This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll meet the crown prince of Dallas fiddlers.
On March 28, 1928, Prince Albert Hunt first recorded in San Antonio. Born in Terrell, Texas, in 1896, Hunt had become one of the most prominent fiddlers in Dallas by the 1920s. His innovative style combined old-time country breakdowns with blues and jazz. Between his 1928 San Antonio session and another in Dallas in 1929, Hunt and his band recorded only nine tracks. However, they helped pave the way for the emergence of Western swing in Texas during the 1930s.
Prince Albert Hunt had developed his bluesy style in the Dallas neighborhood of Deep Ellum. It was also there that he met his demise, when a jealous husband shot Hunt at a dance on March 21, 1931.
Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll scoot our boots in the world’s biggest honky-tonk.
