Helen Baylor
| Helen Baylor | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Helen LaRue Lowe |
| Also known as | Little Helen |
| Born |
January 8, 1953 Tulsa, Oklahoma United States |
| Origin |
Los Angeles, California United States |
| Genres | Christian, Rhythm & Blues |
| Years active | 1967 - present |
| Labels | Word, Expansion Records(in the uk) |
Helen Baylor (born January 8, 1953 as Helen LaRue Lowe) is an American gospel singer.
Personal
Baylor was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At age 11 she moved to Los Angeles as her Dad had been transferred. There she first performed as a nightclub act. She is one of seven kids, she has five brothers and one other sister. At age sixteen she had her first child.
She began using marijuana and pain pills. Before going on tour with Chaka Khan she began dating the lighting director who was also a drug dealer. They moved in together and she had all the cocaine she wanted. Together they quit and found God. In 1982 she happily married her cocaine dealer: James Baylor. In 20oo they were contemplating separating but reconciled.[1] However in 2012 they did separate[2]
Career
Baylor opened for Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and B.B. King while still in her teens, and performed in the musical Hair.[3]
In 1967/68 she worked with producer Bobby Sanders releasing two singles The Richest Girl and What About Me Boy as Little Helen for the Soultown label.[4]
In the 1970s she joined hit Broadway musical Hair and followed this period of her career as a session musician for artists that included Captain & Tennille, Les McCann and Chaka Khan. As a member of Side Effect her vocals featured on their third album What You Need, from which "Always There", a song co-written by Ronnie Laws was a R&B chart success. Later in the 1980s her career would falter as a consequence of drug abuse.[3]
Baylor became sober late in the decade, strengthening her Christian faith and deciding to concentrate her career in gospel music. She released her first gospel recording on Word Records in 1990 and her first five albums all hit the Top Ten of the U.S. Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart, with the most successful being 1995's The Live Experience, which reached #1 on that chart.[5] The track "Oasis" was very successful in the UK, via Expansion Records and stayed on the Music Week Dance Chart for 14 weeks.[6] Also, the song "Sold Out" (from the album Start All Over) won a Dove Award for Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year at the 24th GMA Dove Awards in 1993
In July 2011, Baylor announced that she is co-producing a feature film about her life story. The film, A Praying Grandmother:The Helen Baylor Story, will feature accounts that she first shared in the song, "Helen's Testimony" (Word, 1995) and in her autobiography, No Greater Love: The Helen Baylor Story. Baylor approached award-winning filmmaker Cassandra Hollis to co-produce and direct the film.
Baylor was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2000.
Discography
- Highly Recommended (Word Records, 1990)
- Look a Little Closer (Word, 1991)
- Start All Over (Word, 1993)
- The Live Experience (Word, 1995)
- Love Brought Me Back (Sony Records, 1996)
- Helen Baylor...Live (Verity Records, 1999)
- My Everything (Diadem Records, 2002)
- Full Circle (MCG, 2006)
References
- ↑ January 2000 http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2000/january/3.59a.html Several years ago, Helen and her husband of 18 years, James, were 6 days away from signing divorce papers when they decided to stick it out—no matter what.
- ↑ May 8, 2012 http://www.joy105.com/helen-baylor-shares-recovery-from-prescription-drugs-and-divorce Her husband of 30 years walked out two years ago. She found herself alone and addicted again.
- 1 2 Helen Baylor at Allmusic
- ↑ http://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/H/little_helen/index.php
- ↑ Billboard, Allmusic.com
- ↑ Music Week