A native of Georgia, USA, L. Ward Abel began as a poet, but was soon in the Jacob Rye Band playing extensively around Georgia during the mid to late 1970’s, including stints at Atlanta’s Electric Ballroom (a.k.a. The Agora) and the Fox Theatre/Egyptian Ballroom, performing what would be labeled as original “progressive” or “art” rock, along with some cover music. Upon JRB’s dissolution, he formed Preface, which released two singles in England in the early 1980’s under the Bumticker Music (UK) label and was played on the BBC. Preface actually lived in London in 1982 and recorded at Hallmark Studios while there. Peppered during this time period were undergraduate and post-graduate educational forays. In the late 1980’s, two significant happenings occurred. Ward recorded two CD’s as Max Able on the Sky Records label, one of which came close to cracking the College Top 100 (CMJ) and gaining extensive national airplay on college radio stations. In addition, he was a founding member of Scapeweavel, pioneers in the Atlanta spoken-word-with-music scene. In the early 1990’s, Scapeweavel released “The Twittering Machine,” a CD of poetry with improvisational multi-instrumental work, and “Persistence of Memory,” released in 2002. In the mid-1990’s, he rejoined former Jacob Rye member Steve Rawls to form Abel & Rawls, later renamed Abel, Rawls & Hayes (which now includes the iconic keyboardist Sloan Hayes). He released two CD’s with Rawls, along with the Abel, Rawls & Hayes CD entitled “Flash on a Film ” (2005), and has worked with the likes of Ross Childress (former Collective Soul guitarist), Joel Kosche, Will Turpin and Shane Evans of Collective Soul, and recently with Phil Ehart, drummer of Kansas, among other well known musicians. A new Abel, Rawls and Hayes CD, "The End of Rock n Roll As We know It," has just been released in 2009. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.