SIXTIES

The studio continued to conduct business and Dave was always open-minded towards new talent. It was his open mindedness that Ann Bridgeforth remembers particularly. In her own words when she first met him she was “young and dumb” but recalls that Dave never pre-judged anyone musically and saw only their potential.

Born Ann Elizabeth Bridgeforth on 22 March 1945 in Chicago, her family moved to Mount Clemens which is 15 miles north of Detroit in 1957, where they ran a grocery store. The family was very respectable and though Episcopalian, attended the nearer Baptist church where Ann first started singing seriously. She was inspired by Aretha Franklin, already a famous gospel singer in the locality, and soon began to get solos at her own church and eventually others roundabout.

In the early 60s a cousin opened a nightclub called Michelle’s Playroom where a matinee jam session was held on Sunday afternoons. Ann, then 16, was able to attend these events and soon began to sing for her own enjoyment and that of her audience. She got other singing dates with various bands in local clubs through word of mouth, and a guy named Eddie Grace, who worked on the local air force base, got her dates at the NCO club and acted as her manager/agent on a friendly basis. Though she had started out as Ann Bridgeforth, promoters mis-spelt her name so often that she reverted to her family’s pet-name of Little Ann, given to her not because she was short, but because she was the youngest of several Anns in the family.

Eddie was a friend of Dave Hamilton’s and took Ann down to the studios on Highland where Dave was suitably impressed. Initially Dave helped her get gigs while she hung around the studio observing and learning. Eventually Ann fell so in love with the music business that she decided take it up full time. This didn’t go down too well with her straight-laced parents who demanded she got a job and stopped coming home at 2am - or else she would have to get out of the house. That was the final push she needed and home became 1587 Highland, where she turned her hand to anything she could. She wrote many songs, most of which would be rejected as she learnt her craft, she played piano, congas or bongos, sang lead or backing, usually double-tracking for her own recordings and loved every minute of it.

Incredibly Ann only ever had one side of one single released in the US and that was only partly a Dave Hamilton project.

Continued