GEORGE " LITTLE HAT " JONES
George "Little Hat " Jones nació 05 de octubre 1899, en el condado de Bowie, TX. Él era un cantante callejero conocido en San Antonio a mediados de los '20s, e hizo sus primeras grabaciones allí el 15 de junio de 1929, para OKeh Records. En la misma sesión, tocando la guitarra nueve canciones de Texas Alexander. OKeh linstó a Jones avolver seis días después para grabar cuatro canciones más, que incluía y de nuevo un año más tarde, vpolvería el 14 de junio de 1930, cuando siguió con "Blues Kentucky" (una versión maravillosamente re-imaginada de "John Lost"), "Bye Bye Baby Blues", " entre otras . Por alguna razón, Jones nunca grabó de nuevo, dejando atrás un legado de diez canciones, además de nueve más como acompañante a Texas Alexander . Murió en Nápoles, TX, en 1981. Influenció en artistas de la talla de LOWEL FULSON, , y se codeó con otros muchos entre ellos Frankie Lee , aunque está claro que fué del período con TEXAS ALEXANDER el que le díó más realce.Una curiosidad , su tema Rolled From Side To Side Blues, que podéis oir , suena a SWEET HOME CHICAGO, se la apoderó Mr. Robert Johson ? ..................
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George "Little Hat" Jones (October 5, 1899 – March 7, 1981) was an American Texas blues musician.
George Jones was born in Bowie County, Texas, and was a street busker in the 1920s in San Antonio. Jones dropped out of school at the age of 13 to support the family farm after his father suffered from illnesses and crops were destroyed. The nickname "Little Hat" was acquired from a construction job in Garland, where Jones wore a hat that had some of the brims torn. He recorded two compositions, "New Two Sixteen Blues" and "Two String Blues", and released it as a single on Okeh Records on June 15, 1929.That same day, he played guitar on nine tracks by Alger "Texas" Alexander in the Okeh studio. On June 21, Okeh had Jones record four additional songs, and on June 14, 1930, Jones recorded six more. These three sessions represent the entirety of Jones's recorded output: ten songs of his own and nine with "Texas" Alexander.
Jones never recorded another song, and resided in Naples, Texas, where he would stay for the remainder of his lifetime with his second wife, while working in several professions.He died at the age of 81 in 1981.
Jones's style is marked by his tendency to start off songs quickly and then slow down once he began to sing. Once a forgotten obscurity, Jones became better known later in the 20th century as historians began to explore the Okeh Records catalog, and his posthumous fame was boosted by the appearance of his song "Bye Bye Baby Blues" in the movie, Ghost World, in 2001.
George 'Little Hat' Jones made his recording debut backing Texas Alexander on eight songs in June 1929. Six days later he recorded this solo number. More of his music is available on YT. Jones was rediscovered and recorded again in 1964.
George "little hat" Jones recorded in San Antonio Texas 14th June 1930. He was mistakenly called Dennis Jones by early blues researchers.Photo taken in 1964
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.
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