Johnnie Mae Matthews

    Don't be deceived, she's far more than a blues singer, Johnnie Mae Matthews. This exceptional, still-young woman (39 years old) has been, and remains, a talent scout, manager, and producer of nascent black talent for close to twenty years and was one of the first black women to go into the music business in Detroit.

    Johnnie Mae, like so many other black  artists, started off singing in church, as a nine-year-old child down South. Her first professional job was singing spirituals and playing piano with her sister for the Smith and Gaston Funeral Home - the radio broadcast coming live from Birmingham, Alabama.

     During the second World War, the duo travelled nationwide performing for and sustaining servicemen of all persuasions and creeds at the far flung bases of our armed services.

   Barely 22 years old, Ms. Matthews began managing rhythm and blues acts in Detroit, her home now, in 1957. She managed The Temptations  when they were known as The Distance and produced their hit "Come On". She likewise groom-ed Mary Wells, and Diana Ross before she joined The Supremes.

     Johnnie Mae Matthews even "helped Berry Gordy to get over" by introducing the unknown young man to all the influential disc jockeys and local entrepreneurs of the day.

    In 1963, Johnnie Mae produced Betty Lavette's hit single "My Man Is A Loving Man" for Specialty Records. She herself has had hit singles for Sue, "My Little Angel", Atlantic, "Cut Me Loose", and for Mercury "My Man". And right now, Johnnie's "Two-sided Thing" is tearing up the charts at WJLB and WCHD in Detroit.

    She currently produces Black Nasty for Stax Records - a family affair: the group includes Johnnie Mae's daughter Audrey, vocals; and son Chuck, bandleader.

    Now as you read back over that extraordinary list of accomplishments you've got to wonder why it is that you've probably never heard of Johnnie Mae Matthews before. When I asked her about this curious phenomenon Johnnie replied, "Well, Sweetheart, really I didn't get my propers". Hopefully, a current hit single, her second straight appearance at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, and your enthusiastic response will begin to rectify that oversight.

                            ---Bill Adler