Topic: Little Hat Jones

[btasoundsradio]

This is entirely new to me, a photo of Little Hat:

GEORGE "LITTLE HAT" JONES
October 5, 1899 - March 7, 1981

The above photo of George "Little Hat" Jones was taken in late 1964 at the time he was interviewed by Morris Craig and Tommy Young. The following is an accounting of what little is known of Jones. It is gleaned from an article written by Robert Tilling in July 1998 which was published in the British magazine "Blues and Rhythm". Mr Tilling based a lot of his article on the interview conducted by Morris Craig and Tommy Young. Little Hat was born in Bowie County, Texas, not far from the Sulphur River bottoms. He remembers his grandfather telling him stories of his life in slavery and being brought to Jefferson, Texas, about 1855. His grandfather left Jefferson and settled in Bowie County about 1870 and farmed. His father, Felix, was born on the farm in 1877 and Little Hat was born on this same farm in 1899. He and his father both were the only child of their respective families. At the time of the interview in 1964, Little Hat stated that the old house was still standing but had been abandoned. The Jones family house had six rooms. They ate well with meals consisting of sow belly pork, cornbread, garden vegetables, and raw cow's milk. Their living was dependent mainly on an annual cotton crop. Jones went to school through the sixth grade and quit at the age of thirteen to help his father on the farm. His father had become ill and had lost a cotton crop and some of their livestock had died from a disease, including the milk cow and the "plowin' mules". His grandfather had died when he was in the fourth grade. Jones stated that he first started playing the piano at the old Union Hill church and in order to get him to spend more time at home, his mother "done gone and found an old guitar for me to pick". There is a conflict in the interview as to how old he was when he started to play the guitar. At one point he states he was about seven and at another point he states he was about seventeen. Even another statement indicates he would hold the guitar while sitting in an old cane bottom chair and his feet would only reach the first rung on the chair. Apparently he was quite young when he started learning to play because another statement indicates he was was "purty good" at age seventeen at which time he figured he could make more money playing the guitar than working on the farm. By this time the farm was back in pretty good operating shape. Between 1916 and 1929 there is virtually no references as to what happened to Jones during these years. But he gained his nickname during this period while working construction in Garland, Texas. He states that he had a hat that he wore to work that had about half the brim cut off and the boss man started calling him "Little Hat", even made out his pay checks to "Little Hat" Jones. It was not actually a little hat, but had parts of it cut off making it a little hat. During the latter half of the 1920's Texas had a strong blues scene, which is well documented, with perhaps one of the greatest of all players Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897-1929) being the central and most commercially successful figure and Jefferson's influence is apparent in Jones' method of playing the guitar. It appears unlikely that Jones lived outside of Texas during this period, but probably worked on the land and in manual work much as he did in later life. It is known that he was in San Antonio in 1929 for he made several recordings on his own and with Texas Alexander. His first recordings were on June 15, 1929, for Okeh Records. Jones recorded two records of his own, "New Two Sixteen Blues" and "Two String Blues". He also provided backup on nine songs on this same date for Texas Alexander (1900-1954). Jones made other recordings for Okeh in 1930 and he states he had a contract for three years and after the contract was up he "came home". The recordings he made are "Rolled From Side to Side Blues", "Hurry Blues", "Little Hat Blues", "Corpus Blues", "Kentucky Blues", "Bye Bye Baby Blues", "Cross the Water Blues", and "Cherry Street Blues". Before the contract was up, he states Okeh Records called him to New York, but there is no record of further recordings. During the interview, Jones states that he played with T. Texas Tyler and with the legendary Jimmie Rodgers, the "Blue Yodeler". On the interview tape Jones plays a version of Rodgers' "Waiting for a Train". He also stated that he played in cities like New Orleans, Galveston, Austin, and on one occasion went down to Mexico to play. By 1937, Jones was settled in Naples, married to Janie Traylor, his second wife. Of his work, he stated "I farmed a little bit, worked in the State Department some, railroads, sawmills, big chicken ranch, from that to janitor, working at old folks homes". His obituary states that he worked for many years at Red River Army Depot. Jones died in March 1981 at the Linden Municipal Hospital, and is buried in the Morning Star cemetery in Naples. On the sleeve notes of the double album, "The Story of the Blues -Vol Two"/1970, Paul Oliver comments - "Forty years after the last recording session Little Hat Jones is just a shadowy, faintly recalled memory whose recordings testify to a great talent that was probably little appreciated by the passing crowds in the streets of San Antonio, when he could be heard in his prime". George "Little Hat" Jones is buried in the Morningstar cemetery, Naples, Texas.
from:
http://www.angelfire.com/tx3/nostalgia/Notables.html

[LoneWolf]

I have this picture of a Texas blues collection that also contains Willie Reed, Oscar Woods and others. It's a pity that he stayed almost totally obscure even during the folk-revival.

[Bunker Hill]

BH observations:

The Tilling article (Long Gone And Got Away Lucky) was publish in Blues & Rhythm 135, Xmas 1998 and not as stated.

A series of photos were taken by Thomas Craig in 1962 when he interviewed Jones. He wrote a short article about Jones for the Texas Monitor for whom he worked as a reporter. The photo which appears in the B&R feature is a different pose to that shown here. However, he is wearing exactly the same clothes etc so, unless he lived in the same garb for two years, the photo shown is probably 1962 and not 1964 as stated.

The 1962 Texas Monitor article inspired Young to write a college essay about Jones in 1964. Craig and Young interviewed Jones later that year (possibly taking photos too?) with the tape eventually ending up in the possession of Roy Book Binder. The contents of which were never transcribed or published. Public knowledge of its existence only coming to light during a conversation between Tilling and Book Binder in the 70s. If Book is still a member he may care to comment on this received wisdom of ours.

[Pan]

I noticed that the 4th edition of B&G records, as well as some YouTube videos, have this artists first name as "Dennis", but it is elsewhere cited as being "George".
Since "George" seems to be the most cited name, I assume it is the correct one? Or is it? Anyone know where the origin of this confusion comes from?

Cheers

Pan

[Bunker Hill]

It's definitely George. Dennis was the name which I think was supplied by an informant to Sam Charters when he was researching Jones for his book The Bluesmen. It subsequently appeared in the B&GR LHJ entry and survives in the current edition due to that having been published the year before the Tilling feature.

The drawback with what Powerlinehorizon posted is that it is only a distillation of the late Robert Tilling's five pager!

[Pan]

It's definitely George. Dennis was the name which I think was supplied by an informant to Sam Charters when he was researching Jones for his book The Bluesmen. It subsequently appeared in the B&GR LHJ entry and survives in the current edition due to that having been published the year before the Tilling feature.

Thanks, Bunker Hill!

Cheers

Pan