J. D. "Jay" Miller

J.D. "Jay" Miller
Miller with a gold record awarded to Kitty Wells
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Denton Miller
Born	(1922-05-05)May 5, 1922 Iota, Louisiana
Origin	US
Died	March 23, 1996(1996-03-23) (aged 73) Lafayette, Louisiana
Genres	Cajun, country, swamp blues, and swamp pop
Occupation(s)	Record producer songwriter musician
Instruments	Acoustic guitar Electric guitar
Years active	1940s–1990s

Feature
Feature logo
Genre	Cajun, country, swamp blues, swamp pop
Country of origin	United States
Location	Iota, Louisiana, United States

Joseph Denton "Jay" Miller (May 5, 1922 – March 23, 1996) was an American record producer, musician and songwriter from Crowley, Louisiana, whose Cajun, swamp blues, and swamp pop recordings had an impact on American popular culture.

Miller was born in Iota, Louisiana, on May 5, 1922, and spent many childhood years in El Campo, Texas. He lived most of his life in Crowley, where in the late 1930s he played guitar with several Cajun bands, including Joseph Falcon and His Silver Bell Band, the Four Aces, the Rice City Ramblers, and the Daylight Creepers. In 1946, he began to record Cajun musicians, using a studio belonging to the record producer Cosimo Matassa, in New Orleans. In 1946, his new label, Fais Do Do Records, recorded most notably the string band Happy, Doc, and the Boys (Happy Fats and Oran "Doc" Guidry). After a few records, in 1947, he changed the name of the label to Feature Records, which recorded Cajun musicians such as Amidie Breaux, Aldus Roger, Austin Pete and various other country musicians. Later, Miller would create and record for smaller labels for different genres of music: Rocko Records (originally Rocket), Zynn Records, Showtime Records, Rebel Records, Kajun Records, Cajun Classics, Blues Unlimited, Swade, Excello, Spot, Action, Kay, Ringo, Tribute, and French "Hits".

In the 1950s he began to record swamp pop artists, including King Karl, Guitar Gable, Warren Storm, Rod Bernard, and Johnnie Allan, among others. In 1952, Miller wrote the lyrics to "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (an answer song to the recent Hank Thompson hit "The Wild Side of Life"). The song, as recorded by Kitty Wells, became gold and stayed number 1 for several weeks.