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ARTISTS
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.
Ann'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."
Ann Peebles Official Page
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