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Artist
Abner Jay
12+ albums
bluesfolkdelta bluesone man bandsinger-songwriter
about
Abner Wingate Jay (July 15, 1921 – November 4, 1993) was an American multi-instrumentalist from Georgia, best known for performing eccentric, blues infused folk music as a one man band. Common instruments on Jay's recordings include harmonica, drum kit, a six-string banjo (that Jay claimed was made in 1748), and the “bones”, which were chicken and cow bones that had been bleached in the sun and used to create percussion. Jay was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia. His father and grandfather were both slaves in Washington County, Georgia. His grandfather was also a banjo player and imparted a vast repertoire of old-time and folk songs to Abner. Abner Jay began playing in medicine shows at the age of 5 and in 1932 joined the Silas Green from New Orleans Minstrel Show. Jay went on to lead the WMAZ Minstrels on Macon radio from 1946–56 before going solo. He spent many years traveling the American South and playing concerts from his “converted mobile home that opened up into a portable stage, complete with amplification and home furnishings”. These concerts, as evidenced in his recordings, were often equal parts spoken word (jokes, philosophical asides, rants) and music. Jay’s song repertoire included field songs, Pentecostal hymns and minstrel tunes. He once described himself as the “last working Southern black minstrel”, and in a self-penned leaflet handed out at concerts, he expanded on his biography with claims that he was the "World's Champion Cotton Picker and Pea Picker, World's
top songs
albums
One Man Band
The Love Wheel
I Don't Have Time To Lie To You
True Story of Abner Jay
True Story Of...
Swaunee Water and Cocaine Blues
Folk Song Stylist
Last Ole Minstrel Man
The Backbone of America Is a Mule and Cotton
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Fire In My Bones : Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel, 1944-2007
The Original Folk Song Style of Abner jay
I´m so Depressed