The Okie From Muskogee's Hats

[hatophile]

Here is the one of The King of Western Swing that I like.

That's a good one RBH, looks like a panama

 

[jwalls]

Bob Wills in fedora-dapper dude

Now that is one cool cat!! Yeah, I know I'm giving away my age, but, :cool2: Man look at that picture.

 

[hatophile]

Now that is one cool cat!! Yeah, I know I'm giving away my age, but, :cool2: Man look at that picture.

Bob looks more like a sophisticated city slicker than a Texas good ole boy there.
There is a nice article on Bob Wills in the newest edition of Cowboys and Indians magazine. Also a good one on Robert Duvall.

 

[MikeR]

I've been a fan of the Hag for some years now, and it took me a long time to figure out what the heck a certain lyric was in "Skid Row." After listening to it probably hundreds of times, I finally realized it after I started looking into fedoras, and discovered the full name of John B. Stetson: "I got an old John B. with the band wore through..."

Also a big fan of Bob Wills. He was known for bringing together several different genres of music at the time, so it's not a surprise that he was just as at home with a more "urban" look.

 

[AlterEgo]

I first got into Merle Haggard when I acquired a Jonathan Edwards record back in the early '70s. I bought it because it had his semi-hit tune Shanty on it, with its great harmonica and the unforgettable refrain, "Pass it to me, baby. Pass it to me slow. Take time out to smile a little before you let it go. We're gonna lay around the shanty, momma, and put a good buzz on."

However, when my dad overheard me listening to that album, he'd ask me to play over and over another song, written by, I eventually noticed, Merle Haggard. It's chorus goes, "Today I started lovin' you again. Now I'm right back where I really always been. I got over you just long enough to let my heartache spin. And then today I started lovin' you again." Before long, that tune became my favorite, so I got Merle's record with that song on it, my first country album. It wasn't until later that I realized he's the same dude who'd earlier released Okie From Muskogee, the message of which is 180 degrees opposite Edwards' Shanty.

I'm basically a rock and roller, but had it not been for Edwards' covering Merle's song, I'm sure I would have never got into country music. I never did develop a taste for modern country music, but Haggard served as my entry point into the old-style stuff like Jimmy Rogers, Bob Wills, et al.

Anyway, I, too, enjoyed the PBS American Masters documentary on Merle Haggard. I've seen it now three times. Y'all really must watch it. He's truly one of the all-time greats.

Merle was shown at various points in his life wearing a variety of hats, usually some sort of fedora, which looks good on the man. Personally, I think hats with a bit wider brim would look better than the ones he typically wears.

However, in the segments in which he was driving around Bakersfield near his old boxcar homeplace, he wore a floppy brown fabric thing that resembled the U.S Army Hat, Jungle, Type II. It was simply atrocius!

It was so bad that I tried to reach through the TV, snatch it off his head, and replace it with my Akubra Bushman. But don't try this; you'll jam your fingers!

No matter what's on Merle's head, he's a living legend.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

From whence it all flows -

 

[hatophile]

This guy too!

 

[Cracker]

The suit, black shirt, and facial-hair style don't hurt, either.

Neither does the fact that he's an American badass.

 

[Cracker]

One of my favorite Bob Wills photo has him in a fedora, as does one of Hank Williams.

I think this is the same hat in Hank's jail picture.

 

[hatflick1]

Let's Not Forget Woody

The original American poet of the working man.
And a hat wearer.
http://www.postersguide.com/posters...ng-for-patrons-of-mcsorley-s-bar-3835050.html

 

[Mr. Paladin]

Man, some great old photos in this thread! Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Merle Haggard...add Ernest Tubb and the crew don't get much better!

 

[jwalls]

Mr. P

I knew you had to be a ET fan. "Waltz Across Texas" Is one of his best. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Mr. Paladin]

Yes sir! For your listening pleasure:

Two of Ernest Tubb's greatest hits; Waltz Across Texas (solo) and Walkin' the Floor Over You (with Merle Haggard).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIdL6N-Uka4

 

[RBH]

The Delmore Brothers

My grandparents knew Alton and Rabon from back in Alabama.

 

[hatophile]

Man, some great old photos in this thread! Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Merle Haggard...add Ernest Tubb and the crew don't get much better!

There you go, It ain't a fedora but a cowboy hat, probably a Stetson.

 

[parispal]

i did not want to start a thread so I am using this one to post the video I made for Rosie Flores' rendition of Merle Haggard's "'My own kind of hat" from Tulare Dust, a tribute to Merle Haggard.

Picture of hats courtesy of http://www.durangocustomhatsandsaddles.com/

Review by Jeff Burger (AMG)

If you've been paying any attention at all, you know Merle Haggard ranks among the best singers country music has ever produced. What you might not realize is that he's also one of the genre's finest songwriters. For evidence, just listen to this tribute album, which finds a motley crew of roots artists performing 15 of their favorite Haggard tunes. Despite the absence of many of his best-known songs, the package leaves little doubt that, as the liner notes put it, "Haggard may be the last of a breed of great country songwriters that began with Jimmie Rodgers, and continued through Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell." Every composition radiates with Haggard's honesty, eye for detail, and strong point of view, and every track has the feel of a classic. The vast majority of the performances are as impressive as the songs. Tom Russell, who co-produced with Dave Alvin, delivers the package's most Haggard-like vocal on a beautifully handled medley of dust-bowl stories, "Tulare Dust/They're Tearin' the Labor Camps Down," while Alvin turns in a haunting "Kern River." Among the many other highlights: Iris DeMent's "Big City," which Haggard reportedly loved; Rosie Flores' interpretation of "My Own Kind of Hat," one of Haggard's many declarations of independence; Barrence Whitfield's version of "Irma Jackson," which addresses race relations via the tale of an interracial romance; Steve Young's affecting "Shopping for Dresses"; and the melancholy "I Can't Be Myself," where Katy Moffatt hits thrilling high notes. Nobody sings Haggard quite like Haggard, but these recordings are classics in their own right.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/tulare-dust-a-songwriters-tribute-to-merle-haggard-mw0000122015

 

[Michael R.]