Dexter’s fii^t recordings, “New Jelly Roll Blues,” clearly showed the black-blues side of his musical influences, and was much more raw than any of his ’40s sides. Another song, “Honky Tonk Blues,” brought the term ‘honky tonk’ into the country music vernacular for the first time. Dexter himself didn’t know honky tonk from hop¬scotch until his songwriting pal, James Paris, clued him in.
Dexter first recorded “Pistol Packin’ Mama” in early 1942; it was released by OKeh in 1943 and was a smash shortly after. He followed it up with further songs alluding to guns and gals such as “Calamity Jane” (“She don’t have to pack any pistols around/she just looks at me and she mows me down”), but also recorded instrumentals (“Guitar Polka”) and sentimental songs (“So Long Pal,” “I’ll Wait For You Dear”). His 1946 hit “Wine Women And Song” was a pretty straight¬forward arrangement, but others Uke “Down At The Roadside Inn” added trumpet and accordion for an extra jazzy bounce.
Dexter’s heady chart success continued through the end of the ’40s. After his Columbia contract expired he recorded for King, Decca and Dot before forming his own Aldex label. In the early ’60s he signed briefly with Capitol, then opened the Bridgeport Club in Dallas, where he played until his retirement (he’d owned a beer joint once before in the ’30s). In 1971 Dexter was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Jimmie Davis, Bradley Kincaid, Tex Ritter, and others. He died in 1984.
