Keeping Up with the Digital Joneses

 

Bessie

We are staying with Gospel and Soul ladies in this the final instalment of this series.

Let's start with Bessie Jones a gospel and folk singer credited with bringing folk songs and stories to a wider audience following field recordings by Alan Lomax in 1959. Born in Georgia in 1902 as a granddaughter of a slave she lived to the age of 82

Although I suspect that it may well have been previously released So Glad I'm Here was the title track from an album on Rounder in 2015 subtitled Songs & Games  from the Georgia Sea Islands

Bessie Jones - So Glad I'm Here

Linda

Linda Jones was another American soul singer with a gospel influenced style  who became a star on the Northern Soul circuit. From Newark, New Jersey she tragically died in 1972 aged just 27 following a diabetic coma

What Can I Do (Without You) was a 1968 single on the Loma label.It also appears on Volume 5 of Dave Godin's DeepSoul Treasues -Taken from the Vaults  which I only have digitally and from where this was taken

Linda Jones -What Can I Do (Without You)

The Jones Girls

Finally, I am cheating a little bit with my final selection which is a band rather than an individual artist. The Jones Girls were three sisters from Detroit - Brenda,Shirley and Valorie - so three for the price of one.

They were a Philly band active from 1970 -1993 (shortly after the death of Valorie) releasing half a dozen albums in the process.Here is a brief potted history of the band

 You're the Only Bargain I've Got was the b-side to the single Your Love Controls Me from the Music Merchant label in 1972

The Jones Girls -You're the Only Bargain I've Got

There are still a couple of stragglers out there but probably best to quit while I'm still ahead.