Reverend Edward W. Clayborn (March 10, 1880 – January 1978) was an American musician, known as the "Guitar Evangelist". He sang a form of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

similar to

Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American gospel blues singer, guitarist and evangelist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930—thirty songs in total—display a combination of powerful "ch ...

. Clayborn recorded forty songs, for

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

between 1926 and 1930. In ''

The Ganymede Takeover ''The Ganymede Takeover'' is a 1967 science fiction novel by American writers Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson. It is an alien invasion novel, and similar to Dick's earlier solo novel '' The Game-Players of Titan''. Plot summary The novel takes ...

'', the San Franciscan author

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

, a record enthusiast, has a character state that "True Religion", sung by Clayborn was one of the first

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

recordings.P.K. Dick & Ray Nelson, ''The Ganymede Takeover'', Ace Books inc, 1967 p. 13. Clayborn was born in

Richmond, Alabama Richmond, also known as Warrenton, is an unincorporated community in Dallas County, Alabama, United States. Richmond gained its name from Richmond County, New York, the birthplace for several early settlers, most notably the Crocherons. Richmond ...

. The year he was born is disputed, with March 10, 1880 being the birthdate given on his WWII draft registration card. Clayborn's music often consisted of him singing with his guitar. He often played guitar with a slide, often tuning to "Spanish" tuning, also known as Open G tuning. His songs are noticeably similar in structure to each other, though given that most people then only bought one or two records of a given artist, this was not a problem. He became a minister at St.Luke's Baptist Church in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania. He died in January 1978 in Pittsburgh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayborn, Edward W. 1880 births 1978 deaths American blues singers American gospel singers American male singers