Barbara Brown Rip

Sadly it has come to my attention that the great Memphis soul singer Barbara Brown passed away at the beginning of the month.

When we released a CD of her material it became clear to me that her body of work was as good as anything to emerge from that city and I am very glad that she became aware of how fondly her music is now regarded. It was especially rewarding to send her the reviews of both her own CD and the "Take Me To The River" Southern Soul box set from the likes of Mojo and Uncut, which as well as praising her music was often accompanied by a big colour photo of the lady herself

Below from ace records website

Barbara came from a large family of ten girls and two boys, and the group initially made up of three of the sisters and one brother sang gospel. They were persuaded by produdcer Chips Moman, one of the studio geniuses who would put Memphis on the map, to record one of his secular songs 'Big Party' and released on Stax, it provided Barbara and the Browns with their only hit. Two more Stax singles followed before they were signed by Gene Lucchesi to his fledgling XL label, which had just hit the big time with Sam The Sham's international hit 'Wooly Bully'. At Lucchesi's label she recorded a series of sides produced by Charles Chalmers which were the very epitome of Memphis soul. Some of these saw release on Cadet, Tower and Atco and on XL itself whilst others remained in the can until 2007. After this she recorded two more sessions with Dan Greer for Gene's Sound's Of Memphis label in 1971 and 1972. These recordings reflected the changing sounds of the day but were equally brilliant.

After 1972 it appears that Barbara never recorded again. We are pleased to say that the 2007 release of her recordings saw her recognised within her own lifetime as the southern soul great that she so surely was.

link to the rest of article

http://www.acerecord...hp?page_id=1723

link to the original forum thread