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All vocals: Gail Nobles

Jaybird Coleman was a country blues harmonica player, vocalist, and guitarist. He was a popular musical attraction throughout Alabama and recorded several sides in the late 1920s and 1930’s.

Coleman was born to a family of sharecroppers in Gainesville, Alabama. While he and his three brothers endured hard physical labor, he was exposed to musical influences from his fellow sharecroppers in singing and discovering traditional folk songs. At age 12, he was introduced to the harmonica.

In 1914 upon the outbreak of the First World War, Coleman joined the United States Army.

In 1922, Jaybird Coleman teamed up with the singer and guitarist Big Joe Williams in tours across Alabama.

In 1926, Coleman began recording. His records were met with commercial success. By the end of the 1940’s, Jaybird Coleman disappeared from the music scene. He died of cancer on Jan. 28, 1950 in Tuskegee Alabama.

Coleman’s Recordings like “No More Good Water” was unlike the kind of blues that you hear today. It didn’t have a whole lot of music. Just singing and harmonica, and the song was filled with words of feeling and experience. Things that probably actually happened.

Today in music, old songs are updated. I’m Gail Nobles, and you’re listening to Podcast and Blues. Today’s topic Jaybird Coleman.