From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Mar 6, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Jean Chapel
 
JEAN CHAPEL

Born Opal Amurgey, 6 March 1925, Neon, Kentucky
Died 12 August 1995, Florida

Jean Chapel had one release on the Sun label : "Welcome To The
Club"/"I Won't Be Rockin' Tonight" (Sun 244), in 1956. This record was
very different from anything she had recorded up to that point. She started
out in music with her sisters Irene and Bertha, billing themselves as the
Sunshine Sisters. In the late 40's Opal married Salty Holmes, and took
up the stage name of Mattie O'Neill. After solo recordings on London,
she teamed up with her husband on King. She was then joined by her
sisters on a King release credited to Mattie, Martha & Minnie, and the
three sisters took on the new identity of the Amber Sisters on Capitol
in 1952. It was Salty & Mattie on MGM, and then Opal Jean on Hickory
in 1954. All of these recordings were firmly rooted in hillbilly and country.
And then came yet another identity as Jean Chapel on Sun. RCA was
sufficiently interested in the Sun single to purchase Jean's contract,
re-issue the single on their own label and record her on "Oo-Ba La Baby"/
"I Had A Dream". She then appeared on Crest as Jean Chanel, had a final
stab at rockabilly on Smash, and then returned to country on Challenge
and Kapp. She settled in Gallatin, Tennessee and became a respected
Nashville writer. She died of cancer at the age of 70.

CD: "Hillbilly Fillies & Rockin' Chicks" (Charly 8182). 30 tracks by female
Sun artists. Adam Komorowski supplied the liner notes, from which the
above was taken.