Willie Lane and Talent Records

As anyone who reads this blog with any frequency knows, I love digging deep and learning about largely unknown musicians and writers from Texas. This evening I am writing about Willie Lane, a country bluesman about whom very little has been written.

According to txbluesproject.com, Willie Lane was born in Edna, Texas in 1897 and served in World War I. In April of 1934, while serving time in Huntsville, it is believed that he recorded for the Library of Congress under the name "Little Brother." Between 1934 and 1949 he recorded six sides for Dallas' Talent Records, which, according to the Dallas Observer, also produced Professor Longhair and Hoyle Nix and His West Texas Cowboys. 

Willie "Little Brother" Lane is remembered for "Too Many Women Blues," "Howling Wolfe Blues," "Prowlin' Ground Hog," and "Black Cat Rag." He was known to be in Fort Worth as early as 1929, according to Stephen Calt's liner notes for Thomas Shaw's Blind Lemon's Buddy album, and he died in Fort Worth in 1976.

Here is Willie Lane's "Too Many Women Blues."