Formed in 1976, The Brown Singers started as a group of friends who happened to be at church when the pastor asked “What did y’all sing at the quartet convention?” With only a few present, they sang and tore the church up. He then said, “You should call yourselves The Brown Singers.” The Founder of the group, Willie Mae “Brown” Richmond, took the girls and they began to sing all over town. The group then consisted of Vanessa Brown (Knowles), Dolly Starks (Mohn), the late Elizabeth Starks (Cleveland), Rosemary Starks (Mathis) and Ray King.
In the early 90s, the group begin to go through some changes and two of the original members decided to leave to focus on their families. Not knowing how or even if they would continue on, Vanessa’s 9 year old daughter stepped in and begin to sing in the background. At the age of 12, she became the groups lead singer. The world was then introduced to “Lil Lisa”. The group now consisted of 3 generations mother, daughter and granddaughter along with original member, Dolly Starks-Mohn, as well as two other family friends/singers Marian Anderson and LaQuita Watson.
In 1995, they recorded their first live record as a part of E & J Record’s compilation project, “Live In Memphis”. By this time, they had already recorded two successful records with no plans of turning back. This new project would feature “Lil Lisa” as the lead singer on 3 songs, “Jesus Is On The Main Line”, “Sweet Jesus”, and “Jesus Is Good News”.
In 2015, Lisa Knowles & The Brown Singers released “The Evolution Continues” and it debuted #6 on the Billboard Gospel Charts. The Evolution Continues scores The Browns 2 Stellar Awards for “Traditional Group/Duo of The Year” and “Quartet Of The Year”. They also performed on the 30th Annual Stellar Awards teaming up with Bishop Rance Allen stirring up the crowd with holy ghost filled, foot stooping traditional gospel music.
Currently, Lisa Knowles-Smith & The Browns are still going strong. After 40+ years, the group is traveling and singing all over the world doing what God has called them to do. One of the founding members, Vanessa Brown Knowles (Lisa’s Mother) is still on the road with the group with no plans on stopping anytime soon. In 2021, The Brown Singer recorded live , in Memphis, TN. In 2022 they released their latest single “Jesus Knows” which has already showed signs of being a fan favorite.
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