Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,670
By This is the grave of Johnnie Mae Matthews.
Born in…well now I don’t know when she was born. The grave says 1934. The Wikipedia page says 1922. That’s a big discrepancy! Discogs, which is usually pretty good on accurate musician information since that’s the point of it, also says 1922. Maybe she changed her age to seem younger? But 12 years is a lot. Huh.
Well, anyway, Matthews got her start in music back in Alabama, at first in the church and then on some radio shows with her sister out of Birmingham. At some point Matthews followed the Great Migration north and ended up in Detroit, as did so many Black southerners. She sang and started getting serious about her work. She started recording at least by 1958 and had a lot of sides over the next several years. She remained a minor, local musician, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Within Detroit itself, she was seen as a legend, the Godmother of Detroit Soul, though I imagine there were other competitors for that title. Perhaps most notably, she was the first Black woman, certainly in Detroit but possibly in the whole nation, to own and operate her own record label. Northern Recording Company. She recorded on Mercury and Atlantic herself a bit. She was the early manager of The Temptations, which itself is important and when there was a TV miniseries about that band in 1998, Vanessa Bell Calloway played the Matthews role. She also played a key mentoring role to Diana Ross. She even influenced Berry Gordy, helping him in his early years since she knew all the DJs and he didn’t. I’m sure he paid her back well for this, he’s such a great guy and all……..Actually, he did offer to record her but she turned it down for some reason.
Matthews also produced some of Bettye LaVette’s early work, including her 1963 single “My Man is a Loving Man.” Among Matthews’ more popular songs that she recorded includes “My Little Angel,” “Cut Me Loose,” and “My Man.” People have argued that despite her obscurity, Matthews actually played a critical role in creating the Motown Sound, in part because it was for her early recordings that people such as James Jamerson and Joe Hunter started playing together and created their great chemistry. She continued recording quality material well into the 60s.
I don’t really know this material well, but I do know the band of her kids, Black Nasty, which she managed. They only had album, 1973’s self-titled album, I do recommend that as a solid piece of funk.
Let’s listen to a couple of the songs available to her.
Matthews died of cancer in 2002. She might have been 79. Or 91!!!
Johnnie Mae Matthews is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.
If you would like this series to visit other soul legends, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. James Brown is in Beech Island, South Carolina and Whitney Houston is in Westfield, New Jersey. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.