Sexton released around thirteen solo singles and two albums between
1971-76. She is held in esteem in Northern Soul circles for the B side
of her debut single on Impel "You've Been Gone too Long" but also by
lovers of southern soul for her other material. Virtually all her her
recordings were for Nashville based label Seventy Seven or associated
labels. Despite the consistent quality of her music, only two of her
singles charted , "You're Gonna Miss Me" (R&B #47 1973) and
"I'm His Wife (You’re Just A Friend)" (R&B #79 1977).
As with most southern soul singers, she sang gospel in her church choir.
Moving to secular music she started winning local talent shows before
singing back-up on a recording by Elijah (Hawthorne) & The Ebonies.
The record was "I Confess" billed as Elijah & The Ebonies featuring
Mary Sexton, the only release on Greenville label Gitana in 1968. She
later married the group's saxophonist, Melvin Burton (who had played
saxophone in Moses Dillard's band) and they formed their own group, Ann
Sexton & The Masters of Soul, in the late 1960s. She was seen
performing with the group at the Washington Center in Shelby, NC, by
songwriter David Lee, the owner of the small local Impel record label,
who recorded and released her first solo single, "You're Letting Me
Down" / "You've Been Gone Too Long", in 1971. Lee released around
fourteen singles and two albums between his Impel, Washington Sound and
SCOP labels which he ran from his record shop Washington Sound in
Shelby.
The writer's credits for "You've Been Gone Too Long" are to David M. Lee
and Ann and Melvin Benton which was an alias for Burton, so the pair
were married by this time. Unless it was a spelling error on the label,
I suspect using the names may have been to
disguise her real identify to the gospel fraternity. Only 500 copies
were pressed making it pretty hard to find on the original label now.
The record was picked up by John Richbourg's Seventy Seven Records.
Richbourg was a DJ for Nashville radio station WLAC known as John R. as
well as being a producer and manager. He became head of A&R for Fred
Foster's Sound Stage Seven in 1965 and he also produced most of it's
output under the name JR Enterprises. Seventy Seven released the Impel
single twice, first on a yellow label and then on the standard
multi-coloured orange and black label. The latter being pressed to
satisfy demand on the UK Northern soul scene for the flip which was
played at the Blackpool Mecca from release.
It would be her fifth single, "You're Gonna Miss Me", for the label in 1973 that would chart, reaching #47 R&B. The
same year she released her debut album "Loving You, Loving Me". The albums twelve tracks were the A and B sides of all her singles
up to that point.
Their relationship with Lee and John R. degenerated when she and the
band failed to turned up for a show to promote her chart single and John
R. then lost interest in her feeling that she was being badly managed by
her husband Burton.
Her second album "The Beginning" arrived in 1977 but only one song from the album saw a release as a
single, "I'm His Wife (You’re Just A Friend)", which was her only other R&B chart entry at #79. The non-album
flip side, "You Got To Use What You Got", was another of her songs picked up on by the Northern Soul scene. Interestingly, I note one of the backing singers on the album was Gwen Owens from Detroit who had a few of her 60s singles played on the Northern Soul scene. It transpires that she was signed on contract by Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey who worked on the album. It is said that she had another single, "Just In Time To Be Too Late", set for release on Prelude after the album, but it was never released.
After the release of her second album, Ann moved to New York and left
the music business to become a school teacher working with special needs
students. She retired in 2010. However, she was cajoled out of retirement
from music in Mar 2007 by Dan Dombrowe to perform at the Baltic Soul
Weekender where she also appeared the following year in Apr 2008 and has
made other occasional appearances at other event since. In 2010 she featured
on Ferry Ultra's "Rising Up" and in 2015 she visited the UK at a soul
connoisseurs event at the Wilton Ballroom, Castleford, run by the late
Dave Box and his wife Val.
Album Discography
1973 - Loving You, Loving Me [Seventy Seven #77-107]
1977 - The Beginning [Sound Stage 7 #SS1500]
Compilations
1987 - Love Trials [Charly #CRB 1143]
1987 - The Beginning [P-Vine #PLP-340]
1995 - You're Gonna Miss Me [Charly #CPCD 8012]
2004 - Anthology [Soul Brother #SBCB 20]
Singles Discography
Elijah & The Ebonies featuring Mary Sexton
1967 - I Confess / Get Out Of My Life Girl [Gitana #CR 3144]
Ann Sexton And The Soul Masters
1972 - You're Letting Me Down / You've Been Gone Too Long
[Impel
#SS-AS-103]
Ann Sexton
1971-10 - You're Letting Me Down / You've Been Gone Too Long
[Seventy Seven #77-104]
1972-07 - Come Back Home (I Know I Did You Wrong) /
I Still Love You [Seventy-Seven #77-114]
1973-02 - It's All Over But The Shouting / Have A Little Mercy
[Seventy-Seven #77-125]
1973-10 - You're Gonna Miss Me / You're Losing Me
[Seventy-Seven
#77-133]
1974 - You Can't Win / Let's Huddle Up And Cuddle Up
[Seventy-Seven #SP
2136]
1974-05 - Love, Love Love (I Want To Be Loved) / You're Losing Me
[Seventy-Seven #SV 900]
1974-12 - You Can't Win / Let's Huddle Up, Let's Cuddle Up
[Seventy-Seven #SV-907-N]
1975-?? - Lovin' You, Lovin' Me / If I Work My Thing On You
[Dash #5019]
1976-?? - If I Work My Thing On You / Loving You, Loving You
[Seventy-Seven
#SP-2123]
1973-?? - Love, Love, Love (I Want To Be Loved) / You're Losing Me
[Sound
Plus #SP 2124]
1977-?? - Sugar Daddy / I Wanna Be Loved [Monument #45-225]
1977-02 - I'm His Wife (You're Just A Friend) / You Got To Use What
You
Got [Sound Stage 7 #ZS7-2504]
197?-?? - You're Letting Me Down / You've Been Gone Too Long
[Seventy-Seven
#77-104]
197?-?? - Love, Love, Love (I Want To Be Loved) / You're Losing Me
[Seventy-Seven #SP 2124]
Ann Sexton & The Baltic Soul Orchestra /
Gloria Lynne &
The Baltic Soul Orchestra
2009-?? - You’re Losing Me / Help Me Off This Merry-Go-Round
[Unique #156]
(German release)
Ferry Ultra Featuring Ann Sexton (12inch)
2010-01 - Rising Up (Atjazz Remix) / Rising Up (Soul Minority Remix) /
Rising Up (Trancemicsoul Vocal Remix)
[Peppermint Jam PJM-50143]
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