“Texas Gales” began on record as “Texas Gals.” The Hill Billies recorded it in New York on 22 October 1926 for Vocalion. It was issued in 1927 on Vocalion 5021, backed with “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad.” Tony Alderman and Fred Roe played fiddles and Charlie Bowman banjo. Al Hopkins was on piano and calls, John Hopkins on ukulele, and Joe Hopkins and Henry Roe on guitars. The band had come together in Galax, Virginia, in 1924, with members from Watauga County, North Carolina, and Grayson and Carroll counties in Virginia. By the time of this session they were based in Washington, D.C. County Records later reissued the side on the LP The Hill-Billies, and Document on its complete edition of the band’s recordings.
The spelling “Gales” comes from Doc Watson. The tune appeared on the Folkways LP The Watson Family (FA 2366), issued in July 1963, where it runs into “Blackberry Rag.” Kerry Blech, quoted in The Fiddler’s Companion, thinks the new title was a mishearing of “Texas Gals” in a North Carolina accent. Doc Watson also recorded it for Vanguard on Ballads From Deep Gap. The Fiddler’s Companion files it as an old-time breakdown in C, in three parts. It notes the Missouri fiddler Gene Goforth’s related “Knockin’ at Your Door”. It also records that Tommy Jarrell of Mount Airy, North Carolina, learned it from Rafe Brady and recorded it in 1976 on Joke on the Puppy.
Clarence White’s version appears on the Sierra collection Flatpick, and Roland White recorded it too. Norman Blake and Tony Rice played it as a guitar duet on Blake & Rice (Rounder 0233, 1987), recorded at Bias Studios in Springfield, Virginia. Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton included it on Live at the Legion (Reprise, 2025).
