Ladies and Germs, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

[cmac2012]

BB King is pretty cool, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters very good as well. But for my money, Brownie and Sonny really had it going on. Raw original blues. Some might say it’s Folk-Blues, I dunno and don’t care. They’re it.

Both of these guys cut their teeth playing on the street for pennies and nickels. Brownie could barely walk owing to polio and Sonny was blind, having had accidents to both eyes, one at 11 and the other at 16. As Sonny told it, on paydays the street musicians would compete to get the small amount of extra cash the working class crowd had so they had to hone their routine, constantly coming up with new flair. And he had to stick with it lean times when the other musicians would take some kind of job.

I just found these videos after one of my clients asked me the other day, “you ever heard of Brownie and Sonny?” Me: “Heard OF them? I HEARD them live 3 times!” He’d seen them twice in the late 50s himself and had just gotten an e-mail with a Youtube of them. First time in decades he’d heard them.

I found these, and I’m not sure if I’d heard them since the last concert I saw in 1980.

If you’ve never heard of them before, well . . . you lucky you met me, Jack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKvn6WRwQM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaQnXd0e178&feature=autoplay&list=MLGxdCwVVULXdM_xK5a3YdXcT9-Iy_9_73&index=4&playnext=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TVjsjqGMf0

Bio on Sonny:

http://guitarvideos.com/assets/pdf/13057dvd.pdf

[Palangi]

Good stuff!!!

Somewhere I have some old Vanguard 33 LP's with some of their music. Unfortunately, I no longer have anything to play my old albums on. I may need to hit the pawnshops and look for a turntable today.

[cmac2012]

Dude! I knew there was a reason I kept you around.

I loved those guys. The first two times I saw them in Seattle, I was in wanna be blues player heaven. The third time (1980), they'd gotten like an old married couple that fights all the time. It was tough to see, and just amazing, as they didn't seem to realize or care that they were only the greatest black blues duo ever and musical standouts regardless of genre. And they were walking away from it. All of this is widely known to anyone who followed them in that period - Brownie had a trombone fixed up with a kazoo on one end (?!?) so he could play his own breaks. Sonny had a bass player in tow so he could have some accompaniment.

I guess I didn't need to go all negative and $h!t, these vids. are great for me in part cause I can see or be reminded rather that they did have some great years. Many great years in fact.

Sonny played in 'Finian's Rainbow' on Broadway for two years. Later - mid 50s - the two of them were in the cast of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' for 3 years on Broadway.

Sonny tells a great story about Finian's Rainbow, I heard it on video years ago. They needed a blind, black harmonica player for the play, this in 1947 and a guy told the director that Sonny Terry was who they wanted. So he comes in, plays a tune and the director says "Sonny, that's perfect, we need you to play it the same way every night for three minutes."

Sonny goes on "well it don't always come out the same way, some time it come out like this, some time it come out like that, it all depend on how I feel. But the director says 'we have to have it the same way.' So we go back forth like that and along about then I ask him how much it pay, and he says $300 a week. I like to faint. But I catch my breath real quick and say "oh HELL YES! I'll play it the same way EVERY NIGHT!"


I just checked an inflation calculator, $300 in '47 would be $2977 today.

Dang.

[tbomachines]

Originally Posted by Palangi

Good stuff!!!

Somewhere I have some old Vanguard 33 LP's with some of their music. Unfortunately, I no longer have anything to play my old albums on. I may need to hit the pawnshops and look for a turntable today.

They can be had cheap, look at Goodwills and thrift shops, got my last one for $10, newest for $40 from a friend.