Faye Adams was from the Newark area of New Jersey, where she grew up performing gospel. “As long as I can remember, I was traveling around the country making appearances as a religious singer,” she recalled. Adams later began to make a name for herself in secular music as Faye Scruggs (her married name—her husband, Tommy Scruggs, also became her manager). Adams’s big break came when Ruth Brown brought Count Basie and Marshall Royal to see her perform in Atlanta, likely in 1952.