Brownie Mcghee

Country Blues Troubadours contains 125 tracks, spread out over five CD's, tracing blind harpist Sonny Terry and guitarist Brownie McGhee's earliest recordings between 1938 and 1948. JSP not only does an admirable job remastering the tracks, but providing recording dates, personnel, and a bit of history that is easily accessible in individual jewel cases, as opposed to a bulky booklet. Recorded in New York and Chicago, the Piedmont duo encounter, both separately and collectively, blues, jazz, and R&B veterans including Washboard Slim, Baby Dodds, Curley Russell, Hal "Cornbread" Singer, Gene Ramey, Big Chief Ellis, Blind Boy Fuller, Stick McGhee, and Champion Jack Dupree. The discs are divided into five themes: "Getting started and getting around," "Blind Boy Fuller and what followed," "Library of Congress and living with Leadbelly," "New York residents and established artists," and "Mainly Brownie and an interlude with Champion Jack." As far as budget-blues box sets are concerned, this is one of the best.

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee were the ultimate blues duo; McGhee's stylized singing and light, flickering guitar was wonderfully contrasted by Terry's sweeping, whirling harmonica solos and intense, country-tinged singing. They were in great form during the ten tunes featured on this live date….

These recordings were made in 1960, when Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were in their prime. That is to say, when they were the most exciting entertainers out there. They were a spirited duo, so perfectly attuned they were like a single musical force, joined in perfect harmony even as their personalities clashed in joyous rivalry. Sonny wild, untamed, his free hand fanning the harmonica while his falsetto cries recalled fieldhollers of long ago. Brownie was more refined, his voice rich and domineering, decrying the unfaithfulness of women, the unkindness of strangers. He’d cast mock anguished looks at the disconcerting exuberance of his friend, then light up the room with a smile.
The excitement they generated in concert halls, nightclubs and on college campuses, has been unmatched in country blues of any period…

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee were the ultimate blues duo; McGhee's stylized singing and light, flickering guitar was wonderfully contrasted by Terry's sweeping, whirling harmonica solos and intense, country-tinged singing. They were in great form during the ten tunes featured on this live date. Sometimes, as on "Custard Pie" or "Barking Bull Dog," they're funny; at other times, they were prophetic, chilling, or moving. This is Piedmont blues at its best, and this disc's tremendous remastering provides a strong sonic framework.

The legendary duo Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee was a veritable museum of folk-blues. Guitar, song and bluesharp join together in a richly varied interplay to form one of the most important sources of rhythm & blues.

That 2022’s GET ON BOARD is Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal’s first collaboration in more than 50 years is trivia and nothing more—these guys have sounded ancient since they were teenagers, and, like the folk-blues legends Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee to whom they pay tribute here, they never cared about trend or passage of time such as it pertains to art. Even those only glancingly exposed to American folk music know these songs: “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee,” “I Shall Not Be Moved,” “The Midnight Special.” And while artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf followed the raw, modern sound of the electric guitar, Terry and McGhee remained stubbornly unplugged, as connected to the white folk of Pete Seeger as the Black blues of their Southern forebears. Some songbooks come alive with fresh interpretation; GET ON BOARD does its source justice by doing nearly nothing at all.