Andrew Jenkins
| Andrew Jenkins | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Blind Andy, Gooby Jenkins, The Blind Newsboy Evangelist |
| Born | November 26, 1885 |
| Origin | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Died | April 25, 1957 (aged 71) |
| Genres | Country, folk, gospel |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, songwriter, preacher |
| Instruments | Acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica |
| Years active | circa. 1916–1934 |
| Labels | Okeh Records |
| Associated acts | Jenkins Family, Jenkins Sacred Singers, Irene Spain Family, Carson Robison |
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.
Jenkins was born in 1885 in Jenkinsburg, Georgia, on the edge of Atlanta. He was left partially blind 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.
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 WSB 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).
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