Shirley Brown: Woman To Woman - 1974
Ann Peebles , Millie Jackson , Aretha Franklin , Betty Wright , Tommie Young , Laura Lee , Candi Staton and Shirley Brown . What did they have in common? They probably honed their superb voices in church. That's one thing for sure. The other is that men have done them wrong, real wrong - I'm telling you. Shirley Brown sings mainly from that same romantically downtrodden yet strong as a redwood tree perspective. The wonderful It Ain't No Fun is just such a great example of the genre. It is superb, horn-driven, funky Stax soul of the highest quality, and in true "Shirley style" it has one of those trademark spoken parts. She likes to confront her man and/or her love rival. This is played up to the max on the iconic Woman To Woman - "Hello may I speak to Barbara, this is Shirley....", you know the rest. Such a great concept for a soul song. She really had one of the great "lost" soul voices of the mid-seventies. All the songs have b