Written by Alan Schaefer with the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University
This Week in Texas Music History, let’s visit with the George Jones of Texas blues. His name? George Jones.
On October 5, 1899, blues guitarist and singer George Jones, better known as “Little Hat” Jones, was born in Bowie County. He worked on his family’s farm as a teenager to earn money for his first guitar. The “little hat” name supposedly originated with a torn hat Jones once wore during a construction job in the Dallas area, a cautionary tale on the enduring legacy of mundane fashion choices.
After years of developing his talent in northeast Texas and then San Antonio, Little Hat finally had the chance to record in 1929 for an Okeh Records session that yielded the tracks “New Two Sixteen Blues” and “Two String Blues.” Jones signed a contract with Okeh and produced four more 78 rpm records, including a reworking of W. C. Handy’s song “Long Gone” retitled “Kentucky Blues.” Jones is also known for accompanying singer Texas Alexander on a handful of Okeh sides also recorded in those San Antonio sessions, including “Ninety-Eight Degree Blues,” a tune about an infamous local layabout that Lightnin’ Hopkins would later re-work as “Buddy Brown’s Blues.”
Jones performed throughout Texas, Louisiana, and into Mexico, and crossed musical paths with the likes of Jimmie Rodgers and T. Texas Tyler along the way. His appearance on folk and blues compilations in the 1960s brought renewed interest to his work, as did his inclusion on the soundtrack of the 2001 film Ghost World. While his recorded output was modest, as a collaborator and inspiration for Texas Alexander and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Little Hat Jones made significant contributions to a brand of Blind Lemon Jefferson-inspired guitar playing that resonates in Texas and far beyond.
Little Hat Jones, “Little Hat Blues”
Little Hat Jones, “Bye Bye Baby Blues”
Sources:
Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield. Deep Ellum: The Other Side of Dallas. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2013 [1996].
Jenny Odintz in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.
