Donna Kaye - Speak Up (Alley 1041), 1968
"Speak Up" is a neat little Soul song by Donna Kaye but not of great interest - at least for me. What strikes more is the fact it was penned by Arkansas singer and bandleader Kenny Owens, who recorded for such labels as Cotton Town Jubilee, Alley, Reka, and his own Ork imprint. The flipside to "Speak Up" is "I Would Move a Mountain," slower in speed but in some way more tremendous in its sound.
Owens had a release on Joe Lee's Alley label in his own right in 1966, featuring "Traveling on Her Mind" and "Oh. How I Miss You" (Alley #1028). By 1968 - when Lee released Donna Kaye's recording on Alley - Owens was no longer associated with the label, at least obviously, although his was living in Jonesboro, Arkansas, at that time. He had founded his own ORK label by then.
And what about Donna Kaye? She lived in Jonesboro by the time of these recordings but resides in Texas nowadays. Her daughter Shellie was kind enough to share this information with us. There was a singer in the 1950s of the same name, living in California and appearing at several fairs there, who was a different person, however.
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2 comments:
It's not the same Donna Kaye. She is my Mom and she was living in Jonesboro, Arkansas when this was recorded. We live in Texas now. I was surprised to see this...so fun!
Hello Shellie! Thank you very much for clarification! Would you mind answering some questions about your mother's career in music?
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