Genre: bizarre
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: The Backbone Of America Is A Mule And Cotton
Company: Brandi
Catalog: SoN 122161
Year: 197?
Country/State: Fitzgerald, Georgia
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4806
Price: $100.00
Cost: $58.50
If this one doesn't fit under the weird/real people category, then nothing in my collection does. That poses a number of problems, including trying to describe an album as plain strange as "The Backbone Of America Is A Mule And Cotton".
Before getting to the album, a little bit of biographical information on the man. Born in Fitzgerald, Georgia Jay was a versatile musician playing a unique six stringed electrified banjo, along with guitar, harmonica, drums. Having mastered a gigantic repertoire of old time songs from his grandfather, in the early 1930s Jay became a member of The Silas Green Show which was a New Orleans-based circus/cabaret that toured the chitin' circuit from the 1930s through the 1950s. Jay's tenure with the group ended in the mid-1940s at which time he became a member of the Macon, Georgia-based WMAZ Minstrels. In the mid-1950s Jay began traveling and performing as a true one-man minstrel show performing a catalog that spanned everything from Americana to his own takes on politics and social events. Billing himself as the 'Last of the Minstrels' he worked out of his car, while finding time to record a series of now-highly sought after self-financed records.
First the usual warnings. This isn't rock, progressive, or psychedelic, rather a very strange mixture of blues, country, Gospel minstrel and freak-out. Starting to see how odd this album is? Next, making Leon Redbone sound like a young choir boy, Jay's voice is definitely an acquired taste. All hyperbole aside, this is one of those albums that can clear a party out in record time. Released on his own Memphis-based Brandie Records, "The Backbone Of America Is A Mule And Cotton" is a little different than most of his other releases in that it largely forgoes original material (the rambling title track being the lone exception). Call this Jay's covers album in that it finds him taking on a series of classic American songs like 'Way Down Upon the Swanee River' and 'Amazing Grace'. Here's what the album liner notes say:
"Abner has been singing and playing these same songs since 1926. He plays and sings these songs in the original style. A one man band, hambone and bone player. His banjo dates back to 1749. He plays banjo, drums, singes and play [sic] harmonica at the same time. This record is a true collectors item. It will be worth a lots [sic] of money when Abner is dead. Abner say [sic] he is just like Old Black Joe, my head is bending low. Abner is the same to this country as Toscanni is to his country, a classic. Abner loves the Ole Swannee River water. He feels he is to [sic] old man to lay down on his belly and drink from the Old Swanee like he use to. So now he drinks the water from a half gallon fruit jar. He drinks about a gallon of Swanee water per day. He claims this is why is voice is so deep and low, also the secret of him being the father of 16 young'uns. May God bless you."
Propelled by his deep growl and electrified banjo, the results are definitely strange in that Jay slows every one of these songs down to a funeral pace that will either drive you crazy, or make want to check the results out time after time.
"The Backbone Of America Is A Mule And Cotton" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) The Backbone Of America Is A Mule And Cotton (Abner Jay) - 4:00
Ole Black Joe
2.) My Old Kentucky Home - 5:00
3.) Oh Susanna - 1:30
4.) Camp Town Races - 1:30
5.) Old Folks At Home - 5:00
6.) Old Black Joe - 5:00
(side
2)
1.) Amazing Grace - 8:30
2.) Old Rugged Cross - 3:30
3.) Steal Away - 2:00
4.) Deep River - - 2:00
5.) Them Golden Slippers - 3:00
6.) How Great Thou Art - 3:30