Juicy -

Juicy was an American synth-funk band from that released a 1982 self-titled album on Arista, followed by two further albums through 1987 on CBS. Beyond the first album, the lineup was down to the brother/sister team of Jerry and Katreese Barnes.

Members: Jerry Barnes (bass, vocals), Katreese Barnes (keyboards, vocals), Wyatt Staton (guitar, lead vocals), Allison ‘Ali Bob” Bragdon (tenor saxophone, vocals), John “Stovepipe” Tucker (drums, vocals)

Background

Juicy formed in North Carolina in the early 1980s from Third Generation, an R&B band that siblings Katreese Barnes and Jerry Barnes started in high school. Katreese was born in January 1963 at Fort Carson, Colorado, to schoolteacher Esther Barnes and Army sergeant Milton Barnes, a keyboardist who led Top 40 bands. In 1976, the Barnes family settled in Weldon, North Carolina.

Katreese taught herself to read music and play piano at age ten, then took classical lessons. At fifteen, she performed Bach’s Concerto in D Minor as a featured soloist with the Wilmington Orchestra. She attended North Carolina School of the Arts for her senior year on a Sanford scholarship. Jerry began bass at fifteen so he could play with Katreese and learned from a Mel Bay instruction book. The siblings played an early school talent show with a small band. They played Top 40 dates across the South and opened shows for Cameo, the S.O.S. Band, and the Bar-Kays.

The group became Juicy and signed with Arista as a five-piece comprised of the Barnes siblings with singer-guitarist Wyatt Staton, singer-saxophonist Allison “Ali Bob” Bragdon, and drummer-singer John “Stovepipe” Tucker. Eumir Deodato produced the first Arista sessions, with E’ban Kelly and Charles Williams as associate producers. Juicy released “Don’t Cha Wanna” through Arista in 1982 as the lead-in to the self-titled album.

Discography: