Finally on this subject. Sonny Terry had his detractors. People said he wasnt a Chicago Blues Harmonica player, that he just played that Country Blues stuff. Others claimed he became limited in his forty year partnership with Brownie McGhee, usually saying that Brownie wasnt in Sonnys class and that he held him back. RUBBISH total rubbish. Brownie McGhee was a first class fingerpicking ragtime guitarist, who actually compromised and developed his style to accomodate playing with Sonny. For the majority of those forty years it was a love affair of mutual admiration. What happened in those final years couldve happened to any long married couple. On an eight hour train journey from Copenhagen to Stockholm, Brownie talked to me non-stop, like he was in a hurry to get it all out. The only interruptions to his monologue came when he played my Martin HD28, sayin he used to have one just the same, but hadnt used one since he went electric (he meant using a pick-up). He did me old ragtime pieces from Blind Boy Fuller and Gary Davies, saying he couldnt remember them and then playing them perfectly, refusing to use my capo, whatever the key. He told me about his bootleggin during prohibition, how he thought hed never get a woman because of his polio and most of all about food and cooking, which had become his great love. Sonny and Brownie didnt talk to each other anymore. They communicated, when necessary through Styve the drummer, who was Sonnys friend and harmonica student and was also respected by Brownie. It was a hard tour for them. Last time they had played there in the late seventies, it was all by plane. Now these long train journeys....they were both in wheelchairs. Sonny wasnt well and it was easier for him and Brownies polio raged havoc in the Scandinavian winter. I pushed Brownie and Styve pushed Sonny. But I digress. Two years later and two years before he died. Sonny recorded together with Johnnie Winter, Willie Dixon and Styve...maybe his last ever sessions. All the recordings were live...no overdubs. Maybe this too was country blues, but I remain convinced that Sonny Terry could play ANY style at ANY time during his long career. Heres a track from those last recordings... youtube/watch?v=98uc7UrbUMs
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:35:20 +0000
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