After migrating to St. Louis as a young girl, she joined the Pleasant Green Baptist Church, where she was a promising gospel vocalist.
With Mother Ford's teaching and a wealth of church singing experience under her belt, she left St. Louis in the early 1950s to travel with the great Clara Ward Singers, but left after one year.
Only one recording, "Wasn't it a Pity How They Punished my Lord", remains of her time with the Clara Ward Singers.
When her daughter Fontella Bass[1] returned to her gospel roots, Martha Bass cut several tracks with Fontella and Martha's son, the gospel singer David Peaston.
The song was featured in Selma, the 2014 Ava DuVarnay film through Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.