Ann peebles biography

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Ann Peebles was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 27, 1947. She came into this world as number seven in what would be a sibling crew of eleven (!). The digit seven had a special meaning to her mother and father. "When I was growing up, my parents always told me that the Bible says that the seventh will be wise or silly. So I chose to be wise", Ann laughed over the Trans-Atlantic phone line. She was about five when she understood that she was blessed with a beautiful voice. "I remember that I did a talent show in school. It was not a contest, it was to raise money for the school, and that's when I discovered 'Hey! I can sing'. My dad taught me 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken' to sing at the talent show and that's when I really heard myself for the first time."

Ann's father, Perry Peebles, was a minister of music at the First Baptist Church in St. Louis and the director of the Peebles Choir, which Ann joined when she was nine years old. "The whole family was in the Peebles Choir. Cousins, nephews, nieces, we were all raised up singing in the choir. My dad's father was the founder of the choir, so our grandfather had raised his children in the Peebles Choir. Then our family came along and we did a lot of things with people like Mahalia Jackson and all those great artists, back when I was a little girl. Both my parents sang and my dad played the piano and guitar. My mother didn't really play anything, but she had the greatest voice. She wasn't in the choir, though, she was more of a big help to everybody. She would encourage you and she would help train your voice."

The Peebles Choir did a lot of travelling on the Gospel Caravans, going here and there, from city to city. "We opened shows for big Gospel acts. I can remember opening up for the Soul Stirrers at a very young age, so I got a chance to meet all these great people. When I got into R&B, it really

Ann Peebles (b. 1947) is a U.S. singer and songwriter, best known for her popular Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label. Two of her better known songs are "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" and "I Can't Stand the Rain".

Born on 27th April 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Peebles was discovered as a talent by Gene "Bowlegs" Miller of Hi Records during a 1968 trip to sit in singing with him at a Memphis, Tennessee, nightclub. A popular local bandleader, Miller was known for also helping other musicians, such as members of the Hi Rhythm Section, get their starts in the Memphis music industry. Peebles soon began writing and singing hits for the label, cowriting with label staff songwriter Don Bryant, whom she married in 1974. Peebles released a number of commercially successful and critically well received albums produced by Willie Mitchell on Hi Records throughout the 1970s, until the rise of disco in the late 1970s took her music out of the limelight. Hi Records was sold in 1977, but Peebles reunited with Willie Mitchell in 1989 to produce her comeback album, Call Me.

Born an independent spirit in St. Louis, Mo., on April 27, 1947, to a musical family, Ann Peebles’ destiny was all but assured. Her powerful singing voice, emanating from a diminutive frame, usually caught audiences unaware; but it only made her statue on the stage all the more remarkable and impressive.

No female artist in Memphis’ history has achieved the level of consistency that Peebles’ records have over a longer time span. Few Memphis artists have had their work covered more often and by a more diverse group of artists. “She’s my hero,” Bonnie Raitt told Rolling Stone in an interview. That admiration is shared among many musicians and music critics, nationally and internationally, who admire the artistry Peebles brings to her work.

Ann Peebles is always classy but often sassy, graceful yet forceful, reserved but emotionally deep. Her image and the attitudes portrayed in her music often vacillate, but always genuinely, making her an overwhelmingly soulful artist who firmly expresses her convictions.

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Ann, who had sung all her life and had all the stage experience in the world, found the recording process exciting. In 1968, just some four months after "Bowlegs" Miller brought Ann to Willie Mitchell and Hi, she was already cutting what would become her very first single. "It was very, very new to me. Just to be in a studio.. And record! It was so different, so very different from what I had imagined it would be. To hear yourself like that, on microphone and to hear yourself in a studio, there's a whole different sound there". In 1969, producer Willie Mitchell felt that Ann was ready for the world (and that the world was ready for her). He was right. Her debut, "Walk Away" shot to an impressive #22 spot on Billboard's Top 100 R&B singles charts in April. "That was written by Oliver Sain, as a matter of fact, he wrote both 'Walk Away' and the flipside 'I Can't Let You Go'. Oliver called Willie Mitchell and told him he knew me and my father, and that he had two songs that he thought I could really do."

After a second 45 "Give Me Some Credit", which was a fair-sized hit, Ann's first album "This Is Ann Peebles" was issued. In contrast to her subsequent LP's, Ann did not write or co-write any of the material. Besides covers of Otis Redding's "Respect", Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" and Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me", the album contained the track Ann had sung at the Club Rosewood "Steal Away", written by Percy Sledge's cousin Jimmy Hughes (who had enjoyed a big hit with it in 1964) and the beautiful "Bowlegs" Miller composition "Won't You Try Me".

Backing Ann here, and on virtually all of her Hi-output, were Hi's rhythm section, an incredibly tight group of Memphis musicians who simply were known as Hi Rhythm. The drummer, Howard Grimes, who is still active toda