Jo Armstead: a giant among men.

Lani Hall December 2012 interview

So those women Fred listed are Porn Stars? I figured they couldnt be singers because I've never heard of them...

I don't watch Porn to memorize the Actors names. I could care less about their names.

LMAO

this thread definitely has some Monty-Pythonesque vibe to it I'm too lazy to carve it out more, so I'll just post some vidoes

Andrea True

Wendy O. Williams

some other videos I might post later on

Delia Derbyshire: Sculptress of Sound audio documentary Delia speaks 1971

Daphne Oram documentary: Wee Have Also Sound-Houses Rotolock {1958}

Maxayn/Mandre'

Bio written by Melissa A. Weber
Maxayn is a group. Maxayn Lewis was a member of that group. I want to make clear that Ms. Maxayn Lewis was just one part of a strong collective including Andre Lewis, Emilio Thomas, and fellow super-session musician Marlo Henderson (later, Hank Redd). But, as you see, the band was named after her, featured her as a leader, and plastered her face on all album covers. So any confusion between whether Maxayn was a group or a solo act is completely warranted.

Maxayn (the band) was a brilliant showcase for the songs and voice of this sister, who also doubled as a talented pianist and French horn player. The group did not have much commercial success, though their music is respected by fans of rare groove and is remembered fondly by those who had hip musical tastes in the early 70s. Their music was part funk, part gospel, part Roberta Flack-ish introspective soothers. And Maxayn's voice played the part at all times, whether it was to belt out the grittier soulful tunes with toughness or use a more subdued, relaxed style for the slower numbers.

Their/her music reminds me of what Lauryn Hill does today with her work. By combining spiritual grooves, an assertive attitude, updated urban sounds, and plenty 'o soul and funk, whatever Maxayn and her comrades did worked, and we've got 3 (out-of-print) albums to show for it. However, when the Maxayn band called it quits in 1974, the group did not die. Rather, it morphed into one of the strangest projects that the Motown label has ever recorded. This new group, born in 1977, was called Mandre and kept the core of the Maxayn group intact. This time the concept was futuristic space funk/disco complete with tons of synthesizers and blipping electronics. Maxayn's hubby Andre was at the helm, and album covers featured illustrations of his face covered by a mask, apparently (according to an insider) because Motown thought Andre was too ugly to show a picture of. Ms. Lewis was no longer singing lead in this group, but doing backup vocals, as well as songwriting and playing. And the Motown promotions machine tried to hype Mandre as being "funkier than Parliament." No one else seemed to think so, and after three albums, Mandre finally funked itself out in 1979. By the early 1980s, Maxayn (the woman) was singing on albums by the Gap Band.

Dancelot said:

LMAO

this thread definitely has some Monty-Pythonesque vibe to it I'm too lazy to carve it out more, so I'll just post some vidoes

Andrea True

The vibe started on the explicit tip but MickyDolenz flipped it into a document with biographies for the bookmarks.

As for Andrea True's song. I recently saw the UK tv special "The Joy Of Disco" where producer Tom Moulton explained that he was so busy recording Andrea's song and therefore didn't pay much attention to the actual meaning of the song. He thought that the lyrics were about the music itself. I can't understand though that he would not have released it if he had directly understood what the lyrics were about. Donna Summer already had started the trend and her producer Giorgio Moroder even got a phone call from the record company if he could record an expanded version of Donna's "Love To Love You Baby", because people at a party of the record company actually had a release-request for that extra longer version, lol.

Anyway, don't wanna derail too much off topic. Keep the info rolling Mickey

[Edited 3/13/13 15:33pm]

MickyDolenz said:

I wonder if Daft Punk was influenced by this image? Always was hip to that illustration.

[Edited 3/13/13 15:27pm]

Dorothy Ashby

• Born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson 6 August 1930, Detroit, Michigan
• Died 13 April 1986, Santa Monica, California

Although not the first jazz harpist, Dorothy Ashby was clearly the most successful, and contributed some choice recordings in the hard bop and jazz-funk styles. She grew up around music in Detroit, where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought fellow jazz musicians home to jazz while Dorothy comped in the background on their piano.

She came to the harp only after a short detour through saxaphone and bass in the band of Cass Technical High School, where she attended alongside future jazz greats Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell. She had to share five harps with fourteen other students, however, so she must have quickly discovered an affinity, because she was left with a goal of owning her own harp. As she later commented, "This isn't just a novelty, though that is what you expect. The harp has a clean jazz voice with a resonance and syncopation that turn familiar jazz phrasing inside out."

She attended Wayne State University, studying piano and music education, and after graduation, went to work in the small but lively jazz scene in Detroit. Although she could get hired as a pianist, she wanted to play harp more, and bought one in 1952. She overcame initial resistance to the concept by organizing free shows and playing to dances with her trio.

Ashby's trio, including her husband John Ashby on drums, toured the country and appeared on a variety of jazz labels through the late 1960s. She played with Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, and other acts, and in 1962, was selected in down beat's annual poll of best jazz performers. She also worked with her husband on a theater company, the Ashby Players, he founded in Detroit.

In the late 1960s, they tired of touring and moved to California, where she broke into the studio system (which already had enough harpists for its needs) with the help of soul singer Bill Withers. Withers recommended her to Stevie Wonder and she ended up with a steady series of session gigs, playing behind such singers as Dionne Warwicke, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow.

Ashby's Cadet albums have come to be viewed as among the best early examples of acid jazz, and now fetch eye-watering prices among collectors. Breaks and rhythm tracks from the superb Richard Evans arrangements have become favorites for sampling and remix artists.

MickyDolenz said:

Michelle Shocked

http://www.michelleshocked.com

Truly underated Mickey. I love her and have mostly everything she's released.

MickyDolenz said:

Tanita Tikaram

Tanita discusses the songs on her latest album Can't Go Back in September 2012

Another good choice I had her debut LP, but it got lost. On the cover she reminds me of Elvis. Nice to see her back to music she kinda disapeared.

[Edited 3/17/13 13:21pm]

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Debelah_Morgan_-_Dance_With_Me.jpg[/img:$uid]

2009 interview with session bassist Carol Kaye. Trailer for unreleased documentary about Carol. (2011)

MickyDolenz said:

FANNY was a truly pioneering rock band, the first of its kind. Their career broke down the barriers for female musicians in rock. In fact, they were pretty much the original “godmothers of chick-rock”!

FANNY: four young women who were accomplished rock instrumentalists and singers… who never depended only on their sexuality to sell the music… who were self-described as being musicians first and women second. But the fact that they WERE women, and that they reached a level of success previously unheard of for a rock band composed solely of women, was a remarkable achievement.

FANNY was the first all-female rock act to record an entire album for a major record label, and in fact recorded and released five albums for major labels. FANNY was the first all-female rock act to rise to real prominence in the US and Europe. Acknowledged by both the press and their many fans as an awesome live act – in the words of Steve Peacock, a top UK music journalist of the era, “if you close your eyes, it’s like listening to the Stones” – FANNY toured tirelessly for up to nine months of every year. In a career that stretched from 1970 to 1975, they had a string of hit singles and also played on the studio recordings of some legendary artists. In addition to their many live gigs, they performed on top music and variety television shows of the time, including The Old Grey Whistle Test, the Sonny and Cher Show, American Bandstand and The Beat Club, Germany’s most famous band program.

The four original members of FANNY were June Millington (guitar, vocals), Jean Millington (bass, vocals), Alice de Buhr (drums, vocals), and Nickey Barclay (keyboards, vocals). June and Nickey were the primary songwriters for the band, but Jean and Alice made significant contributions to FANNY’s repertoire and all four participated in arranging the songs and crafting their stage performances. Some of the biggest music stars of the time, from David Bowie to Deep Purple to George Harrison to the Kinks, were so blown away by these four teenaged rockers that they went out of their way to promote the band and to book them as an opening act.

Despite their success, FANNY were never quite superstars, but they prepared the way for women in rock. When they started out, the idea of young women as rock players was as unthinkable as the idea of women having the vote had been to earlier generations. Recently, FANNY was finally honoured by receiving the ROCKRGRL WOMEN OF VALOR award for their vital achievement, and feted at Berklee College of Music on April 20, 2007 with a gala evening including testimonials and a “rockestra” of Berklee students playing FANNY’s songs.

FANNY: a legend whose legacy lives on in the women rock musicians of today.

http://fannyrocks.com

Thanks for this one mickey. I never ever heard of this group before.

JoeyC said:

Thanks for this one mickey. I never ever heard of this group before.

You're welcome. I made a Fanny thread awhile back:

http://prince.org/msg/8/361242

MickyDolenz said:

JoeyC said:

Thanks for this one mickey. I never ever heard of this group before.

You're welcome. I made a Fanny thread awhile back:

http://prince.org/msg/8/361242

Damn, they were hot.

Gladys "Fatso" Bentley was born on August 12, 1907. She was an African-American singer and entertainer.

Gladys was the oldest of 4 children born to a Trinidad born mother, Mary Mote (Bentley) and an American born father, George L. Bentley. She left home at 16 and ended up in Harlem New York, the capital of "The New Negro." For Bentley, her lesbianism and the large Homosexual population in the 1920s made her need to strike out on her own all the more urgent. In Harlem this great creative outpouring was also a celebration of optimism about the future of Black America.

Audiences of the prohibition era were always craving something new. There was a "fashion of the Negro”, accompanied by a curiosity for "Pansy Acts" and "Hot Mama" lesbian or bisexual singers. Bentley carved out a place for herself around this curiosity. She would transform popular tunes of the day with bawdy mischievous playful lyrics. Dressed in signature tux and top hat, she openly and riotously flirted with women in the audience. Her popularity and salary climbed, as she was frequently mentioned in many of the entertainment columns of the day and characters based on her appeared in novels.

In 1928, she began a twenty-year recording career, 8 for OKeh records followed by a side with the Washboard Serenaders on the Victor label. In the 1930s the repeal of Prohibition quickly eroded the prominence of Harlem bistros. Also, the Great Depression ended much of the "anything goes" spirit of tolerance that had spread through the 1920s. In 1937, Bentley moved to Los Angeles to live with her mother. Many lesbian women came to see her shows at "Joquins' El Rancho" in L. A. and "Monas" in San Francisco, although sometimes she had legal trouble for performing in her signature male attire. In 1945 she recorded "Thrill Me Till I get My Fill," "Find Out What He Likes", and "Notoriety Papa".

The McCarthy "witch hunts” of the 1950’s were particularly vicious towards homosexuals; the lives of many homosexuals were ruined. Out of desperate fear for her own survival (with an ageing mother to support) Bentley started wearing dresses, and cleaning up her act. In 1952 she married a man named Charles Roberts, a cook and 16 years younger; the two eventually divorced. Bentley still performed, usually at the Rose Room in Hollywood. She recorded a single on the Flame label and appeared twice on Groucho Marx’s’ television show. At this stage, of her life, Bentley became an active and (truly) devoted member of "The Temple of Love in Christ, Inc". She was about to become an ordained minister in the church when she died of a flu epidemic in 1960 at the age of 52.

aaregistry

The Andantes

Like any new business, cash flow problems plagued Motown; Raynoma Liles, aka Miss Ray developed the Rayber Music Writing Company as a remedy. Rayber, a combination of Ray and Berry Gordy's first name, charged anybody who wanted to make a record. They advertised on a local radio station and caught the ear of their first client, Louvain Demps. Raynoma Liles and Berry married. Louvain, along with Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow, formed the Andantes, who historians say appeared on more than 20,000 recording sessions. At first they took a back seat to the Rayber Singers, who consisted of Raynoma, Berry, Robert Bateman, Brian Holland, and anyone else hanging around. When running Motown escalated, Louvain took Miss Ray's place in the Rayber Singers, who disbanded around 1962 when the Temptations and the Supremes started doing sessions. The Supremes, as the Primettes, had worked for Lupine Records; at Motown, they're featured on Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Sammy Ward, and Bob Kayli recordings, among others. Kayli was Robert Gordy, Berry's brother; the Supremes sing on Kayli's "Small Sad Sam," a take-off on Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John." The Temptations added excitement to Stevie Wonder's "Contract of Love" and Mary Wells' "Everybody Needs Love," and both sing on Wells' "You Lost The Sweetest Boy."

When the Supremes ignited, the Andantes became the number-one studio rats. Like the Funk Brothers - Motown's rhythm session - they moonlighted on other labels in Detroit and other cities. They were in Chi-town when Mickey Stevenson needed girls to back Marvin Gaye on "Stubborn Kinda Fellow." Martha Reeves, Stevenson's secretary, called the group, who added magic to Gaye's first hit, and soon broke out on their own. Good background singers are expected to create, which the Andantes did on Mary Wells' "My Guy," Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life," and other sessions. They backed Diana Ross on "Love Child," and Martha Reeves on every Martha & the Vandellas' recording after Annette Beard left. Holland-Dozier-Holland used the Andantes to smooth the Marvelettes' infectious but shaky harmony; they also used them on the Four Tops for high end, a technique Thom Bell employed with the Spinners and others in the '70s. Their smooth, quality, chorale sound was so valuable that Motown never gave them a chance to record on their own. A scheduled single, "Like a Nightmare," was never released. Motown didn't want the Andantes out promoting a record when Motown's studios operated around the clock. Ian Levine recorded the Andantes for his Motorcity series. The tracks include a remake of the Fascinations' "Girls Are Out to Get You," as well as "Two Sides to Love," "Hurricane," "Lightening Never Strikes Twice," and a new "Like a Nightmare." Levine also recorded Louvain solo. They accompanied Kim Weston on "Just Loving You," on The Motortown Revue Live, Vol. 2. Louvain's brother, Larry "Squirrel" Demps, sang with the Dramatics.

scriptgirl said:

Um, this is not a porn site, two wrong forum and three, Mila gets plenty of shine

Yeah...it confused me too, b/c I suddenly thought; "Mila Kunis is a forgotten musician?!?!?"

I gotta come back to this thread when I got time to listen to music. Great posts Micky!

Ada Jones (1 June 1873 - 22 May 1922)

By Tim Gracyk

The following is from the book POPULAR AMERICAN RECORDING PIONEERS. Please contact the author, Tim Gracyk, if you have additional information to share about this pioneer among female recording artists.

Ada Jones was the leading female recording artist in the acoustic recording era, especially popular from 1905 to 1912 or so. Her singing range was limited but she was remarkably versatile, being successful with vaudeville sketches, sentimental ballads, hits from Broadway shows, British music hall material, "coon" and ragtime songs, and Irish comic songs. She was known for an ability to mimic dialects.

Victor catalogs listed roles at which she excelled: "Whether Miss Jones' impersonation be that of a darky wench, a little German maiden, a 'fresh' saleslady, a cowboy girl, a country damsel, Mrs. Flanagan or an Irish colleen, a Bowery tough girl, a newsboy or a grandmother, it is invariably a perfect one of its kind."

Columbia catalogs as late as 1921 stated: "Miss Jones is without question the cleverest singer of soubrette songs, popular child ballads and popular ragtime hits adaptable for the soprano voice now recording for any Company. She is also one of the most popular singers in the record field and her records have been heard in all quarters of the globe. Her duet records with Mr. [Walter] Van Brunt, unique and entertaining as they are, have also come in for unlimited popular approval."

Despite this high praise in Columbia's 1921 catalog, very little of her vast output was available by the early 1920s. For example, of the nearly two hundred titles that she recorded for Columbia from 1904 to 1917, only six remained in the catalog by 1921--five duets and one solo effort, "Cross My Heart and Hope To Die."

She was born in her parents' home at 78 Manchester Street in Oldham, Lancashire, England. Her father James Jones ran an inn, or public house, named The British Flag--the original building no longer stands. Her mother's maiden name was Ann Jane Walsh. Ada was baptized on June 15 in Oldham's St. Patrick's Church as Ada Jane Jones. Her birth was registered on August 18, 1873. The family moved to Philadelphia by 1879 (documents show that a brother was born there in that year). Her mother died and her father remarried. Ada's stepmother, Annie Douglas Maloney, encouraged Ada to make stage appearances, and "Little Ada Jones" was on the cover of sheet music in the early 1880s. One example is the sheet music for Harry S. Miller's "Barney's Parting" (1883). The January 1921 issue of Farm and Fireside duplicates an 1886 photograph showing Ada Jones as "Jack, a stable boy with song."

According to Milford Fargo during a presentation about Jones at the 1977 Conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, cash disbursement books at the Edison National Historic Site suggest Ada's stepmother had been hired to make or mend drapes for the Edison company. The Jones family at that time lived nearby in Newark, New Jersey. It is likely that at the studio she saw an opportunity for her talented stepdaughter. Ada's earliest recordings were brown wax cylinders made for Edison in late 1893 or early 1894 (no recording logs of this period exist). Two surviving cylinders are "Sweet Marie" (North American 1289), a song by Raymon Moore, and "The Volunteer Organist" (North American 1292). Piano accompaniment is presumably by Edison's house pianist, Frank P. Banta. A male does the announcement for each record.

They are among the earliest commercial recordings of a female singing as a solo artist. Estimating how many female singers preceded Jones is difficult. Moreover, nothing is known of singers such as "Miss Lillian Cleaver, the phenomenal contralto of the Howard Burlesque Co."--she is included in an 1892 New Jersey Phonograph Company catalog described by Jim Walsh in the October 1958 issue of Hobbies. Allen Koenigsberg lists known female pioneers--some were instrumentalists, not vocalists--on page 59 of The Patent History of the Phonograph (APM Press, 1990): "[B]efore 1896, they included Phyllis Allen, Laura Bennett, Lillian Cleaver, Lilla Colman, Susie Davenport, Minnie Emmett, Jennie Evers, Maude Foster, Ada Jones, Anna Lankow, Bessie Mecklem, Rose Monks, Jessie Oliver, Alice Raymond, Alice J. Shaw, Ella Thiebault, Jessie Warner, and Emma Williams." Others include Hallie Beck, Alice Clifford, pianist Miss Hangs, Jennie O'Neill Potter, and Effie Stewart.

Though Jones would later win fame as a performer of comic numbers, her brown wax cylinders give no hint of her comic talents. The sentimental "Sweet Marie" had been introduced in the show A Knotty Affair, which opened in New York in May 1891. Composed by Raymon Moore, its lyrics are meant for a male singer:

I've a secret in my heart, Sweet Marie
A tale I would impart, love to thee
Ev'ry daisy in the dell
Knows my secret, knows it well,
And yet I dare not tell, Sweet Marie...
Come to me, Sweet Marie, come to me
Not because your face is fair, love to see
But your soul so pure and sweet,
Makes my happiness complete
Makes me falter at your feet, Sweet Marie

It is not known whether the song was already in Jones's repertoire or whether Edison recording executives, believing that sentimental numbers best suited female singers, picked this song for what was probably her recording debut. Jones was in A Knotty Affair in December 1893, but the song was sung on stage by its composer, Moore.

Jones may have recorded other numbers at this time (titles on North American 1290 and 1291 are unknown). Shortly after her recording debut, the North American Phonograph Company went into receivership--in August 1894--and this ended the first phase of her recording career. A decade would pass before she recorded again.

Meanwhile, other female singers made discs and cylinders but most had very short recording careers and none sang comic numbers regularly. Columbia's November 1896 cylinder catalog lists fourteen titles performed by contralto Maud Foster--titles include "I Want Yer, Ma Honey," "I Don't Want to Play In Your Yard," and "Mamma Says It's Naughty"--but Foster is absent from the company's June 1897 catalog, so her recording career was decidedly short-lived. Berliner artists of the late 1890s include Laura Libra, Virginia Powell Goodwin, Edna Florence, Dorothy Yale, Grace McCulloch, Florence Hayward, Maud Foster, Mabel Casedy, and Annie Carter. These were trained singers and mostly sang light opera selections or sentimental parlor songs. Few made records after 1900. With the exception of Edna Florence, these vocalists did not work for Eldridge R. Johnson's new Consolidated Talking Machine Company (this soon evolved into the Victor Talking Machine Company) when Emile Berliner was forced by an injunction to stop making discs (Florence Hayward did make Victor discs in 1905 and 1906). This is surprising since many of Berliner's male vocalists did work for the new company.

A predecessor to Jones was Minnie Emmett, who was especially important to Columbia a year or two before Ada Jones had her first Columbia session. Emmett's recording career went in rapid decline just as Jones started to enjoy success. A predecessor to Jones in specializing in comic numbers was Marguerite Newton. Born in 1865, she was known as "The Little Annandale" early in her career. Newton recorded over 20 titles for Edison, including "Kiss Your Goosie Woosie" (4606) and "De Cakewalk in the Sky" (7143). She retired from show business in 1916 and died at her home in Gallitain, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1942.

Beginning in 1902, Corinne Morgan was among the first female singers to record regularly, mostly duets with Frank C. Stanley. She sang sentimental fare, not comic numbers. Even a rare "coon" number, sung with Stanley--"'Deed I Do"--is characterized in the June 1903 Edison Phonograph Monthly as being "of a sentimental character." Announcing the release of Standard 8427, "The Lord's Prayer" and "Gloria" as sung by a quartet featuring two male voices (Frank C. Stanley and George M. Stricklett) and two female (Morgan and one Miss Chapell), the June 1903 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly frankly admitted the limitations of technology at that time: "It has always been a difficult matter to make successful Records of female voices, and after months of careful experimentation our Record Department has succeeded in getting perfect results in quartettes and duets. It is now at work on solos, and expects before long to list some very good songs by female voices."

When the September 1903 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly announced an October release of one Morgan title, it again acknowledged that technology up to that point had not done justice to female singers: "A fourth feature for October is the listing of one of the best Records ever made by a woman's voice. It is No. 8499, 'Happy Days,' and is sung by Miss Corrinne [sic] Morgan, with violin obligato...It is sung by Miss Morgan with entire absence of all objectionable features of Records made by women's voices..."

It was perhaps for the best that Ada Jones ceased to make recordings for a decade. If she had made more in the 1890s, they likely would have been commercial failures for technical reasons, or recording executives might have selected for her too many sentimental numbers, preventing Jones from standing out. In 1905, when her recording career began in earnest, the time was right for this comic singer. For a long time was she unique among recording artists, the only female to record as steadily as Billy Murray, Henry Burr, Harry Macdonough, Len Spencer, and Arthur Collins.

Presumably in the 1890s Jones developed as an entertainer. As a stage performer, she specialized in singing while colored slides were projected--it was the illustrated song's heyday. She evidently worked steadily and continued to be featured on sheet music covers but was by no means famous yet. She would win fame only through records--the first female to do so.

Billy Murray reported in the January 1917 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly, and then later to Jim Walsh, that he was responsible for Jones making her Columbia recording debut in 1904. He recalled that when one of his sessions with Len Spencer drew criticism, he recommended Jones for studio work. Victor Emerson, then supervisor of Columbia sessions, was appalled by Murray's imitation of a female and insisted that a woman play the role. Murray stated in the Edison trade journal, "I can get away with some pretty high notes, but there were a couple in that song that I couldn't reach on tiptoes...So I told the director about the girl I had heard in the Fourteenth street museum [Huber's] and suggested that she be given a try-out. He told me to bring her around. I did, and she made just as big a hit with everybody else as she did with me...Some one has spread the impression that Ada Jones is in private life Mrs. Billy Murray. We are married but not to each other."

Walsh writes in the June 1947 issue of Hobbies, "According to Dan W. Quinn, Spencer 'hot-footed it down to Huber's museum' and obtained Miss Jones' services just a day before Quinn made her a similar offer." That Quinn seriously planned to work closely with Jones seems doubtful since he normally did not sing with others. His own recording career declined around the time that Jones's blossomed. Huber's Palace Museum, sometimes called Huber's Fourteenth Street Museum, was located at 106-108 East 14th Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. Entertainment "museums" were divided buildings, with one stage for freak acts and another for variety shows. Several shows were given each day, and entertainers worked hard at museums. Not a high-class establishment, Huber's often featured performing monkeys and Unthan, the "armless wonder" who played piano with his toes. Harry Houdini performed at Huber's before enjoying widespread acclaim as an escape artist. Before it closed in 1910, Huber's was known in New York City for its variety of vaudeville acts but was not a leading vaudeville house and did not feature top-name entertainers.

Jones undoubtedly welcomed the opportunity to make records. Performing before live audiences must have been difficult since she was subject to epileptic seizures, and no medication at this time controlled epilepsy.

In the February 1917 issue of Edison Amberola Monthly, she stated: "The first record I made was a duet with the late Len Spencer. It was a rendition of the once popular song called 'Pals,' and was one of the famous 'Jimmie and Maggie' series of records. My first solo was 'My Carolina Lady,' a song that swept the country when 'coon' songs were in vogue."

That she cites "Pals" (also known as "He's Me Pal") as her first record is interesting. For Columbia, she probably had made with Len Spencer "The Hand of Fate" a little earlier. She did record "Pals" with Spencer for Edison around the same time and she was probably trying to recall her earliest Edison recording since she was being interviewed for an Edison trade publication. That she cites "My Carolina Lady" (music by George Hamilton, words by Andrew B. Sterling) as her first solo record is interesting. It was issued in March 1905 as Edison Standard 8948 (her Victor version was released in September). She either forgot about the solo recordings of the 1890s or believed that rare brown wax cylinders were not worth mentioning. The February 1905 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly stated, "'My Carolina Lady' serve[s] as an introduction to the Phonograph public of another new singer in Miss Ada Jones, who has a charming contralto voice. Miss Jones sings this selection in a style all her own, with a dainty coon dialect and expression, that claim your interested attention at once."

She is called a contralto here. She was at different times identified as a contralto, mezzo soprano, and soprano. Most companies called her a soprano. That she is also called "Miss Ada Jones" is noteworthy since in Manhattan on August 9, 1904, she had married Hughie Flaherty.

Her Edison debut recording was followed in April 1905 by "He's Me Pal" (8957), the Gus Edwards and Vincent Bryan song, for which she takes on a Bowery accent and works with Spencer. In May, Edison issued "You Ain't the Man I Thought You Was" (8989). The April 1905 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly stated, "Miss Jones' coon dialect will be found very entertaining...A coon dialect by the female voice is something new in our recent supplements."

Around this time her first Columbia records were issued. Though she recalled in 1917 that "Pals" was her first record (it was issued in 1905 as Columbia disc 3148 as well as Edison two minute wax cylinder 8957), Columbia discs with earlier numbers include "The Hand of Fate" (3050, with Len and Harry Spencer) and "Mr. and Mrs. Murphy" (3108, with Len Spencer). The first Columbia cylinder of Spencer and Jones was "The Hand of Fate," issued as Columbia cylinder 32623 (again, Len's brother Harry is an assisting artist) and she recorded "The Hand of Fate" for Victor in late 1904, several months before recording "Pals" (on May 3, 1905) for the company. It seems likely that "The Hand of Fate" was the beginning of her second recording career, not "Pals."

In April 1905 the team of Jones and Spencer is cited for the first time in an Edison trade publication. The April issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly announces the May release of the Ted Snyder song "Heinie" on Standard 8982 (they recorded it as Columbia 3206 around this time), calling it a "Dutch vaudeville specialty." This was followed in June by the release of Jones and Spencer performing "Ev'ry Little Bit Helps" (9016). On various records the two imitated Bowery toughs (on the popular "Peaches and Cream," Spencer was a "newsy" named Jimmie, Jones being his "goil"), German immigrants, Western ranch workers (as in the skit "Bronco Bob and His Little Cheyenne"), African-Americans, and others. Most of their so-called vaudeville specialties or vaudeville sketches (some Victor labels use the term "descriptive specialty") were written and arranged by Spencer himself. They were "vaudeville" skits only in the sense that Spencer was influenced by routines typically performed in vaudeville by others; his skits were not actually performed in vaudeville.

For the next few years a new Jones or Jones-Spencer performance would be issued regularly by Edison. Often the company included in a new Advance List, issued each month, both a Jones performance as well as a Jones-Spencer skit. In May 1910, Edison released a Jones performance ("By the Light of the Silvery Moon," on which she is assisted by a male quartet), the Jones-Spencer routine titled "The Suffragette," and the Jones- Murray duet titled "Just a Little Ring From You." To be featured on three new records issued by one company in one month was remarkable. Busy at this time with other companies as well, she was at the peak of her popularity! Jones and her husband Hugh Flaherty lived in Manhattan at 150 W. 36th Street until 1910, so visiting the Edison studio in lower Manhattan and the midtown studios of other companies was easy. They then moved to Huntington, Long Island.

She did not play an instrument. Unable to read music, she learned songs by ear. In a letter dated March 12, 1982, Milford Fargo gives this information about the singer when answering a question posed by Ronald Dethlefson about Jones's handwriting: "Actually she did not have very good script and rarely wrote her own letters because she was aware of it. She had meager formal schooling and was content to let her stepmother write for her. Len Spencer (of the Spencerian handwriting family) often signed autographs for her on pictures and documents in the Edison and Columbia files. Also her writer friend, Elizabeth Boone, composed letters and copy for her and often sent them in her own writing."

Her first Victor discs were issued shortly after the company switched from the "Monarch" label to the "Grand Prize" label (beginning in January 1905 the phrase "Grand Prize" in small print surrounded the center- hole of new discs, and the phrase "Victor Record" in large print replaced "Monarch Record" on ten-inch discs). Her first Victor session was on December 29, 1904, and Spencer was her partner on two selections: "Reuben and Cynthia" (4304) and the burlesque melodrama "The Hand of Fate" (4242). As a solo artist, she recorded on that day two "coon" songs, only one of which was issued: "Mandy Lou, Will You Be My Lady-Love?" (4231). It was issued in March 1905, the same time that Henry Burr's first Victor disc was issued. Both Burr and Jones would become important to Victor--as well as to Columbia and Edison. Their talents were so different that the pairing of Burr and Jones was in no way inevitable, yet they eventually recorded some duets.

She gave birth on January 14, 1906, to daughter Sheilah (sometimes spelled Sheelah in newspapers), her only child. Jones worked in the final trimester of her pregnancy, attending Victor sessions as late as December 15, 1905, and returned to work relatively soon after giving birth. On March 16, 1906, she recorded for Victor the song "Henny Klein" as well as skits with Len Spencer.

Though Billy Murray "discovered" Jones at Huber's in 1904, Murray and Jones were not paired immediately. Soon after the two finally worked together, probably beginning with a Victor session on November 2, 1906 (they cut "Wouldn't You Like To Flirt With Me?" and "I'm Sorry"), the duo became very popular--in fact, along with Collins and Harlan, and Campbell and Burr, the team of Murray and Jones was among the most successful duos of the acoustic era. Their first Edison record was Standard 9659, "Will You Be My Teddy Bear," issued in August 1907. Their first Columbia cylinder was "You Can't Give Your Heart To Somebody Else And Still Hold Hands With Me" (33088), their first Columbia disc being "I'd Like To See A Little More Of You" (3612). Before this disc, Jones and Murray had joined Frank C. Stanley for "Whistle It" (3589).

The Jones-Murray pairing became exclusive to Victor and Edison after Murray signed a joint contract with those companies in 1909. Their most successful Edison cylinder was probably "Rainbow" (Standard 10049). This Percy Wenrich composition (with lyrics by Jack Mahoney) was issued in January 1909 during a craze for "Indian" songs. Jones recorded similar songs with Murray, including "Blue Feather" (Standard 10162), "Silver Star" (Amberol 940), and the popular "Silver Bell" (Standard 10492; Amberol 576).

Other notable Jones-Murray recordings issued by various companies include "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee," "The Boy Who Stuttered and the Girl Who Lisped," "Smile Smile Smile," "When We Are M-A-R- R-I-E-D," "Wouldn't You Like To Have Me For A Sweetheart," "I'm Looking For A Sweetheart, and I Think You'll Do," "I've Taken Quite a Fancy To You," and "The Belle of the Barbers' Ball" (popularized on stage by female impersonator Julian Eltinge with the Cohan & Harris Minstrels, according to the February 1910 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly).

The March 1909 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly stated, "Scarcely less popular than Miss Jones' solo Records are those made with the assistance of Mr. Murray, himself one of the best of the Edison artists. The duet Records by Miss Jones and Mr. Murray are eagerly sought for in each month's list." By this time, sales of Jones and Murray duets significantly exceeded sales of Jones and Spencer records. The July 1909 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly stressed that the team of Jones and Murray had no competitors: "Miss Jones and Mr. Murray have the field absolutely to themselves so far as comic love duets are concerned--they have no near rivals."

Probably because of demand for Murray and Jones duets, she worked only occasionally with Spencer by 1909. The last Edison cylinder credited to Ada Jones and Len Spencer is wax Amberol 670 featuring "The Crushed Tragedian," issued in May 1911. Jones also contributed to "Uncle Fritz's Birthday," credited to Len Spencer and Company and issued on wax Amberol 700 in June 1911. But so closely associated were Jones and Spencer, who died in late 1914, that several editions of the Victor catalog, beginning in 1915, state at the end of the biographical sketch for Jones, "The recent death of the popular and genial comedian, Mr. Spencer, is regretted by a host of friends and admirers."

Because Murray in 1909 became exclusive to Victor for discs and to Edison for cylinders, Jones needed another partner when singing for other companies, and for a few years she relied heavily on a young Walter Van Brunt, especially during Columbia sessions. Many Lakeside, Oxford, United, and Indestructible records feature the duo of Jones and Van Brunt. They stopped working together in mid-1914 because the tenor signed an exclusive contract with Edison. Van Brunt later recalled in a taped interview with Milford Fargo that he found Jones to be easy to work with, stressing that he could not recall ever having a disagreement or exchanging a cross word.

Other partners include Henry Burr, Billy Watkins, Will C. Robbins, George Wilton Ballard, George L. Thompson, M.J. O'Connell (he used the name "Harry Dunning" for their Rex duets), and, in the last stage of her career, Billy Jones. With Byron G. Harlan she cut "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm" (Diamond Disc 50518). Harlan was among the prolific artists in record studios during the years Jones was popular, but the two rarely worked together. Though well-known for performing "coon" songs, she never recorded duets with the artist best known for "coon" songs, Arthur Collins.

She continued to work with Cal Stewart until his death in 1919. Especially successful was "Uncle Josh and Aunt Nancy Putting Up The Kitchen Stove," recorded for several companies. It was renamed "Uncle Josh and Aunt Mandy Put Up The Kitchen Stove" when an Emerson master was used for a Radiex pressing (4082), and Stewart was identified on the Radiex label as "Duncan Jones."

In contrast to colleagues with various pseudonyms, she was issued only as Ada Jones. Also noteworthy is that she performed for a decade without rivals--that is, no singers of similar talents seriously threatened her popularity despite many comic female singers being introduced to record buyers from 1905 to 1915. The most talented included Helen Trix, Clarice Vance, Maude Raymond, Elida Morris, Irene Franklin, Stella Tobin, Stella Mayhew, and Dolly Connolly (more obscure are Amy Butler, Lilian Doreen, Marie Hoy, June Rossmore, and Ethel Costello). Nora Bayes was more famous but this was due to stage successes--her early records did not sell well. Each singer's recorded output was minuscule compared with Jones's. Stage work, which often included touring on vaudeville circuits, undoubtedly prevented a few from cultivating recording careers whereas Jones in this period devoted all efforts towards making records.

Dorothy Kingsley on two Edison Standard cylinders sounds remarkably like Jones. On Zon-o-phone 1078 Kingsley even performs a song that Jones recorded for various companies, "Do You Know Mr. Schneider?" However, Kingsley's career was too brief for Jones to have worried about her as a rival. Kingsley was not a pseudonym for Jones. Documents at the Edison National Historic Site show that Jones was paid $1950 for the business year ending on September 30, 1908; Kingsley was paid $85 for making two cylinders. Otherwise nothing is known today of Kingsley except that she also made a few Victor, Zon-o-phone, and Indestructible records around the same time she worked for Edison. As little is known of Madge Maitland, who made one Edison cylinder, "Is Everybody Happy?" on 9210, and a Columbia disc, "My Lovin' Henry" (3328). The January 1906 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly reports that she is "well known on the vaudeville stage," adding, "Miss Maitland's coon dialect has never been excelled by an Edison singer." But Maitland's recording career was too brief to pose any threat to Jones.

Anna Chandler was virtually promoted as a Jones rival. Announcing Chandler's second cylinder, "I Want Everyone to Love Me" on wax Amberol 770, the July 1911 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly stated, "Six years ago we 'discovered' Ada Jones. Today she is recognized as a leader in Phonograph circles wherever civilization extends. Our latest 'discovery' is Anna Chandler, who six years hence will certainly be equally as well-known and universally liked." But Chandler records did not sell well.

Popular discs featuring Jones as a solo artist include "Waiting at the Church" (Victor 4714, 1906), "I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave" (Columbia 3599, 1907), "The Yama-Yama Man" (with the Victor Light Opera Company, Victor 16326, 1909), "I've Got Rings On My Fingers" (Columbia A741, 1909), "Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon" (with the American Quartet, Victor 16508, 1910), "Come, Josephine, In My Flying Machine" (with the American Quartet, Victor 16844, 1911), "Row! Row! Row!" (Victor 17205, 1913), and "By the Beautiful Sea" (with Billy Watkins, Columbia A1563, 1914).

For several companies Jones recorded Maurice Stonehill's "Just Plain Folks," one of her most popular numbers. Lyrics are about an aged couple who, upon visiting their son for the first time in years, are disappointed that the wealthy son resents the visit. Edison issued it on two-minute Standard 9085 in September 1905, Columbia soon following. On wax Amberol 286, a longer version was issued in September 1909. Early Blue Amberols had record slips, and none had less text than the one included with Blue Amberol 1771, which gives chorus lines and nothing else: "We are just plain folks, your mother and me/Just plain folks like our own folks used to be,/As our presence seems to grieve you,/We will go away and leave you,/For we're sadly out of place here/'Cause we're just plain folks."

Edison promotional literature hailed her versatility. The July 1908 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly announced the September release of "Hugo" (9928) and stated, "Here is more proof that Ada Jones' versatility has no limit. This charming entertainer can sing an Irish song 'to beat the Dutch,' and then turn right around and sing Dutch to beat the Irish. That may seem like a very difficult feat, but there will be no room for doubt after hearing 'Hugo,' which is her latest Dutch dialect [German] song."

Walsh writes in the May 1977 issue of Hobbies, "The late Fred Rabenstein, who was Edison's paymaster, told me that Ada Jones 'never bothered to learn a song until she came to the studio to make the record,' and this annoyed Walter Miller, the recording manager. On one of her 'takes' of the Diamond Disc of 'Snow Deer,' she sings 'snow bird' at one point where she should say 'deer,' and surprisingly the error was allowed to go uncorrected."

Her performance of "O'Brien Is Tryin' To Learn To Talk Hawaiian" was issued on Diamond Disc 50402 in May 1917. A promotional blurb on the disc's jacket praised her comic talents and suggested she was still at the top of her profession: "Ada Jones is without a peer singing comic songs. You'll laugh at these ridiculous words even when you have heard them many times, and you will always find the tune irresistible. Miss Jones is one of the best known of all comic song singers. As a dialect singer she is unique."

However, by 1916 her popularity was in decline. Her career suffered when popular music changed in the World War I era, leaving her with only the occasional session, usually for small companies such as Rex and Empire. Columbia was the only company to engage Jones regularly into 1916 (she evidently made no Little Wonder discs--few female artists made them, exceptions being Elida Morris and Rhoda Bernard). One sign of decline in popularity is that, as a solo artist, she is on only six Diamond Discs, which is a contrast from the many Standard and wax Amberol cylinders she made for Edison prior to the introduction of Diamond Disc technology. When she did go to the Columbia, Edison, or Victor studios, she was sometimes given only bit parts in ensemble pieces.

In a rare instance of a company remaking a record that had originally featured Jones, Columbia in late 1920 used Gladys Rice, assisted by the Harmonizers, to redo "All Night Long," originally issued in 1913 on A1297 as performed by Ada Jones assisted by the Peerless Quartet. The same catalog number was used for the 1920 remake. The choice of Rice, whose voice was very different from that of Jones, is surprising, especially since Jones herself was presumably available in 1920--she was making records for other companies. Possibly companies by the World War I era viewed Rice, who was also versatile, as a successor to Jones.

After sessions became infrequent, she began making personal appearances, which became her chief source of income. In the June 1972 issue of Hobbies, Walsh describes a Jones concert he attended in his hometown of Marion, Virginia, in 1922. In the early 1920s Marion "had less than 4,000 population," and the concert was given in the Smyth County courthouse instead of in a theater. Performing in small towns could not have been lucrative.

By 1917 new recording artists such as Marion Harris, Van and Schenck, and Gladys Rice made Jones's delivery seem old-fashioned. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, a new generation of female singers regularly recorded "blues" or at least Tin Pan Alley songs with "blues" in the title, but Jones never cut a song with "blues" in the title. When the Jones-Murray performance of Harry Von Tilzer's "Don't Slam That Door" was issued as Blue Amberol 3135 in April 1917, it was advertised as a "conversational coon duet." "Coon" songs were decidedly old-fashioned by this time.

In an attempt to keep up with the times, she did record a few songs about the war, such as Solman's "We'll Keep Things Going Till The Boys Come Home," issued on Imperial 5513 in December 1917, and Berlin's "They Were All Out of Step But Jim," issued as Okeh 1008 in July 1918. The Heineman Phonograph Supply Co. began issuing Okeh records in mid-1918 and she recorded a handful of titles for the company, joining George L. Thompson for three titles.

She recorded "She's Back Among the Pots and Pans Again" in late 1917. It was issued on Empire 5526 and Imperial 5526 in February 1918, the reverse side of both discs featuring Byron G. Harlan singing "Long Boy."

In 1917 she recorded songs for the Starr Piano Company, maker of Gennett hill-and-dale discs. The Raymond Hubbell song "Poor Butterfly" was enormously popular throughout 1917 (with words by John Golden, it was introduced in 1916's The Big Show at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York), and on Starr/Gennett 7603 Jones sings the comic "If I Catch the Guy Who Wrote Poor Butterfly," issued in August 1917. Others issued between November 1917 and March 1918 include "Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" (7603), "Don't Slam That Door" (7607), and "Says I To Myself, Says I" (7637), and "I'm Old Enough For A Little Lovin'" (7637).

The Edison company continued to engage Jones though not as regularly as in earlier years. The company by this time relied far more upon Helen Clark and Elizabeth Spencer for popular songs, and Gladys Rice became increasingly important to Edison. Rice was even paired often with Billy Murray, Jones's traditional partner.

No new Jones material was recorded for Edison between June 1914 and May 1915. There is a large gap in Blue Amberol releases featuring Jones as a solo artist. Blue Amberol 2409 featured her singing Monckton's "Bedtime at the Zoo," issued in September 1914, but then no new Blue Amberols of Jones were issued until two years later, with "If I Knock the 'L' Out of Kelly" (2940) released in September 1916. This is in contrast to new Jones cylinders being issued nearly every month during her heyday in the Standard and wax Amberol period. She did contribute to three performances issued between Blue Amberols 2409 and 2940. Blue Amberol 2777 features Gilbert Girard "and Co." Blue Amberols 2912 and 2914 feature the Metropolitan Mixed Chorus. Jones helped but was given no label credit. She also did remakes of "The Pussy Cat Rag" and "Uncle Josh's Huskin' Bee" in 1915.

Walsh reports in the June 1960 issue of Hobbies that when a new performance of "The Golden Wedding" was needed for Diamond Disc release, it was recorded on January 25, 1918, with Jones's 12-year daughter playing the role of a granddaughter. (According to researcher Milford Fargo, Sheilah died in the 1930s.)

Jones and Murray recorded Harry Von Tilzer's "Bye and Bye," issued as Blue Amberol 3545 in September 1918. It was the last Blue Amberol to pair Jones and Murray.

The April 1918 issue of Talking Machine World reported that rumors were being spread that Jones had died. Page 13 stated, "Ada Jones, like Mark Twain, objects to being reported dead, and the veteran talking machine artist was quick to deny the latest rumor of her demise in the following letter: 'I have often been reported dead. I even had a double who has been singing throughout the country, using my name, as "Ada Jones, the phonograph artist." I have just been out with a troupe of phonograph artists giving several entertainments where I was introduced as "Ada Jones, the mother of the phonograph." Which made me feel very ancient, I assure you. Cordially yours, Ada Jones, Long Island.'"

It is impossible now to assess how widespread such rumors were or to know if rumors were spread at all. Obviously reports of such a rumor--and, with it, the proclamation that she enjoyed good health--must have been judged excellent publicity by everyone at the time, especially since Jones had begun to tour. Not surprisingly, Jones took the opportunity to stress that she was touring. The March 1908 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly had mentioned a similar rumor: "A report has apparently gained considerable circulation in the Middle West to the effect that Miss Ada Jones died recently. There is absolutely no foundation for the report. Miss Jones is in good health and is making Records for us each month." The July 1910 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly refers to the same rumor: "The persistency with which the report makes it appearance is exceedingly annoying to Miss Jones, and we are bothered by frequent requests for contradiction or confirmation of it."

From 1918 until her death she gave concerts, usually in small towns. Page 138 of the July 1918 issue of The Voice of the Victor stated, "Ada Jones and the Shannon Four recently appeared in concert in Roanoke, Va., under the auspices of the Roanoke Cycle Company." The January 1919 issue of Talking Machine World reported on its front page that on December 26, 1918, the singer "sang several coon and character songs" in the Opera House in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Others who performed were the Shannon Four as well as the McKee Trio. The trade journal by 1919 rarely used the term "coon" for songs since such music was long out of fashion by this time.

Page 75 of the March 1919 issue of Talking Machine World reports, "R.L. Hollinshead, manager of the talking machine department of the Clark Music Co., this city [Syracuse, New York], believes in keeping his customers familiar with the various record artists in order to maintain their interest in their machines. With that end in view he recently conducted a very substantial concert with Miss Ada Jones, one of the veterans among the recording artists, as the chief attraction. Miss Jones sang several character songs, for which she is noted, and also sang an Italian character duet with Mr. Hollinshead, entitled 'I'll Take You Back To Sunny Italy.' Mr. Hollinshead sang several songs, and there was demonstrated an Edison Re-Creation of a song by Jones and Murray, to show the remarkable reproduction of the human voice. The concert was one of a series which the Clark Music Co. is giving free to the public..." The "concert" probably took place in the talking machine department of a store.

Jones and Murray had their last hit as a duo with "When Francis Dances With Me" (Victor 18830), composed by Benny Ryan and Sol Violinsky, who was really Sol Ginsberg. It was recorded on August 25, 1921, and finally issued in January 1922, too late for Christmas sales. Victor executives probably had no great expectations for the record since Jones records in recent years had been slow sellers. The surprisingly brisk sales of this particular record can be attributed to the song's success in vaudeville. The music stops at one point for an exchange of comic dialogue, which was typical of recordings of a previous generation, such as on many Collins and Harlan records. By the 1920s, comic singers sometimes exchanged dialogue before music began--as Billy Murray and Aileen Stanley do on several numbers, such as "Whatdya Say We Get Together" (Victor 20065), and as the Happiness Boys do--but not often in the middle of a song.

This was her last Victor disc. For Edison she cut the same song with her namesake, Billy Jones, on September 6, 1921. It was issued on Diamond Disc 50852 in December 1921 and Blue Amberol 4404 in January 1922. The last song she recorded was "On A Little Side Street," singing it with Billy Jones for Edison (Diamond Disc 50852; Blue Amberol 4404). She also cut it as a solo artist for Okeh 4439, which was issued in December 1921--she is on one side of Okeh 4439 while a pioneer of radio, new recording artist Vaughn De Leath, is on the other. Jones also recorded the song for Victor but takes were rejected.

During most of her recording years she resided in Huntington Station, Long Island, New York. She died of uremic poisoning (a kidney failure) in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on May 2, 1922, while on a performing tour. The town's newspaper, The Evening Telegram, had announced days earlier that Jones and her company would perform at the local Palace Theater on Saturday evening. Her company consisted of obscure artists--violinist Beth Hamilton; pianist and soprano Mabel Loomis; and one"Armstrong," identified as a "man of mystery, who will entertain by moments of mystifying and being funny." A feature length motion picture and two-reel comedy were also scheduled for the evening's entertainment.

The newspaper reported days later that on the Monday after the Rocky Mount performance (she had sung "Oh Lordy" and "You Ain't the Man," among other numbers), Jones collapsed in her hotel room. She had been booked for a Monday evening performance in Tarboro. Other company members, ready for the train station, stopped at her room shortly before noon on Monday and found her semi-conscious body. She was taken to the local St. Mary's Hospital on Tuesday morning and died that night. Her remains were transported to New York for burial.

Walsh reports in the June 1972 issue of Hobbies what Jones researcher Milford Fargo had learned in 1958 from the singer's longtime housekeeper, Rosina Mackie--namely, that Jones had been reluctant to begin the tour. Page 172 of the June 1922 issue of Talking Machine World included a short article under the heading "Death of Miss Ada Jones"--she was still identified as "miss" despite many years of marriage. Her husband Hugh Flaherty died on July 9, 1961, outliving his first wife by nearly four decades. He had met Jones in a theatrical rooming house at 82 East 10th Street. Walsh reports in the November 1961 issue of Hobbies that Flaherty, who had been born in County Kerry, Ireland, "worked vaudeville routines and danced 'solo' with the Byron Spahn traveling tent show. Ada was the feature of the Spahn show, singing with illustrated song slides."

Performances by Jones, who always worked as a free-lance artist, were issued on these domestic labels: Aeolian-Vocalion, American, Aretino, Busy Bee, Central, Clear Tone (single-faced), Cleartone (double- faced), Clico, Climax, Columbia (she recorded the most titles for this company), Concert, Cort, Crescent, D& R, Diamond, Eagle, Edison, Emerson, Empire, Excelsior, Faultless, Gennett, Harmony, Harvard, Imperial, International, Lakeside, Leeds, Lyric, Manhattan, Marconi, McKinley, Medallion, Mozart, Nassau, Okeh, Operaphone, Oxford, Paramount, Path Actuelle, Path Freres, Perfect, Playerphone, Puritan, Radiex, Radium (made by Leeds & Catlin), Remick Perfection, Rex, Rishell, Siegel Cooper, Silver Star, Silvertone, Square Deal, Standard, Star, Sun, Symphonola, Symphony, Talking Book, Thomas, United, Victor, and Zon-o-phone.

Sweet Marie circa 1893 or 1894

Ada Jones

Renée Geyer is Australia's most respected and successful soul singer, with a recording career of nearly 30 years. Her career began around 1971 in Sydney, when a girlfriend took her along to the rehearsal of friends who were forming a band. Geyer was encouraged to get up and have a sing and was instantly invited to join as singer. Although she was so shy in the beginning she couldn't face the audience, musicians noticed her, and Geyer was invited to join one more experienced band after another until 1971, when she became part of an ambitious jazz fusion group called Sun. Geyer was still just 19.

After one album (Sun '72), Sun and Geyer parted company; Geyer eventually found herself part of a group called Mother Earth, still with jazz leanings but also incorporating the soul and R&B Geyer loved and excelled at. With Mother Earth, she started touring and was offered a solo recording contract. She insisted that Mother Earth provide the backings on her first album. For her second album, the cream of Melbourne musicians were assembled for the sessions. Geyer formed such a strong bond with these musicians, but by the time the It's a Man's World album was released and her powerfully provocative version of the James Brown title song was a big hit, Geyer was ready to throw her lot in with those musicians rather than be a solo performer.

Her two solo albums so far had been cover versions or sourced songs, apart from the single "Heading in the Right Direction." The Renée Geyer Band wrote the songs for 1975's Ready to Deal album in the studio and toured extensively. A live album, Really.. Really Love You, followed, based on Geyer's building reputation as a powerfully voiced, raunchy performer.

That reputation found its way to America and led to an invitation to record an album in Los Angeles with famed Motown producer Frank Wilson. While the Movin' Along album provided another hit at home, in America Stares and Whispers created confusion. R&B stations loved the record, but didn't know what to do when they discovered Geyer was a white Jewish girl from Australia. For the next few years, Geyer bounced between Australia and America, working in Australia and recording two more albums in America. When 1981's So Lucky album presented her with a huge hit with "Say I Love You" both in Australia and New Zealand, it became necessary to put the American dream aside for two years. In 1983, Geyer returned to base herself in America permanently, still keeping in touch with her Australasian fans with tours.

While in America, Geyer became part of a group called Easy Pieces with former members of the Average White Band. But the album took so long to record, by the time it was finished, the group had never performed and were going their separate ways. Geyer spent several years in America doing session work for Sting (the fade vocal on "We'll Be Together"), Neil Diamond, Jackson Browne, and others, touring with Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan and others, and writing songs.

In 1993 Renée contributed to the “Seven Deadly Sins” TV soundtrack. Noted songwriter Paul Kelly requested that Renée sing his “Foggy Highway”. The result was beyond Paul’s expectation. Renée had spectacularly made that song her own. Paul then produced an album for Renée and wrote several songs for the project, including the album title track, “Difficult Woman”. Renée was transformed in the process. She had always put herself into her songs. She was now bringing herself into her performance, revealing a delightful sense of humour on stage between songs.

In the '70s Renée Geyer had started out a sensual blues belter. By the ‘90s she had evolved into an icon, someone to look up to for never having let go of her dreams. The consummate entertainer with a proud body of work who still transfixed a room with the power of her song, never repeating herself, always in search of new challenges.

It’s been a long, eventful journey, with so much left to do and try. There are plans for an album with orchestra, sessions with the new generation of dance producers, many songs waiting which have been written especially for her.

Ann Boleyn

Everybody with the slightest of interest in heavy metal should know the name ANN BOLEYN. If not it’s about time you got to know of her and the band she’s fronted for many years; Hellion. Anders Ekdahl ©2012

You’ve been in my conscious ever since that first Hellion MLP. What are you up to now?
-I live in the Los Angeles area and am involved in many things. First, I have run about 30 marathons and was a marathon coach for about ten years. I am getting ready for the Los Angeles Marathon and am helping a friend train to complete her first one. I am also a trial attorney. I spend a lot of time helping people who have been treated badly by their employers and bosses. In the Los Angeles area there are many people who come to the USA from different countries. Employers often take advantage of these people, especially when they are from Mexico or South America. Sometimes companies will fire workers who are injured at work. Other times the company won’t pay their employees fairly. I help people in those situations. I also occasionally write music, still.

From what I understand Hellion has been an on/off thing for the past couple of years. Do you notice that Hellion has made an imprint in the history book of heavy metal?
-Thank you for that. I appreciate that people are still interested in our music.

With a career spanning 4 decades (or more) you’ve been through both highs and lows. What would you say has been the high-points/low-points of that career?
-There were a number of high points, so it is hard to talk about just one. First, it was an honor to be able to tour in the former Soviet Union and do the Monsters of Rock in Moscow. No American bands had ever toured in the USSR at that time, so it was really exciting. I met Valeri Gaina from the band Kruiz, who is still a friend of mine. Those were really exciting times. When the Soviet Union finally collapsed, and the tanks came into Moscow, the people who owned stereos put their speakers them in the windows of their apartments and protested by blasting heavy metal into the streets. Most heavy metal music was banned, or was only available in the black market then. So this was really amazing. People often forget the importance of music and how, especially in the case of the former Soviet Union, it was used for protest. A second high point would be working with Ronnie James Dio. I know everybody has told many stories about him, but, for the record, he was a really nice guy. Because of Ronnie, Hellion was able to perform with Whitesnake. I met Cozy Powell, who was one of my favorite drummers. And, I remember singing on stage and having David Coverdale and Ronnie James Dio both watching me and giving me thumbs up. They were two of my favorite singers, so that was thrilling. As far as low points, there were quite a few, also. Most were in the early 1990s. I remember one time when myself and Lita Ford were voted by the viewers of VH-1 TV channel as the Top 100 Women in Music. Both of us placed in the top-40, if I recall correctly. VH-1 was doing a TV special with short interviews of the winners. I did not know that I had made the list until when the manager of Lita Ford called me and told me I was on the list. I had my publicist at the time call and introduce herself, in case they did not know how to contact me and wanted an interview since Hellion had just been dropped from Enigma Records. The person at VH-1 told my assistant that VH-1 was not going to feature any of the “toilet mouth heavy metal women from the 80′s” and that they were only focusing on the up and coming artists, such as Sheryl Crow, and the “dead ones.” That was pretty depressing. After all of the hard work, and the discrimination that the female musicians of the 70′s and 80′s were faced with, it was sad to finally be recognized by the viewers of a national TV station, then be ignored because we were no longer the flavor of the day.”

I’ve always wondered about your alter-ego. What was it that made you choose this as your stage name?
-I have a lot of friends from England, and some like to call me “Annie”. My legal name is the name of a character in a movie, and some people used to think that my real name was fake. I chose to use the name Ann Boleyn because my family line is traced back to the royalty of England and Scotland, and because I am a fan of history. Also, Anne Boleyn was accused of being a witch, and I have been called far worse things, so we had that in common.

When was the first time you became aware of hardrock/heavy metal and what was it that made you devote your life to it?
-I started playing music when I was 13 or 14. I was a big fan of Deep Purple and had a Hammond Organ by the time I was about 15 or 16. I was initially recruited by Tommy Bolin to play in a band called Zephyr, but my parents would not allow me to go because I was too young. A while later, I was recruited by Kim Fowley to go to Hollywood and play in the Runaways.

You’re not only a famous musician. You’re also are (was) a label manager. What was it that made you start New Renaissance Records?
-Hellion made a demo and we started selling cassettes of the demo at our shows. Making copies of the demo eventually burned up too many cassette recorders, so I decided it was cheaper to just press the demo onto a 12-inch record. A distributor ordered lots of those records and shipped them to Europe. A while later the mini-LP was a top selling import in England. Hellion next signed a record deal with Music For Nations, who also signed Metallica, Anthrax, and Merciful Fate. We ended up with a Record of the Year award in Kerrang Magazine, and in Sounds, which were the important magazines then. But, we could not get a record deal in the USA. Due to the success in Europe, the distributors wanted me to bring them more heavy metal. I didn’t have the money to put bands into the studio initially, so I started releasing people’s demos.”

With the label you built a reputation as a label releasing albums by a variety of bands, not always to great reviews. What did you think about the reactions some of your releases received when released and the accolade some of them receive today?
-It is very funny. The bands that received the worst reviews are often regarded as the most innovative bands today. Sepultura is a great example. The critics hated Sepultura. But, I liked the music, and Max and the guys in the band were really nice. Myself and my staff then spent hours and hours promoting the band to the magazines and to college radio stations. The reviews were terrible. I lost a lot of money on Sepultura. Then, just as they was starting to be appreciated and we were getting orders, they went to Roadrunner.”

During the 80s you were very much a part in bringing the second wave of thrash metal to the masses. What memories do you have of that time?
-I don’t know what you mean by the “second wave of thrash metal.” New Renaissance Records was releasing thrash bands right from the beginning.”

This is a gender specific question that I feel even in this day and age is relevant as women making a name for themselves in all branches of life often are looked upon as strange. As a woman you have most probably faced a lot of doubt and critical voices doing the things you do. What advice do you have to bands/artists facing adversary?
-Anything that is worth doing, is hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it and the result would not mean much. Gender should have nothing to do with it. As a performer, or even as a professional in business, you are competent — or you are not. And, even if you are very good at what you do, there are going to be people who don’t like you. That is just life. As a singer, there are people who like my voice — and who hate my voice. For example, Ronnie James Dio liked my voice. On the other hand, I was told that Gene Simmons from Kiss hated my voice. And, it is my opinion that if you are hated and loved at the same time, you are probably on the right path! However, no matter what you do, you should always be trying to improve.

Where do you see the future taking you?
-I have been talking with some of the people that I know from the 80′s, some of whom were involved in Dio. Angelo Arcuri, the sound engineer for Holy Diver and Last In Line, among others, has been encouraging me to do some recording with some of the guys who played with Ronnie. I am also still in contact with some of the guys from Hellion. There are no concrete plans yet, but there is a good chance that I will be doing some recording soon, and maybe a couple festival appearances.”