John “The Chief “Seiter: The Big Hatted Drummer

Recently while surfing through old music videos on YouTube, I came across a television appearance from the sixties by Spanky & Our Gang. The video is from some sixties TV show (“Hollywood Palace”I believe) Milton Berle introduces the band and Spanky and company begin lip syncing their latest hit “Make Every Minute Count” After the initial few seconds, the camera zooms in on the drummer who is wearing a giant cowboy hat with a feather attached to it. Actually, it’s not really a cowboy hat. It’s bigger and taller and was often worn by Native Americans in Westerns.  It’s the type of hat Tom Laughlin wore in the Billy Jack movies. Anyway, the audience laughs and then the camera pans out to show the entire band again. Like many who saw that on television many years ago, I wondered, ‘Who is that guy?’ After seeing him in several other Spanky videos and doing some research on the internet I found out it was John “The Chief” Seiter.

The John Seiter File

Seiter was born in St.Louis, Missouri. He  joined Spanky & Out Gang right after “Sunday Will Never Be The Same” became a hit. He played on three studio albums and a live album before the band split up. After that he played drums with The Turtles on their final album, “Wooden Head”.

Here is a clip of him performing with The Turtles on The Mike Douglas Show without his hat.

After The Turtles broke up he joined Rosebud a sort of super group with folk singer Judy Henske, former Lovin’ Spoonful member Jerry Yester, David Vaught and Henske’s future husband Chris Doerge who would become a very successful L.A session musician recording with Lee Hazelwood, Paul Williams and Linda Rondstadt and touting with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne and James Taylor.

Rosebud split up after only one album. Seiter became a session drummer most notably working on Tom Waits debut album, “Closing Time” which was produced by his old bandmate Jerry Yester. He also appeared on albums by Aztec Two-Step, Odetta and George Clinton.

In 1972, he played drums and percussion on a recording of “Peter And The Wolf”. It was narrated by Rob Reiner who was riding high at the time due to “All In The Family” and it was produced by, once again, Jerry Yester. Seiter and Yester’s old bandmate David Vaught played bass thus reuniting 3/5ths of Rosebud. The album is a weird comic seventies take on the Prokofiev classic and worth checking out for a few bucks if you can find it.

John Seiter’s brother Jim is also a musician.

— Written  by
  Casey Redmond
     January 23, 2020

Casey’s Website

The One Man Band Chronicles #6: Abner Jay

Abner Jay was a one man blues man, gospel singer, corny joke teller and roads scholar. He called himself, “The Last Working Southern Black Minstrel” having performed professionally for over  65 years.

Cool & Interesting Facts About Abner Jay

—Jay began performing in 1926 at the age of five, playing guitar and banjo in medicine shows throughout the south.

—He traveled and performed with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a traveling tent show that toured the American south from the turn of the twentieth century until 1959. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Brownie McGhee, Louis Jordan and Rufus Thomas were all a part of the troupe early in their careers.

—Abner had his own radio show on WMAZ out of Macon, Georgia from 1946-1956 playing and singing with the Macon Minstrels.

—He worked as a booking agent for Little Richard and James Brown and once managed Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

—During a brief residency in New York City he played the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

—He performed for many years as a one man band, singing and accompanying himself on the six string banjo and drums. He released albums and cassette tapes on his own Brandie record label. His repertoire included blues songs, old gospel hymns, Stephen Foster songs and original tunes about a wide variety of subjects including Vietnam, drugs and jail. Needless to say, nobody sounds like Abner Jay.

—Abner Jay had sixteen children.

—He traveled the country playing shows out of a mobile home that opened up into a stage complete with “amplification and home furnishings.”  He could literally play anywhere.

—Later in life, he performed regularly at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park in White Springs Florida and at Tom Flynn’s Plantation Restaurant in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

—You can stream and download some of his music on Amazon, Spotify and Apple and there is some  video footage on YouTube.

—Abner Jay died on November 4th, 1993 in Augusta Georgia. He was 72 years old.

—If anyone has any additional information on Abner’s life, feel free to contact me at,
rnrcasey@gmail.com.

—-Casey Redmond
     January 3, 2020

Casey’s Website