Larry Dodson, Funkmaster on the Move

At age 69, former Bar-Kays singer Larry Dodson has taken on a new career challenge as a solo artist backed by his own band.

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Larry Dodson is animated. Sitting on the edge of his seat in the living room of his Whitehaven home, casual in a Bar-Kays Foundation imprinted white polo shirt, silver jogging pants, and white running shoes, he has been talking almost nonstop for nearly a half-hour, excited and impassioned.

He’s not regaling about the successes of the legendary funk, soul, and R&B band he fronted for decades or about his new career trajectory. What ignited this funkateer soliloquy was his awe at the resiliency, accomplishments, and abilities of his daughter, Precious, and other individuals with special needs. Dodson circa 2020 is an artist in the vanguard of funk music driven by faith, family, and community, with God at the apex of his life.

“My relationship with God supersedes anything I do,” he says. “I know that if I have a good relationship with God, God will take care of my family. It wasn’t always that way, but it certainly has been over the last 20 years.” He credits his wife, Marie, with encouraging him to become involved in church, changing his life. The couple will celebrate 50 years of marriage in August.

Propelled with the Bar-Kays by the Stax label, the last five decades have been stratospheric for a kid from the Riverside neighborhood growing up listening to his father’s jazz records. He formed a successful group in high school called The Temprees, which took him from appearing at age 22 before a crowd of 100,000 concertgoers with the Bar-Kays at the historic Los Angeles Wattstax festival to entertaining troops in Iraq.

In his 50th year of performing, at age 69, Dodson has taken on a new career challenge as a solo artist backed by his own band.

He now performs as Larry D, formerly of the Bar-Kays. His experiences as a husband, father, grandfather, and advocate for education, disability rights, and other causes shape him today as much as his years as a trailblazing funk-band front man. “James and I were truly trying to do something revolutionary,” Dodson says, referring to Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander and their Stax years.

The Bar-Kays Years

Dodson joined the Bar-Kays in March 1970, about two years and four months after the 1967 Beechcraft crash in Wisconsin’s Lake Monona that claimed Otis Redding in his prime, along with four members of the band and one other individual. David Porter remarks that after the plane crash, it would have been easy to assume the band was over.

“Larry, along with Allen Jones [their producer], was the complete reason that was not the case,” says Porter, prolific Stax songwriter and producer, Songwriters Hall of Fame member, and more recently CEO and founder of Made in Memphis Entertainment studio. “A new identity, powerful creativity, and total work ethic established what is now one of the longest band legacies in the music industry. The band, which was once an instrumental group, became, because of Larry Dodson, a singing band with an accepted impact.”

In the aftermath of the crash, months later Alexander was sent by Jones to the Club Showcase at Park and Airways to recruit Dodson from The Temprees to join the Bar-Kays. Dodson started The Temprees at Carver High School. Jones died in 1987.

David Porter recognized Dodson’s talent early: “Larry has, since the first time I saw and heard him, always strived to show the individuality of a star. He succeeded because in his performances he was believable with every appearance. He had the skill of a star, which is to keep your attention.”

With Dodson at center stage, the previously instrumental Bar-Kays forged ahead in a new direction, fulfilling the vision of manager Allen Jones that would result in the sales of millions of records. Those included five certified gold and one platinum million-seller, “Freak Show on the Dance Floor.”

The Bar-Kays reached an inflection point in 2017 when Dodson and his bandmates began a national search for a new lead singer. He was adamant about finding a lead vocalist replacement before he went solo.

The Solo Years

Dodson officially returned to the stage in April 2019 on a Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage concert cruise benefitting one of Dodson’s favorite causes, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). His stellar solo start was on a bill that included Janet Jackson and Charlie Wilson, the former Gap Band lead singer and multiple Grammy nominee. Wilson and Dodson are friends and fellow funkateers gone solo. He advised Dodson that going on his own would be like starting his career over, but not to be dismayed.

Deanie Parker, recognized for her Soulsville and Memphis in May leadership, was a Stax publicist. She was also a vocal artist on the Volt Records label, a subsidiary of Stax. She says Dodson is “extremely talented” and a “natural entertainer.”

“In the music industry, never say never,” Parker says. “If the stars are aligned, he can be as successful as any popular act out there today. If he keeps it real, I am sure his solo career will feature genuine music, which is more than I can say for a lot of the noise I hear today.”

Porter, her fellow Stax alum, says: “I believe that Larry, based totally on his commitment and work ethic, can and will be successful in whatever he decides to do. A solo career does not change that opinion.”

Leaving the group he had been with since a teenager was not a totally seamless transition for Dodson. Finding a new lead singer wasn’t his only calculation.

“I had been lead singer of the band for almost 50 years,” Dodson says. “At the same time, my wife had been on her job for over 45 years. We both planned to retire together. That was the plan.” Retirement was alluring, but the stage had its own pull.

“I wanted to be sure I could really do this. I thought I could retire and leave it there,” he says. He had notions of writing follow-ups to his 2017 autobiography And the Band Plays On. There were even plans for him and his wife to live part of the year in Florida.

“I thought I would have something to fill that void,” Dodson says. But as it turned out after about a year and a half, he was “more than eager” to be back on stage. Some friends and fans didn’t make it easy for him to stop performing.

The Return of the Funkateer Frontman

One thing that really struck me,” says Dodson, “was when a guy said to me, ‘Larry, you know you’re a funkateer. Rick [James] is gone, Prince is gone, George Clinton is thinking about retiring. Do you know there’s not going to be but a couple of you guys?’”

Absorbing that epiphany behind his desk in his home office provoked contemplation on funk music mainstays and his future in music.

“Sugarfoot [Larry Bonner of the Ohio Players] is dead. Sly Stone doesn’t do this anymore. We’re all in the same circles as funkateers. So, that stuck with me. That got me out of my chair and starting a new band.” He says he thought the transition would be easier than it turned out to be. It was largely not as easy because people weren’t familiar with his new stage name.

He sees his planned new single release as a “missing piece” that he is correcting, along with a new recording contract in the works. Dodson says he is “going through new music being sent to him from writers and producers around the country.” Of his solo debut record he says: “I am 90 percent sure it will be a ballad.”

Dodson’s new band performs a heavy repertoire of Bar-Kays music. “It’s 90 percent all the songs of the Bar-Kays,” he says. “I do some other songs, and I have talented background singers. I let them do some songs.” Dodson doesn’t hesitate to please fans.

“When somebody is hollering ‘Anticipation’ or for “Holy Ghost’ I just go ahead and do it,” he says. He also owns a branded concert tour called Masters of Funk that has included performances with other funk favorites, including The Dazz Band, Brick, and ConFunkShun.

All in the Family

Dodson’s son, Larry Jr., says the funk music genre is being channeled by a generation of younger performers. An example he cited is the 2014 hybrid funk hit “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Parts of the song were recorded and written in Memphis at Royal Studios.

“‘Uptown Funk’ tapped into the sound and feel of an older generation of music, married with twenty-first century production,” Dodson Jr. says. The younger Dodson now works with his parents in their entertainment booking agency, LaMarie’s Entertainment Complex, and supports charitable causes.

“My relationship with God supersedes anything I do. I know that if I have a good relationship with God, God will take care of my family. It wasn’t always that way, but it certainly has been over the last 20 years.” — Larry Dodson

The Dodsons’ daughter, Precious, was born in 1971, a year after the couple married. Larry Jr. was born a few years later. Precious was born with Down syndrome. At age 9 she had a rare dislocated vertebrae repaired. At age 15 she had heart surgery. The vertebrae repair required a week in traction and a halo brace attached to her head.

“She has made my walk with God much, much stronger,” Dodson says. “When she was born, we didn’t know anything about her condition.”

As early Saturday afternoon sunlight cascades over tall plants lining an expansive window, Marie Dodson enters her family room. She graciously responds to questions about 50 years of marriage and a book in progress about raising her daughter.

“It’s important to me because when Precious was born it was very difficult to find direction so we would know what to do,” she says. “We don’t want that to be a problem for others who have children with Down syndrome because it’s an experience, a loving experience, and she [Precious] is a loving person, and we want others to have direction.”

Marie said as a parent of a child with special needs, she soon learned, “It’s not a problem at all. It’s an adventure.” Her advice is, “Don’t be afraid. When Precious was born, I was afraid and I felt alone, but you’re not alone. Believe that with your support that child will grow and do well.” According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are 6,000 Down syndrome births annually in the nation.

Her husband recalls the dire medical warning: “We were nervous because the doctor told us don’t get too attached, she’s not going to live that long. That was a lot on young parents.”

There was reason for concern. African-American infants with Down syndrome have a lower probability of first-year survival with the chromosomal disorder contrasted with white infants with the condition, the CDC cites. Dodson says Precious, who will turn 49 this year, has made him understand that “God has a plan for me through all of this.”

For years Precious has worked on a job she loves, but maybe not as much as she loves her father’s music. He says she starts every day listening to his records.

Marie Dodson has a simple calculus for a 50-year union with an entertainer who traveled regularly on national concert tours as she pursued her own career in legal services. “We’ve maintained our bond to trust,” she says. “Put God first always and believe we can live independently away from one another and maintain. We’ve survived, and it’s been a wonderful ride.”

“My Gift to God”

Dodson and his wife are both former Down Syndrome Association board members. He was on the association’s Memphis board, and she was on its statewide board. For 10 years he mentored young participants in the Step Up For Down Syndrome Awareness Walk and Family Festival by helping them prepare to sing the national anthem.

He is equally proud of his work with LeMoyne-Owen College. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the college in 2019 in recognition of his contributions to music and HBCUs.

Since its start in 1996, the Bar-Kays Foundation, which is being restructured, has funded 41 scholarships for graduating high school seniors who attend Shelby County Schools high schools planning to attend LeMoyne-Owen. The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis houses the scholarship. In 2019, three students each were awarded $2,500. There is pride in his voice when he recalls how the Allen Jones/Marjorie Barringer/Bar-Kays Scholarship was started. Mrs. Barringer was the mother of Allen Jones.

“One day we were driving in front of LeMoyne, with my wife and Mrs. Barringer,” Dodson says. “At that time there was a housing project across the street from the school and Mrs. Barringer said these people are poor and will never have an opportunity to go to the college across the street. She said we should do something.”

Dodson’s desire to help people doesn’t surprise Porter. “Larry is one of the kindest persons you could ever meet, who passionately cares about people and charitable causes,” he says. “He doesn’t seek publicity in what he does in that regard. He also is a tremendous family man in a business where the rigors of the business, for most, fight against that.”

Accepting the challenge to help students attend college and following through on the commitment represent values Dodson says were instilled in him by his parents and reflect his faith.

“Life is God’s gift to me. What I do with my life is my gift to God,” he explains. “It’s as simple as that. I can’t sit back if I can help it. We’ve worked with causes all our lives.”

As Dodson pursues the next phase of his performing and recording life, he may be sharing the spotlight. He has secured a talent agent for his 9-year-old budding actress granddaughter Larie, who gets immediate raves for her emerging acting chops from her grandfather.

Anthony Hicks is a Memphis public relations professional and former newspaper reporter.