Source Material: Jo Armstead – “A Stone Good Lover”

Jo Armstead is a singer and songwriter from Yazoo City, Mississippi.  She began her career as a backing vocalist for Bobby “Blue” Bland.  After her stint as a backing vocalist, she became an Ikette. The Ikettes were a group of singers for Ike and Tina Turner and Armstead was apart of the first official trio formed in the early 1960s.  When she left the Ikettes, she began recording her own music.

In 1962, she released her debut single, “Never Try To Love No More.” During this time, she met Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford, which led to the creation of the songwriting team, Armstead, Ashford, and Simpson.  Together, they wrote for a number of artists in the ’60s, including two Ray Charles hits, “Let’s Go Get Stoned” (1966) and “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (1966).

One year later, Ashford and Simpson joined Motown and Armstead left the trio and moved to Chicago.  In 1968, she released “A Stone Good Lover,” a soul number that would also become her most successful song.  She released a few other singles after that, but it was Armstead’s career as a songwriter and backing vocalist that yielded the most success.  She wrote songs for artists like Aretha Franklin, Ruby Andrews, and Syl Johnson, but I think it was evident that she also had a beautiful voice of her own.