Good Woman

Liner Note Author: Tony Rounce.
Photographer: Helen Rounce.
Barbara Lynn's most notable recordings (including her sole big hit, "You'll Lose a Good Thing," and the original version of "Oh Baby [We Got a Good Thing Going]," covered by the Rolling Stones) were released on Jamie Records in the early to mid-'60s and, to a lesser degree, Atlantic in the late '60s and early '70s. She had short stints quite a few years apart, however, on the Tribe and Jet Stream labels. These are the recordings featured on this 24-track anthology, which is fairly solid if unspectacular soul, and more of a fill-in-the-gap collection than the first or second Lynn anthology to investigate. The best known of these songs is her first Tribe single, 1966's "I'm a Good Woman," a smoldering he-done-me-wrong stormer that's also the best song on the CD (though it must be said that Lydia Pense did a better job with the tune with her pre-Cold Blood group, the Generation). But the four 1966-1967 Tribe singles that lead off the compilation are respectable Texas soul with a little more pop than the usual Southern soul of the era, including the second-ever version of the semi-standard "You Left the Water Running." A couple Jet Stream 45s she did shortly after the Tribe material were also issued on Atlantic, including a bluesy number, "(Until Then) I'll Suffer," that sounds a bit like "You'll Lose a Good Thing, Pt. 2." After a brief break from the music business, she returned with some obscure mildly disco-influenced singles in 1976 (one of them even called "Disco Music") that are actually more soul than disco, and might hold more appeal to soul purists than most such efforts. A single from 1979 shows her returning to her old sound fairly convincingly, and the disc is filled out by some odds and ends, including some late-'60s outtakes that appeared on a 1998 CD anthology, as well as a couple previously unissued Jet Stream recordings. On the whole it's reasonably strong soul that sometimes exhibits a pronounced bluesy streak, but the material isn't her best. The packaging's fine, though, the 16-page liner notes including quotes from Lynn herself, and even a copy of a brief handwritten letter from her to producer Huey Meaux. ~ Richie Unterberger