Sunday, February 15, 2009
It all began innocently enough for a Yankee Motor City guitar player beckoning the spirit of the great, fire-breathing musical beasts of sweaty stages around the world.
I’d be in my best goin’-to-church primal-scream loincloth, sometimes just jeans and a raggedy old camouflaged sleeveless shirt.
Then one hell-raising night many years ago someone tossed a tattered old cowboy hat up onto the stage.
Truth be told, the rest is history. I believe I caught it mid-beat in midflight, yanked it tight onto my head, and danced a one-man, buckin’ bronco greasy two-step like no one ever before.
It turned out that the beat-up old sombrero came in handy. It kept my flying, sweat-drenched locks out of my eyes. And somehow that cowboy hat ended up going on tour with me from then on.
More cowboy hats started showing up. I began wearing them on and off the stage. Not only did they look cool, they had practical applications in my adventurous outdoors lifestyle.
There is, after all, a fun-loving, rough-and-tumble cowboy somewhere deep down inside all of us. By the time I moved to Texas, I fit right in.
Then I discovered that the ultimate American cowboy hat epicenter, and probably the ultimate cowboy hat guru, was right here in my new hometown of Waco. It seems that country-and-western music personalities and, of course, real honest-to-God, cow-punching hombres from around the country, consider Lenny Lawson their go-to hat master.
Some people were born to build bridges. Some were born to design spacecraft. Clearly Lenny was born to design and crease cowboy hats.
Central Texas retains that timeless spirit of the Wild West in many ways. The hands-on ranching lifestyle is alive and well in these parts.
Lenny has the hat end of things well under control. If you were ever inclined to find that perfect-shaped cowboy hat, this guy can get ’er done to perfection.
In his little Standard Hat Works shop at 1826 Circle Road in Waco, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, are row after row, rack after rack of cowboy hats of every color and description — straw, felt, cloth, canvas, work hats, fun hats, dress hats.
You don’t have to wait for the rodeo to come to town to don a cowboy hat. In fact, you don’t even have to own a horse.
Lenny can shape them to look cool or to just keep the sun off your face and neck.
I cannot imagine trying to deal with the ubiquitous Texas sunshine without my cowboy hat shielding my eyeballs.
I say if you’re going to be a full-on Texan, there’s nothing that says it more than a perfectly shaped cowboy hat.
Say it loud and proud. Time to Texas-up.
Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host. You can contact him at tednugent.com.
