Biography
Though a marginal figure amid the Memphis soul circuit of the mid-1960s, Johnnie Frierson launched his path early by enlisting as a teenager with the gospel ensemble the Sunset Travelers. In 1964 he cut his debut side, supplying guitar for the Peacock single “On Jesus’ Program.” Raised in a devout Christian household in Memphis, he would shuttle for the rest of his sporadic career between sacred music and secular soul and R&B. At roughly the same moment his gospel work began, he and his younger sister Mary Frierson Cross assembled the R&B quartet the Drapels in hopes of landing a Stax contract. The teenagers secured studio time only after repeatedly lingering at the label’s offices after school in pursuit of contacts. None of the four sides the Drapels cut for Stax gained traction, yet Mary and her vocal partner Marianne Brittenum soon found steady work providing backing vocals for Otis Redding and other leading Stax acts.
Once Mary secured a solo deal under the name Wendy Rene, Johnnie shifted to behind-the-scenes roles, co-authoring her signature Stax release “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” and handling occasional backup dates himself. His activity extended beyond the Stax roster; at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studio he co-wrote the funk number “I’ll Go Crazy” for Tony Ashley and, billed as James Fry, fronted the Hi Rhythm Section on the 1968 Hi Records single “Tumbling Down.” That late-’60s stretch marked his busiest interval. After serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, he withdrew from music for most of the next twenty years. In 1975 he and two associates issued the gospel single “Can You Lose by Following God” as Whole Truth, yet otherwise stayed out of view while raising a family, holding various jobs, and performing only sporadically at neighborhood clubs and festivals.
Early in the 1990s he hosted a gospel program on Memphis station WEVL; around the same period he adopted the name Khafele Ajanaku. Under that moniker he resumed recording, capturing himself on a basic tape recorder and issuing the resulting cassettes at local festivals and corner stores. The austere yet buoyant and soulful tracks were devotional in character, with Frierson playing electric guitar live. His daughter Keesha later described those years as among his most trying, noting the lingering effects of what was almost certainly post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his Vietnam service. Roughly five years after his death in April 2010, the homemade cassettes surfaced in a Memphis thrift shop, where collector Jameson Sweiger found them and brought them to Light in the Attic. The label issued the material in 2016 as the deluxe set Have You Been Good to Yourself, lifting Frierson from obscurity after his passing.
Once Mary secured a solo deal under the name Wendy Rene, Johnnie shifted to behind-the-scenes roles, co-authoring her signature Stax release “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” and handling occasional backup dates himself. His activity extended beyond the Stax roster; at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studio he co-wrote the funk number “I’ll Go Crazy” for Tony Ashley and, billed as James Fry, fronted the Hi Rhythm Section on the 1968 Hi Records single “Tumbling Down.” That late-’60s stretch marked his busiest interval. After serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, he withdrew from music for most of the next twenty years. In 1975 he and two associates issued the gospel single “Can You Lose by Following God” as Whole Truth, yet otherwise stayed out of view while raising a family, holding various jobs, and performing only sporadically at neighborhood clubs and festivals.
Early in the 1990s he hosted a gospel program on Memphis station WEVL; around the same period he adopted the name Khafele Ajanaku. Under that moniker he resumed recording, capturing himself on a basic tape recorder and issuing the resulting cassettes at local festivals and corner stores. The austere yet buoyant and soulful tracks were devotional in character, with Frierson playing electric guitar live. His daughter Keesha later described those years as among his most trying, noting the lingering effects of what was almost certainly post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his Vietnam service. Roughly five years after his death in April 2010, the homemade cassettes surfaced in a Memphis thrift shop, where collector Jameson Sweiger found them and brought them to Light in the Attic. The label issued the material in 2016 as the deluxe set Have You Been Good to Yourself, lifting Frierson from obscurity after his passing.
Albums
