Vanessa Bell Armstrong

by Bil Carpenter and Ron Wynn With a style reminiscent of Aretha Franklin, soulful Vanessa Bell Armstrong has been belting out R&B-flavored contemporary gospel since the '80s. A native of Detroit and mother of five, she got her start working with Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. She has since gone on to work in both gospel and secular music. She did the theme song for the television series Amen, where her links to Rev. Al Green (and ultimately to Rev. Claude Jeter) were evident. She's recorded urban contemporary ballads and lyrically neutral material for Jive, and done gospel for Muscle Shoals Sound Gospel and Onyx, subsidiaries of Malaco. Albums include the slickly produced Something on the Inside (1993) and The Secret Is Out (1995). Three years later, she released her first live album, Desire of My Heart: Live; a best-of collection appeared in 1999.