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Darker Shades Ltd is a musical group managed by Bobby Moore, a music teacher at G. W. Griffin High School in Providence, Louisiana. The group originally formed as the Bar-Bs, consisting of teenagers Henry Dixon, Fred “Sugar Bear” Wallace, Henry Lane, and Cliff Lee. With Moore's assistance, they secured music scholarships at Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. By 1970, they added Johnny Smith and Classie Ballou, a guitar player 15 years their senior. After Ballou fired his back-up band, he replaced them with the Bar-Bs, who were recommended by booking agent Dan “D” Fields in 1971. Renaming themselves Darker Shades of Black, they gained recognition and opened for acts like Ike & Tina Turner and Betty Wright. The group recorded the two-part song “Trackin’ Down Jody,” an original answer song to Johnny Taylor’s hit, at Austin’s ACR studio, credited to Darker Shades Ltd. However, after Ballou decided to stop touring in 1976 to focus on his family, the group struggled to maintain momentum. They recorded a few sessions at Curtom, but by 1980, Darker Shades was no longer active.

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