Ann Peebles
Like something out a fairy tale, Ann Peebles’ career began with
a journeying out. In 1968, Ann rode along with her older bother
when he drove from their home in St. Louis to visit a girlfriend in Memphis.
Days later, their father made the same trip by plane so that
he could sign his underage daughter’s recording contract with the
soon-to-be-legendary soul label, Hi Records.
In the days between Ann’s drive and her father’s flight, Ann accompanied her brother and his girlfriend to Memphis’s Club Rosewood, where she talked her way into sitting in with trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller’s band. Ann’s steaming rendition of Jimmy Hughes' “Steal Away” was all it took for Miller to set up an audition with Hi Records’ producer Willie Mitchell. Ann had been performing since age nine on the gospel circuit as part of the Peebles Choir, under the direction of her father Perry Peebles. But now, suddenly, the word was out. “Steal Away” became the first of her more than [#] Hi singles, many of them – including her signature “I Can’t Stand the Rain” – co-written with her label-mate and future husband Don Bryant.
nn’s songs are tales of survival, told by a survivor who knows whereof she speaks. Listen to her on “When the Candle Burns Low” (with husband Don singing backup). With a line so disarmingly simple as “I wish we had prayed more,” she breaks your heart to pieces. “I stood in church and I said my vows to you,” she sings. “I wish we had known then what we were about to go through.” Underneath it all, though, the fierce spirit that shines through in her voice seems to echo the old gospel refrain, “I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now.”