b. 5 February 1950, Greenville, South Carolina, USA. One of several lesser-known southern-soul female artists, Sexton made a string of high-quality records for legendary Nashville soul DJ/label-owner, the late John Richbourg aka John R. Born into a South Carolina family steeped in gospel music, she married at a young age, and, with her husband Melvin Burton (who later played saxophone in Moses Dillard's band), soon progressed from gospel to secular club singing, where she was spotted in 1971 by songwriter David Lee. In a local studio, Sexton recorded Lee's impassioned "You're Letting Me Down", coupled with the future UK northern-soul favourite "You've Been Gone Too Long". Released initially on Lee's tiny Impel label, it was later issued by John R on his Seventy-Seven outlet. After a couple of Nashville sessions, Sexton's records were then chiefly cut in Memphis, some produced by Lee and John R and others by Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, who had earlier discovered Ann Peebles. By 1976, John R was recording Sexton's versions of songs by the fine southern-soul writer/singer Frank O (Johnson) at Clayton Ivey's Wishbone studio in Muscle Shoals. After John R's Seventy Seven label folded, Sexton recorded the highly regarded The Beginning in 1977 for the Monument subsidiary Sound Stage 7, but to no commercial impact.

Listen to Ann Sexton at Finetune.

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