Abner Jay – True Story of Abner Jay (2009) [Mississippi] // Grade: B+

Abner Jay has described himself as “the last great Southern black minstrel show”. From the 1930′s until the late 50s, Abner Jay was a member of a variety of different minstrel shows in the South until going solo for the rest of his career where he traveled the South as a one man band with a banjo, guitar, harmonica and a PA system performing a blend of Folk & Blues. His repertoire ranged from his own songs, American standards, spirituals and even comedy routines. He’d set up shop in a town, preform his show and sell some records and cassettes to the crowd before moving on to the next town.

True Story of Abner Jay collects many of Jay’s best tracks from his various self-made albums, omitting the various comedy routines and monologues that would often times litter many of them. Since his death in 1993, Jay’s records have been a hot item with various private press collectors and this compilation is the first opportunity for the rest of the world to share in only the songs of Abner Jay uninterrupted by the comedic bits.

This is an amazing slice of Americana that transcends simply being good Folk & Blues. Jay is a captivating storyteller who’s rudimentary playing creates the sort pastoral backdrop wherein his tales of love, sorrow & drugs become that much more heartfelt and transfixing.

P.S. I apologize but neither Abner Jay or the record label who put out this release have a website or Myspace page. I’ve linked to an article about Jay in the UK’s Guardian and a Wikipedia entry about Mississippi records in place of actual sites.