Andrew Jenkins
Encyclopedia
The Rev. Andrew W. Jenkins (November 26, 1885, Jenkinsburg
, Georgia
– April 25, 1957, Thomaston, Georgia
) was a leading composer of American
country
, folk
and gospel songs
. He is credited with more than 800 compositions, about a third of which were nonsacred
. He and his stepchildren performed as the Jenkins Family, a group considered to be the first family act to record country music, while Jenkins himself was among the most important country composers of the 1920s.
by a mis-prescribed medication while still an infant. Early on, he exhibited remarkable musical talents and was able to play almost any instrument he picked up, learning completely by ear
. Jenkins, who also showed a proficiency for writing songs at a young age, saw his musical abilities as "a God gift."
Because he had some vision, Jenkins could not attend the state's school for the blind and had to pursue an education on his own. Besides his musical talents, he was skilled in other ways. After becoming a Methodist at the age of nine, he began "preaching" to playmates from porches and tree stumps. Not surprisingly, he became a licensed preacher around the age of 21 and moved into the city, supplementing whatever he could earn from preaching and street performing by running a newspaper stand. After his first wife's death, Jenkins married Francis Jane Walden Eskew in 1919. A young widow, his new wife had three musically talented children, Irene, Mary Lee and a son, T.P. Thus was born the Jenkins Family, one of the most popular family acts of its day.
with Andrew Jenkins billed as "the blind newsboy evangelist." The station, which had begun broadcasting just five months before and had a signal that reached coast-to-coast, became known as The Voice of the South. Performing folk, country and light classical material, the Jenkins Family was an immediate success and remained with the station for nearly a decade. Their popularity, which reached to Canada and Mexico, also attracted the attention of a major record label, Okeh Records
, for whom they made their debut recordings in 1924 (three years before the Carter Family
began recording).
The Jenkins Family's initial releases were not originals, but were successful enough to earn the group another session, where they recorded four of Rev. Jenkins's songs, including two gospel numbers. Jenkins was soon asked to write songs for the label's other artists, and his first effort, "The Death of Floyd Collins", took just 45 minutes to complete. While the song sold poorly for Okeh, it was picked up by Columbia Records
, which hired Vernon Dalhart
, one of the era's leading singers, to record it. The Dalhart version eventually sold more than 300,000 copies, Besides being one of the all-time best-selling country music 78s, the song set a sales record for Columbia that stood for many years.
"The Death of Floyd Collins" was based on one of the first great media events of the century, the story of a spelunker who became trapped in caverns near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The song was one of a series of "event" songs recorded in the mid-20s. The songs told of train wrecks, natural disasters and outlaws, stories often lifted directly from the daily newspapers. The form was not new, and in fact, the music and lyrics owed much to the folk songs of the previous century. The trend did not develop as a natural revival, either. It was devised by the recording companies in response to the drop in sales they were experiencing as the public turned its attention from what had been the latest technological development, records, to an even more alluring medium, radio.
Oh, come all you young people
and listen while I tell
The fate of Floyd Collins,
a lad we all know well
Jenkins was adept at more than just ballads, turning out one song after another, as his stepdaughter Irene described it, like a mill grinding wheat. Many of his topical compositions were recorded by other artists over the ensuing years, including "Billy the Kid
", drawn from a popular 1926 biography of the cowboy killer; "The Wreck of the Royal Palm," about a two-train collision in Georgia in 1926; "The Tragedy on Daytona Beach", based on the 1929 death of race car driver Lee Bible
in Florida; "The Fate of Frank Dupre", the story of an Atlanta robbery/murder; and "Ben Dewberry's Final Run", which recounted the death of an Atlantan who was the engineer in a 1908 train wreck. In all, he wrote more than 300 non-sacred songs, many of them "news ballads".
Although the genre's popularity lasted just one brief year, country artists returned to the form again and again – in the late 1920s, pioneers such as Jimmie Rodgers
and the Carter Family and in the 1930s, early folk artists such as Woody Guthrie
and Lead Belly. The genre was revisited during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, in particular, by Bob Dylan
, who wrote one of his first songs based on the same "formula" used by Jenkins, and Phil Ochs
, many of whose songs came directly from newspaper headlines.
Meanwhile, Jenkins earned very little from the songs he wrote. The hit "The Death of Floyd Collins", for example, brought him just $25, and under his agreement with the producer he was working with at Okeh, he also gave up all rights to the song. After experiencing copyright problems, Jenkins began keeping meticulous records of his songs. The practice eventually paid off. Years later, after Mahalia Jackson
recorded one of his gospel songs, "God Put a Rainbow in the Sky", his stepdaughter Irene was able to prove the song was not in the public domain but was Jenkins's composition.
and Jenkins & (Byron) Whitworth. Jenkins cut his last record as an accompanied soloist billed as Blind Andy, a name he often recorded under, on April 23, 1930, while the Jenkins Family's last recording session for Okeh was July 30, 1934.
The Jenkins Family's popularity opened Rev. Jenkins's ministry to a wide audience, as they performed at concerts and organized revival meeting
s throughout Georgia. Over time, Jenkins also served as pastor of several churches. In 1939, he lost his eyesight completely, yet continued to preach until the time of his death and also broadcast as an evangelist on Mexico's powerful, uncontrolled radio stations.
Jenkins was killed in an automobile accident in 1957.
Jenkinsburg, Georgia
Jenkinsburg is a town in Butts County, Georgia, United States. The population was 203 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Jenkinsburg is located at ....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
– April 25, 1957, Thomaston, Georgia
Thomaston, Georgia
Thomaston is a city in and the county seat of Upson County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9,638 at the 2006 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Thomaston, Georgia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville,...
) was a leading composer of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and gospel songs
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. He is credited with more than 800 compositions, about a third of which were nonsacred
Secular music
Secular music is non-religious music. "Secular" means being separate from religion.In the West, secular music developed in the Medieval period and was used in the Renaissance. Swaying authority from the Church that focused more on Common Law influenced all aspects of Medieval life, including music...
. He and his stepchildren performed as the Jenkins Family, a group considered to be the first family act to record country music, while Jenkins himself was among the most important country composers of the 1920s.
Early life
Jenkins was born in 1885 in Jenkinsburg, Georgia, on the edge of Atlanta. He was left partially blindBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
by a mis-prescribed medication while still an infant. Early on, he exhibited remarkable musical talents and was able to play almost any instrument he picked up, learning completely by ear
Learning music by ear
Learning music by ear is done by repeatedly listening to other musicians and then attempting to recreate what one hears. This is how people learn music in any musical tradition in which there is no complete musical notation...
. Jenkins, who also showed a proficiency for writing songs at a young age, saw his musical abilities as "a God gift."
Because he had some vision, Jenkins could not attend the state's school for the blind and had to pursue an education on his own. Besides his musical talents, he was skilled in other ways. After becoming a Methodist at the age of nine, he began "preaching" to playmates from porches and tree stumps. Not surprisingly, he became a licensed preacher around the age of 21 and moved into the city, supplementing whatever he could earn from preaching and street performing by running a newspaper stand. After his first wife's death, Jenkins married Francis Jane Walden Eskew in 1919. A young widow, his new wife had three musically talented children, Irene, Mary Lee and a son, T.P. Thus was born the Jenkins Family, one of the most popular family acts of its day.
The Jenkins Family
Little is known about the Jenkins' musical development over their first three years together, but in 1922, they performed their first program on Atlanta radio station WSBWSB (AM)
WSB — branded AM 750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB — is a commercial radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia broadcasting a news/talk format. The station transmits with 50,000 watts of nondirectional power day and night, enjoying clear-channel status on its broadcast frequency according to the U.S...
with Andrew Jenkins billed as "the blind newsboy evangelist." The station, which had begun broadcasting just five months before and had a signal that reached coast-to-coast, became known as The Voice of the South. Performing folk, country and light classical material, the Jenkins Family was an immediate success and remained with the station for nearly a decade. Their popularity, which reached to Canada and Mexico, also attracted the attention of a major record label, Okeh Records
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
, for whom they made their debut recordings in 1924 (three years before the Carter Family
Carter Family
The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country...
began recording).
The Jenkins Family's initial releases were not originals, but were successful enough to earn the group another session, where they recorded four of Rev. Jenkins's songs, including two gospel numbers. Jenkins was soon asked to write songs for the label's other artists, and his first effort, "The Death of Floyd Collins", took just 45 minutes to complete. While the song sold poorly for Okeh, it was picked up by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, which hired Vernon Dalhart
Vernon Dalhart
Vernon Dalhart , born Marion Try Slaughter, was a popular American singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of country music.-Early life:...
, one of the era's leading singers, to record it. The Dalhart version eventually sold more than 300,000 copies, Besides being one of the all-time best-selling country music 78s, the song set a sales record for Columbia that stood for many years.
"The Death of Floyd Collins" was based on one of the first great media events of the century, the story of a spelunker who became trapped in caverns near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The song was one of a series of "event" songs recorded in the mid-20s. The songs told of train wrecks, natural disasters and outlaws, stories often lifted directly from the daily newspapers. The form was not new, and in fact, the music and lyrics owed much to the folk songs of the previous century. The trend did not develop as a natural revival, either. It was devised by the recording companies in response to the drop in sales they were experiencing as the public turned its attention from what had been the latest technological development, records, to an even more alluring medium, radio.
Prolific songwriter
Jenkins proved a master at crafting topical songs from traditional musical and lyrical forms. For example, "Floyd Collins" opened with two lines that came directly from an old British ballad:Oh, come all you young people
and listen while I tell
The fate of Floyd Collins,
a lad we all know well
Jenkins was adept at more than just ballads, turning out one song after another, as his stepdaughter Irene described it, like a mill grinding wheat. Many of his topical compositions were recorded by other artists over the ensuing years, including "Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
", drawn from a popular 1926 biography of the cowboy killer; "The Wreck of the Royal Palm," about a two-train collision in Georgia in 1926; "The Tragedy on Daytona Beach", based on the 1929 death of race car driver Lee Bible
Lee Bible
Lee Bible was a garage operator and a land speed record attemptee. He was killed attempting to break the land speed record on March 13, 1929 at Ormond Beach.- Pre-record attempt :On 11 March, Briton Major Henry O. D...
in Florida; "The Fate of Frank Dupre", the story of an Atlanta robbery/murder; and "Ben Dewberry's Final Run", which recounted the death of an Atlantan who was the engineer in a 1908 train wreck. In all, he wrote more than 300 non-sacred songs, many of them "news ballads".
Although the genre's popularity lasted just one brief year, country artists returned to the form again and again – in the late 1920s, pioneers such as Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
and the Carter Family and in the 1930s, early folk artists such as Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
and Lead Belly. The genre was revisited during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, in particular, by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, who wrote one of his first songs based on the same "formula" used by Jenkins, and Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, many of whose songs came directly from newspaper headlines.
Meanwhile, Jenkins earned very little from the songs he wrote. The hit "The Death of Floyd Collins", for example, brought him just $25, and under his agreement with the producer he was working with at Okeh, he also gave up all rights to the song. After experiencing copyright problems, Jenkins began keeping meticulous records of his songs. The practice eventually paid off. Years later, after Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
recorded one of his gospel songs, "God Put a Rainbow in the Sky", his stepdaughter Irene was able to prove the song was not in the public domain but was Jenkins's composition.
Last recordings and later years
Rev. Jenkins and the Jenkins Family continued to record with Okeh into the mid-1930s under a variety of names, including the Jenkins Sacred Singers, Irene Spain Family, Gooby Jenkins, Andrew Jenkins & Carson RobisonCarson Robison
Carson Jay Robison was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although his impact is generally forgotten today, he played a major role in promoting country music in its early years through numerous recordings and radio appearances. He was also known as Charles Robison and sometimes...
and Jenkins & (Byron) Whitworth. Jenkins cut his last record as an accompanied soloist billed as Blind Andy, a name he often recorded under, on April 23, 1930, while the Jenkins Family's last recording session for Okeh was July 30, 1934.
The Jenkins Family's popularity opened Rev. Jenkins's ministry to a wide audience, as they performed at concerts and organized revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
s throughout Georgia. Over time, Jenkins also served as pastor of several churches. In 1939, he lost his eyesight completely, yet continued to preach until the time of his death and also broadcast as an evangelist on Mexico's powerful, uncontrolled radio stations.
Jenkins was killed in an automobile accident in 1957.