Air Week: February 16-22, 2026

We celebrate one of the heroines of Rhythm & Blues and early Rock n’ Roll as Annie Laurie takes the spotlight on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” Not much is known about her early years except that she was born in Atlanta in 1924. Her first recording was “St. Louis Blues” with bassist and bandleader Dallas Barley and from there she toured with Snookum Russell before Paul Gayten asked her to join his band in New Orleans. She made the “Crescent City” her new home and recorded the first hit version of Buddy & Ella Johnson’s “Since I Fell For You,” helping to make it a standard. Many classic recording with Paul Gayten followed with a few more making the charts before she began recording on her own on Columbia’s newly reactivated Blues subsidiary, Okeh Records. The Okeh sides were harder-edged and more contemporary R&B sounding, but none of them charted. A short stint with Savoy proved unfruitful, but she did get to record with Hal Singer’s band, which included guitar legend, Mickey Baker. She was back in the R&B Top 5 in 1957 with “It Hurts To Be In Love” for DeLuxe, but by the early ’60s, she gave up music for devotion to God. Matt The Cat shares Annie Laurie’s fascinating story on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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