(August 14, 2018) From the time I saw The Jones Girls perform in Michigan while I was in college, I was hooked (we won’t go into the major crush I had on them). That, combined with the album At Peace With Woman and Get As Much Love As You Can made lots of us fans for life. The familial harmonies that Shirley, Brenda and Valorie created were heavenly, and, with the top notch material provided to them by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Dexter Wansel, Cynthia Biggs and others, they gave smooth soul music lovers a wave of blessings for several years.
We’ve been tracking Shirley’s career since we began SoulTracks, through the mostly good, but also the bad, particularly when she lost her sister Brenda last year.
(August 14, 2018) From the time I saw The Jones Girls perform in Michigan while I was in college, I was hooked (we won’t go into the major crush I had on them). That, combined with the album At Peace With Woman and Get As Much Love As You Can made lots of us fans for life. The familial harmonies that Shirley, Brenda and Valorie created were heavenly, and, with the top notch material provided to them by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Dexter Wansel, Cynthia Biggs and others, they gave smooth soul music lovers a wave of blessings for several years.
We’ve been tracking Shirley’s career since we began SoulTracks, through the mostly good, but also the bad, particularly when she lost her sister Brenda last year.
Shirley recently returned to her hometown of Detroit to record a new single that she wrote and produced with the great Al McKenzie, with some of Detroit’s finest musicians joining in the session (including Darrell "Peanut" Smith on bass, and Jeff Canady on drums). The song, which Shirley says was inspired by the classic Jones Girls hit “Who Can I Run To,” is the story of an illicit love affair, and a woman who is trying to figure out where to go from there.
The song will be released on September 3, and Shirley plans to follow it up with a tribute album to her deceased sisters Valorie and Brenda, titled In Loving Memory.
Check out “Keep It On The Down Low” and welcome the great Shirley Jones back to SoulTracks!
By Chris Rizik
Shirley Jones – “Keep It On The Down Low”