The Johnnie Mae Matthews Story
The Early Years


Joe Hunter's band pictured c. 1959, clockwise - drummer Benny Benjamin, bassist James Jamerson, pianist Joe Hunter (top), Hank Cosby on tenor sax, Andrew "Mike" Terry on baritone sax and guitarist Larry Veeder. Johnnie Mae's home at 2900 Carter, Detroit.

Johnnie Mae was born on the very last day of 1922 in Bessemer, Alabama, one of four children to Willie and Dr. Mary Flood. Her childhood was marinated in southern gospel and she sang with her mother at Birmingham's Gaston Funeral Home as well as U.S. military bases.

The Floods moved to New Jersey when she was around 12, but like numerous others seeking a better life, Johnnie Mae migrated to Detroit around 1947. She married her boyfriend, Art, who had a job at Ford's and the couple had two children, Artwell junior and a daughter they named Audrey.

LISTEN TO
Johnnie Mae Matthews
talk about
Getting Started

Johnnie Mae began playing piano and songwriting at home, and eventually recorded her first 45 in 1958 as a member of The Five Dapps. It was released on the Brax label, a short lived enterprise funded by local realtor George Braxton. Songwriter James Bennett sang lead on Do Wop A Do - a Chuck Berry styled Rock n' Roll number complete with guitar breaks. Johnnie Mae took over on the slower flip side, a jazzy-blues song titled You're So Unfaithful. The other three Dapps were probably George Wooden, guitarist Emry Franklin and Albert Williams, who had the soubriquet, "Fruit".

LISTEN TO
Johnnie Mae Matthews
sing
"You're So Unfaithful"

Joe Hunter's talented band played on these sessions and this was the start of a long professional relationship, with Joe "Mr. Record Session" involved in many of her subsequent recordings. He and the band were the nucleus of the now famed Funk Brothers - the very essence of the revered 1960's Detroit Sound.

Notes thanks to Graham Finch

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LOWELL BOILEAU

 


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