In the early 1960s, when women in rhythm and blues were expected to stand at the microphone and sing other people’s songs, a left-handed teenager from Beaumont, Texas, took the stage with an electric guitar flipped upside down and a number-one hit she wrote herself. Barbara Lynn, born in 1942, grew up singing in a Catholic parish choir while absorbing Guitar Slim, Jimmy Reed, Elvis Presley, and Brenda Lee from the radio. She moved from piano to guitar, formed an all-female band called Bobbie Lynn and Her Idols, and won local talent shows until singer Joe Barry told producer Huey P. Meaux about her. Meaux brought her to Cosimo Matassa’s studio in New Orleans, where, backed by session players including a young Mac Rebennack, she cut You’ll Lose a Good Thing, which topped the Billboard R&B chart in 1962 and reached the pop top ten.

This episode follows Lynn through tours with B.B. King, James Brown, Otis Redding, and the Temptations, appearances at the Apollo and on American Bandstand, and the Rolling Stones’ cover of her song Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’). It explores why segregated radio formats left labels unable to market a Black woman playing electric blues with country-pop melodies, her 1968 Atlantic album Here Is Barbara Lynn, her decision to step away from the mainstream to raise three children, and her return via a 1984 tour of Japan, a 1994 comeback album on Bullseye Blues, a Moby sample in 2002, and honors including the 2018 National Heritage Fellowship and a 2026 Blues Hall of Fame induction.

• How playing a right-handed guitar flipped upside down changed her chord voicings and rhythmic attack
• Writing ten tracks on her own debut album and seeing You’ll Lose a Good Thing covered by Aretha Franklin and Freddy Fender
• Why her boundary-crossing appeal became a liability for 1960s radio promotion departments
• Two decades in Los Angeles playing small clubs and releasing singles on independent labels
• The Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award and later albums for Antone’s and Dialtone