Sonny Terry with Brownie McGhee
Sat, 04/07/2018 - 12:01
Hello Winslow;
I was wondering, as I don't have any of their music yet, (Sonny Terry with Brownie McGhee), if Sonny played acoustic or amplified harp or both, both performing and/or recording. Also when Sonny recorded solo.
Thanks
Sat, 04/07/2018 - 20:55
#2
Thanks for the thorough information
Thanks Winslow for the thorough and in-depth information! I found it extremely interesting and helpful. When I'm accomplished enough as a player, I aspire to form a similar acoustic duo, even though I'm knocked out by the sound of amplified harp.
Sonny never played amplified to my knowledge. And Brownie alway played an acoustic guitar.
Sonny made a solo 10-inch LP for Folkways sometime in the 1950s. He was also featured playing solo harmonica on the original cast album of the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, and made what are essentialy solo recordings in the company of Woody Guthrie, who did some talking at the beginning and end, for instance "Lost John."
Terry's earliest musical and recording partnership began with guitarist Blind Boy Fuller in 1937 (Fuller died in 1941). In the 1938 and 1939 Spirituals to Swing concerts, Sonny performed solo (though with with washboard accompaniment in the 1939 concert) as Fuller was in prison for shooting at his wife. Recordings were issued from these concerts of the songs John Henry, Fox Chase, and Mountain Blues. These performances helped to launch his solo career.
Terry teamed up with Brownie McGhee, a friend and follower of Fuller, in 1942, and they had a long and successful career as a folk duo through the early 1980s, when they parted over personal differences.