Все композиции сочинены самой Вайноной Карр.
С 1949 по 1954 годы Вайнона Карр исполняла госпелы (также собственного сочинения):
http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3507765.....
In its decade plus of operation, Specialty Records never had a female star anywhere near as big as their supernova of Little Richard, Larry Williams, Lloyd Price, Percy Mayfield, and Roy Milton. Camille Howard came through with a couple of R&B hits and Dorothy Love Coates of the Original Gospel Harmonettes did well in the spiritual field, but owner Art Rupe never clicked with a Ruth Brown, a LaVern Baker, or a Dinah Washington.
The closest he came was in 1949, when he signed, as a gospel artist, the pretty, 25-year-old Wynona Carr. Art had always admired the records of Lucky Millinder. So it was only natural that Wynona's first Specialty release had her listed as Sister Wynona Carr, Rupe's nod to Millinder's one-time female vocalist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Between 1949 and 1954 the label released only ten records by Carr, one of the last being "The Ball Game," her only hit in the spiritual market. Art tried every trick in his book, recording duets with Specialty's biggest gospel star, Brother Joe May, and even – shades of Aretha Franklin's late Sixties formula – having her accompany herself with her own gospel piano alongside a group of top R&B sidemen. As an example, we have included the previously unissued "Weather Man," which, like Kay Starr's "The Man Upstairs," crossed categories.
A bit of trivia: Wynona was recorded in 1954 - by the same Joe Von Battle who cut Aretha's first sides - with Aretha's father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin with his New Bethel Baptist Church Choir.
That year, she was traveling with Tharpe and Marie Knight, both of whom had recorded religious and secular material. Wynona could not help but notice the difference in income between what the trio earned at gospel and secular venues.
On December 19, 1954, from her parents' home in Cleveland, she writes to Rupe, "After asking you for the $150.00 last week for Xmas and not hearing from you I was lucky enough to get it from Sister Tharpe as an advance on my salary." She tells of having her purse snatched at a Richmond, Virginia train station. "I had exactly $.86 [left]." In her postscript she adds that "Sister Rosetta Tharpe wants to record 'Operator' and 'Dragnet'" (two of Carr's songs).
On January 27, 1955, she thanks Rupe "...for coming to my rescue..." She then pitches Art to let her record pop material now that she had "...finally gotten the consent of my parents to change... Look what Epic did behind Roy Hamilton's 'Walk Alone'..." Her ambition is unquenchable: "...I could play all the clubs & not be limited to my own people... I have an appearance on Arthur Godfrey and I'll let you know the exact date so you can watch."
A good songwriter, her ambition was not limited to singing. "Give those [songs] to the other artists... Maybe Kay Starr would like that 'Operator.'"
On February 4, she informs Rupe, "I've got some crazy gowns. Now I have to get some sexy (smile) pictures taken..."
Two days later, the atheist Rupe replies that "..it's just a matter of God's will, hard work, and some luck-and you should make it, Wynona." He also suggests she give herself "... a new stage name... someday you may want to return to the gospel field as Sister Wynona Carr."
With this encouragement, she can hardly contain her excitement. In subsequent letters, she tells of all her plans, sends demonstration tapes of songs she'd like to record - with full descriptions, assurances that her family is "100% behind me now..." and ideas for her new stage name: "...Do you like Kitty Karr or Denise Carr... Mama likes Kitty." She keeps pushing Rupe to record her, with flattery, hyperbole, forced familiarity with Rupe and his wife, Leona, and most of all, her unbridled enthusiasm.
Wynona's moods seem to swing wildly from enthusiastic highs to depressive lows, often signing her letters to Rupe, "Miss Kitty Karr." Art wasn't the only recipient of her epistles. On April 28, she dashes off a note to Rev. Franklin to get him to give the tape of Wynona singing her song, "Our Father," with his choir to Specialty to release.
As he did on her gospel recordings, Art tries a little bit of everything to come up with a hit. As he tells Wynona, "...be awfully patient... It may take a while to establish you in this new field, or, if we find a hit tune, it could happen overnight."
On at least one session, she was backed by the local Los Angeles vocal group, the Turks. The guys can be heard on the Platters - like "Hurt Me." Wynona's uptempo sides range from the Ruth Brown/LaVern Baker-ish Atlantic-styled "Jump Jack Jump" and "'Til the Well Runs Dry" to the novelty rocker "Nursery Rhyme Rock." Her own material shows a remarkable range - she wrote "Nursery" - and her ballads reveal a very good structural sense, both lyrically and melody-wise, from the gospelish "Now That I'm Free" to the minor-toned "Please Mr. Jailer." Had she had even one healthy-sized hit, Rupe's publishing arm, Venice Music, would have been raking it in with cover versions.
The closest she came to that hit was the 1957 "Should I Ever Love Again," soon after which she contracted tuberculosis. In the two years she spent recovering, her career lost whatever momentum it had. Her last few Specialty sides in 1959 were corny Sonny Bono productions like the Bono-penned "I'm Mad at You."
By that time Rupe had lost interest in the music business; at his peak, he never would have allowed the release of many of those later Specialty records. In fairness, even a cursory listening to Atlantic records of the late Fifties shows that even Wexler/Ertegun et al. were cutting watered-down R&B for the masses. No matter, Wynona left as Specialty was winding down operations, playing club dates and the occasional important gig, such as the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, until 1961, when she signed with Reprise.
The Sinatra-owned label was hot in the pop field, releasing records by black non-rockers like Sammy Davis, Jr., Al Hibbler, and former Platters lead singer, Tony Williams. Sinatra always went first class
and Wynona's album was no exception - Neal Hefti arrangements, Nat Hentoff liner notes, etc., but the thing just didn't sell.
Wynona moved back to Cleveland, retreated into her shell and faded from sight as, by all accounts, her depressive periods outnumbered her manic ones more and more. By the time of her death in 1976, she was forgotten.
It's like the man says, "You gotta have the looks and the talent; you gotta do all the right stuff - then you still gotta get lucky." Wynona Carr had the looks; she was as talented as the Ruth Browns and the LaVern Bakers; she was ambitious; she had a record company that gave her good material and good production values; she made records that were in the commercial pocket of the time. She just didn't get lucky.
- Billy Vera, 1993
