The Empress of Gulf Coast Soul

Listen to Barbara Lynn on You'll Lose a Good Thing

Texan Barbara Lynn first came to New Orleans in 1962, when producer Huey P. Meaux brought her to Cosimo Matassa's studio to cut the R&B smash "You'll Lose A Good Thing." Lynn's soulful vocals--and bluesy guitar licks --had a swampier feel than most R&B at the time, and fueled by Joe Barry's bayou rulin' Vikings (one of the most underrated bands of the time) in tandem with Mac Rebennack's groove-laden organ, she went straight to the top of the charts. Today, Lynn may be best known as the writer of "Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin')", which the Rolling Stones covered back in '65--but her later Atlantic material should by no means be overlooked.

Standing in the same sweet shadow as Doreen Schaeffer, Inez Foxx, Rosie & the Originals, Doris Troy, Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown and Margaret Lewis, Barbara perfectly walks the line between teenage innocence and worldly, older-than-her-years adult hurt. Wounded perhaps, wiser for it, but nowhere near ready to give it all up. Now that' what we mean when we say soul music!

"The singing never left me. That's all I ever wanted to be. I just love to entertain. I don't care if its for an audience of one." — Barbara Lynn

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