Johnnie Frierson

A relatively minor player on the mid-'60s Memphis soul scene, Johnnie Frierson got his start at a young age, joining gospel act the Sunset Travelers while still a teenager. The year was 1964 and he made his first appearance on record playing guitar on the Travelers' Peacock label single "On Jesus' Program." Born and raised in Memphis to a devoted Christian family, Frierson would spend most of his intermittent career alternating between gospel music and secular soul and R&B. Around the same time he was beginning his gospel career, he and his younger sister, Mary Frierson Cross,...