Biography:A.A. Gray

Biographical notes
 A.A. Gray was born in September, 1881, in Carroll County, Georgia, and was taught the rudiments of fiddle playing by an older brother. In a 1934 article in the Atlanta Journal's Sunday magazine, he told interviewer Willard Neal: ''I guess I'm different from most of the fiddlers. Nearly all the others learned to play naturally,'' ''but I had to be taught. When I was seven years old my big brother started me off. He had to poke'' ''my fingers down on the strings and hold them there while I sawed the bow. He taught me part of a'' piece, and then got mad because I couldn't learn any faster, and quit, but I kept trying 'till I ''picked out the whole tune. And I've been playing ever since.'' A.A. Gray died on 21 June 1939 having spent the last more than 30 years of his life as a Methodist minister, with a reputation as a well-respected and sober man.