Light in the Attic Uncover Album from R&B Guitar Goddess Barbara Lynn

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Sep 24, 2014

Light in the Attic's crusade to unearth long-lost audio treasures (see Rodriguez and Lewis) will continue later this fall via the re-release of Texas R&B guitarist Barbara Lynn's 1968 LP, Here Is Barbara Lynn.

Initially delivered through Atlantic, Light in the Attic has a 180-gram vinyl repress remastered from the original tapes landing into shops October 28. Also included are liner notes from Jessica Hundley that feature an interview with Lynn and archival photographs.

The Barbara Lynn story starts in the early '40s, with a press release explaining that she took up ukulele as a child, soon graduating to slinging a left-handed guitar.

"I decided that playing piano was a little bit too common, you know what I mean?" Lynn explains in the liner notes. "You'd always see a lady or a little girl sitting at a piano. I decided I wanted to play something more unexpected, so that's when I got interested in learning to play the guitar."

While still in high school, Lynn began writing songs and formed the group Barbara Lynn and Her Idols. While performing at a club in Louisiana, Lynn was discovered and given a chance to take her tunes into the studio. Her first single, 1962's "You'll Lose a Good Thing," was recorded with a gang of session musicians that included Dr. John, and it hit No. 1 on the R&B chart and made it to the Billboard Top 10.

Here Is Barbara Lynn LP had the guitarist-vocalist working with producer Huey P. Meaux, with the album containing the older hit and an arsenal of newer material penned by Lynn. Only two of the 12 tracks aren't originals. This is the first pressing of the album since it originally landed in 1968.

"I hear this album, and it seems like... it seems like the old times to me," Lynn said. "I don't know, it's strange to know it's coming out again. It is going to be a wild, first time thing for me, like going back in time. But I'm excited to see what happens."

Here Is Barbara Lynn:

1. You'll Lose A Good Thing
2. Take Your Love And Run
3. Maybe We Can Slip Away
4. Sure Is Worth It
5. Only You Know How To Love Me
6. (Until Then) I'll Suffer
7. You're Losing Me
8. Sufferin' City
9. Multiplying Pain
10. Why Can't You Love Me
11. Mix It Up Baby
12. This Is The Thanks I Get

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