What was that river by Alabama pub? (8)
I believe the answer is:
alehouse
'pub?' is the definition.
(alehouse is a kind of pub)
'what was that river by alabama' is the wordplay.
'what was that' becomes 'eh' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'river' becomes 'ouse' (Yorkshire river).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'alabama' becomes 'al' (abbreviation).
'eh'+'ouse'='ehouse'
'ehouse' after 'al' is 'ALEHOUSE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alehouse that I've seen before include "Hostelry (of old)" , "Inn" , "the nineteenth?" , "old tavern" , "drinks here?" .)