Cowboy hats losing their cool?

[hatophile]

He wears a hat too!

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"I'm and old cow hand
From the Rio Grande ..."

Johnny Mercer (that cow poke from Savannah, Georgia) wrote this for Bing Crosby to sing in a movie in 1936. The first verse is ...

"I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande
But my legs ain't bowed and my cheeks ain't tan
I'm a cowboy who never saw a cow
Never roped a steer cause I don't know how
Sure ain't a fixing to start in now
Yippie yi yo kayah

I'm an old cowhand and I come down from the Rio Grande
And I learned to ride, ride, ride 'fore I learned to stand
I'm a riding fool who is up to date
I know every trail in the Lone Star State
Cause I ride the range in a Ford V-8"

If that lyric was a recognizable joke nearly 80 years ago, cowboy wannabes have been wearing them for a long, long, time.

Cowboy hats are cool, if you're a cowboy.

 

[DougC]

Ha!! My grandmother had a parrot who sang the first line of that song...right up to "from the Rio..."

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I completely agree with you. He's also one of the few artists never to touch drugs. The hardest thing he does is alcohol and cigarettes.

What I like about Don Williams is he sings about being a true Southern gentleman....not the beer swilling, gun toting redneck who hangs out at Wal Mart, but the man who is thoughtful and literate, even if uncomplicated.

 

[Two Types]

"Never touched drugs": what are alcohol and tobacco?

 

[TipTop]

In case you're interested in Florida ranch and cowboy history..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g842Z3MbDMM

Great vid and instills more Yankee respect for Florida; not to mention, the origin of the term "cracker."

Thx.

 

[TipTop]

He wears a hat too!

Hey phile…your pic links don't!
Ray

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Never touched drugs": what are alcohol and tobacco?

I assume he means illegal drugs. He probably does cholesterol medicine and ibuprofen in addition to the alcohol and tobacco.

 

[hatophile]

Hey phile…your pic links don't!
Ray

Yeah I was trying to get pics of Don Williams in his cowboy hat, but they wouldn't come through.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

He has been wearing that hat a long time now.

no hat shot

 

[hatophile]

Thanks Ed!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I meant the illegal variety. He isn't a coke head or anything.

"Never touched drugs": what are alcohol and tobacco?

 

[gtdean48]

...

Never liked how tightly pinched this crease was but it fits his facial features....

 

[hatophile]

Never liked how tightly pinched this crease was but it fits his facial features....

Actually, he's one of those guys that looks better with some age on him.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I’m not too surprised that mainstream country artists are breaking out of their traditional dress. As has been said here, they darned sure broke from their traditional music long ago.

But if you live long enough you begin to see that everything moves in circles. Early rock and roll borrowed heavily from gospel, blues and country. Now, popular country music is borrowing from seventies and eighties rock and roll. Many modern country chord progressions are essentially classic rock progressions. Country lead breaks are often in the same places and last for the same number of measures as in old rock tunes. Heck, I’ve even heard a few country guitar riffs that were taken almost note for note from rock standards.

So as far as country artist headgear goes, maybe it was predictable that many would abandon their ten-gallon Stetsons. In fact, given the trend in country music, I wouldn’t be too stunned if someone like Blake Shelton took the stage one day with a red, tie-dyed scarf wrapped around his head...and began playing the Star Spangled Banner on a white Stratocaster.

AF

 

[DesertDan]

Or get a new "grill" and put on the satin and bling.
"Honkytonk Ba-Donkey-Donk" :eusa_doh: [huh]

 

[Atticus Finch]

BTW...here's something for all the hard-core traditional and old time county music fans that have chimed in on this thread. WPAQ is a 10,000 watt, open air AM station that began broadcasting in 1948. It was the brain child of a local farm raised guy named Ralph Epperson and it still broadcasts every day from Mount Airy, North Carolina (Yes, Mayberry). Here's a quote from the station's webpage.

Ralph Epperson believed in individualism and he had a mission in mind: to serve his community. In his application to the Federal Communications Commission, the young man pledged to reflect the cultural and musical values of the people in his station’s listening area. He said he would present local talent, and he made good on that promise from the start. Unlike many other station owners, however, Epperson largely stuck to his mission over the next six decades. Live music by local musicians is still presented each Saturday on WPAQ’s Merry-Go-Round program. Epperson himself hosted another program, the Blue Ridge Spotlight, on Saturday afternoons, on which he presented early recordings from the WPAQ archives and other recordings of area musicians and WPAQ’s weekly play lists are peppered with recordings of local musicians. Preachers still hold forth on weekday mornings and nearly all day Sunday. Announcers read the obituaries at least three times a day, and the Pet Patrol helps listeners get back together with wandering critters from blue tick hounds to hogs and heifers. The music lurches from old time and bluegrass to easy listening after the evening news. Ralph Epperson explained his philosophy to reporter Michelle Johnson of WFDD this way as she prepared a story about WPAQ for National Public Radio: “If people are doing the same thing in 25 places up and down the radio dial, why should I be number 26?"

You can listen to the streaming broadcast at this link...and you probably aren’t going to hear a single song by Blake Shelton or Taylor Swift.

http://www.wpaq740.com/oldtimebluegrassmusiconline.aspx

AF

 

[gtdean48]

Going to have to give this a listen when it comes out... http://countrymusicnation.com/37087/alan-jackson-records-bluegrass-album/

 

[Dan Allen]

I have never considered cowboy to be "cool". Cowboy (western if you will) is what it is and has been for generations, and will be for the foreseeable future. There is no fad with them, their attire is basically their work clothing -not Porter Wagner glitter. Cool on the other hand is just the latest fad to cross the public eye.

 

[frussell]

Mr. Dean's on the right track. Bluegrass is one of the few branches of country music that still sounds "country. " Frank
.