Joyce "Baby Jean" Kennedy of Mother's Finest

Mother's Finest? Mother's magic!

A super-cool act formed in Atlanta in the seventies, Mother's Finest made history as the first multicultural heavy metal band.  But more specifically, Mother's Finest is considered the preeminent funk rock group, thanks in part to the woman who as co-lead vocalist sounded like quite the holy roller: Joyce "Baby Jean" Kennedy.

Lifting the spirits of funk rock fans to near-religious heights, Joyce Kennedy would part her lips at a microphone and something like a lightning bolt of soul struck a chord with all who heard her.

"Baby Jean" was born in a tiny Delta town called Anguilla, Mississippi, and was raised in Chicago. Which is where she met the man who would become her husband and co-lead vocalist, Glenn Murdock. Together, Joyce and Glenn embodied the next generation of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, but with a decidedly, hardcore rock 'n roll spirit. Joyce surely delivered the spine-tingling vocals for which Tina was known. But something of Joyce's voice also possessed the honey-drenched warmth of Gladys Knight, too.

Too out-of-the-box for black radio, too black for rock radio, Mother's Finest found -- and absolutely still has -- a loyal, cultish following. But as is often the case with American music innovators, Mother's Finest probably received the most love from European audiences. The challenge of gaining adequate mainstream media exposure in the U.S. bilked the band out of the household name-status it deserved.

As a result, there have been long hiatuses over the years, and a somewhat spotty record of dropping new material, leaving fans around the globe jonesing for MF's funky touch. For example in Sweden, there's long been a grafitti wall that begs "Where Is Mother's Finest?" The answer to that is "in our hearts forever."

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