Born Barbara Lynn Ozen in Beaumont, TX, on January 16, 1942, Barbara
Lynn is known to us as the “Lefty Queen of R&B” for her being a
lefty guitarist and expert R&B composer. She first began playing the
piano as a youngster before switching to guitar. Still a teenager, Lynn
began performing at local clubs after winning many high school talent
shows, and soon was recognized by singer Joe Barry.
Shortly thereafter, Lynn headed over to New Orleans to cut her first 12
song LP comprising of 10 of her own original songs (unusual for an
African-American woman to be composing her own songs at the time),
including the most well known of them all, “You’ll Lose A Good Thing.”
She toured with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Al Green, Carla Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, B.B. King and was covered by the Rolling Stones and Ottis Redding. In the 70s Lynn retired after not being very satisfied with how she was being represented by her label, Atlantic Records. 20 years later she began writing and touring and continues to do so to this day.
