A1 	People Get Ready 	
A2 	Bring It On Home To Me 	
A3 	You Bring Out The Boogie In Me 	
A4 	Sail Away 	
A5 	Sonny's Thing 	
A6 	White Boy Lost In The Blues 	
B1 	The Battle Is Over 	
B2 	Walkin' My Blues Away 	
B3 	Big Wind (Is A' Comin') 	
B4 	Jesus Gonna Make It Alright 	
B5 	God And Man 	
B6 	On The Road Again

Brownie McGhee - guitar, vocals
Sonny Terry - harmonica, vocals
Arlo Guthrie - acoustic guitar, vocals
Sugarcane Harris - violin
Michael Franks - acoustic guitar and banjo
John Mayall - 12-string electric guitar, piano and harmonica
John Hammond - slide guitar
Jerry Cole - guitar, banjo
Jerry McGee - guitar, banjo
Al McKay - guitar
Harry Holt - bass guitar
Maurice Rodgers - keyboards
Eddie Greene - drums
Venetta Fields, Clydie King, Marti McCall, Jackie Ward, Maxine Willard Waters, Jim Gilstrap - background vocals

In a way, this is the veteran duo's version of Fathers and Sons, a meeting of old black bluesmen with young white admirers that Muddy Waters and Otis Spann cut with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. John Mayall and John Hammond, Jr. are among the "youngsters" on this powerful statement that includes a definitive version of Randy Newman's wickedly subtle anti-slavery tune "Sail Away." Sonny Terry's trademark whoops are energizing. The repartee between him and Brownie McGhee might convince you they were fast friends if you didn't know otherwise. ---Mark Allan, AllMusic Review

I've been a big fan of Brownie and Sonny since I was old enough to begin looking beyond popular music (1960's). There are some performers who just have it all - technical ability, vision and soul. These guys define the term "musician".

When this album came out I jumped on it and it immediately became a favorite - my old heroes going beyond the traditional acoustic duo ... electric guitars and Rhodes pianos? Wow!

Joined by some of the young trend setters who they had influenced, this album is just great - you can feel the mutual admiration. I've said that every rock and roll harp player learned from Sonny whether he knew it or not ... their rendition of Michael Franks' "White Boy Lost in the Blues" with Mayall still makes me laugh.

Arlo Guthrie (whose dad was friends with B&S) joins in as does Sugarcane Harris, John Hammond, John Mayall and Michael Franks.

Politics? From old "politics via analogy" to the best ever cover of Randy Newman's "Sail Away" ...

Music? Brownie's solid, clean guitar work and vocals backed by Sonny is always the best. Here we get great, sweeping gospel treatments with Sonny's whoopin and blowin falling right into the groove.

For me it doesn't get much better than this. Traditional blues merging with the best of the "folk" and rock it spawned. Listen to this recording! ---Tommy, amazon.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire ulozto gett bayfiles

back

A1 	In The Evening 	
A2 	Kansas City 	
A3 	John Henry 	
A4 	The Fox Chase 	
A5 	Louise Blues 	
A6 	Red River 	
A7 	Goodbye Leadbelly 	
B1 	Custard Pie 	
B2 	I Woke Up This Mornin' 	
B3 	Old Woman Blues 	
B4 	Talkin' About The Blues 	
B5 	Chain The Lock On My Door 	
B6 	Moanin' And Mournin' 	
B7 	Baby, Baby

Guitar – Alec Stewart
Vocals, Harmonica – Sonny Terry 

This rare December 1953 session (reissued on CD in 1999) was unusual for Terry in that his guitar accompanist was not Brownie McGhee, but Alec Seward, who had previously recorded as Guitar Slim in a duo with "Fat Boy" Hayes" (aka Jelly Belly). It's unusual only in the personnel, however. It sounds like typical Sonny Terry, as he works his way through original material, including standards like "John Henry" and other blues tunes like "In the Evening" (the song that would provide much of the basis for Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain"). You'd have to say that it's usually more interesting to hear Terry with his longtime partner McGhee than it is to hear him with Seward, but it's not terribly different. The trademark vocal and harmonica whoops, and hollers are in gear and running throughout the album, sometimes to exhilarating effect, as on the rapid "The Fox Chase (aka "Hound Dog Holler")." His lyrics get uncommonly specific on "Goodbye Leadbelly," a tribute to the then-recently deceased folk-blues legend, composed by "writer unknown." The recording engineer on the session, incidentally, was a young Jac Holzman, who had just started Elektra Records. ---Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire uloz.to gett

back

A1 	Evil Hearted Me 	
A2 	Sick Man 	
A3 	Barking Bull Dog 	
A4 	Spread The News Around 	
A5 	Backwater Blues 	
B1 	Custard Pie 	
B2 	Wholesale Dealin' Papa 	
B3 	Motorcycle Blues 	
B4 	Hand In Hand 	
B5 	I Woke Up One Morning And I Could Hardly See

Brownie McGhee – guitar, vocals
Sonny Terry – harmonica, vocals

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. ---Ron Wynn, Rovi

The 2nd Fret was a little joint in Philly that usually booked folk musicians; it was a very special engagement when Sonny & Brownie came to town in April 1962. It's hard to believe these two guys didn't really like each other, but they didn't; by the end of their careers they kept themselves separated from each other by the entire length of the country. (Except for one month each year, when they toured together!) But they always played beautifully together, ying to the other's yang. This is a great set, from MOTORCYLE BLUES (which is based on the "Me and My Chauffeur" format) to WHOLESALE DEALIN' PAPA (based on the "Mother-for-you" Red Nelson ditty). They have a great rapport with the audience, too. Another OBC blues classic that should be on your CD shelf. ---Bomojaz, amazon.com

download (mp3 @128 kbs):

yandex 4shared mega mediafire cloudmailru uplea ge.tt

back

01. Feel Like Robbin’ The Grave
02. Selling Out
03. Black Night Road
04. That Train And My Woman
05. Playing With The Thing
06. Cut Off From My Baby
07. Mean Old Woman
08. One Woman Man
09. Cold Wind Blowing
10. The Boogie

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
+
Bob Malenky (guitar & vocals)
Michael Rura (piano).

The joyous whoop that Sonny Terry naturally emitted between raucous harp blasts was as distinctive a signature sound as can possibly be imagined. Only a handful of blues harmonicists wielded as much of a lasting influence on the genre as did the sightless Terry (Buster Brown, for one, copied the whoop and all), who recorded some fine urban blues as a bandleader in addition to serving as guitarist Brownie McGhee's longtime duet partner.

Saunders Terrell's father was a folk-styled harmonica player who performed locally at dances, but blues wasn't part of his repertoire (he blew reels and jigs). Terry wasn't born blind-he lost sight in one eye when he was five, the other at age 18. That left him with extremely limited options for making any sort of feasible living, so he took to the streets armed with his trusty harmonicas. Terry soon joined forces with Piedmont pioneer Blind Boy Fuller, first recording with the guitarist in 1937 for Vocalion.

Terry's unique talents were given an extremely classy airing in 1938 when he was invited to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall at the fabled From Spirituals to Swing concert. He recorded for the Library of Congress that same year and cut his first commercial sides in 1940. Terry had met Brownie McGhee in 1939, and upon the death of Fuller, they joined forces, playing together on a 1941 McGhee date for Okeh and settling in New York as a duo in 1942, There they broke into the folk scene, working alongside Leadbelly, Josh White, and Woody Guthrie.

While Brownie McGhee was incredibly prolific in the studio during the mid-'40s, Terry was somewhat less so as a leader (perhaps most of his time was occupied by his prominent role in Finian's Rainbow on Broadway for approximately two years beginning in 1946). There were sides for Asch and Savoy in 1944 before three fine sessions for Capitol in 1947 (the first two featuring Stick McGhee rather than Brownie on guitar) and another in 1950.

Terry made some nice sides in an R&B mode for Jax, Jackson, Red Robin, RCA Victor, Groove, Harlem, Old Town, and Ember during the '50s, usually with Brownie close by on guitar. But it was the folk boom of the late '50s and early Us that made Brownie and Sonny household names (at least among folk aficionados). They toured long and hard as a duo, cutting a horde of endearing acoustic duet LPs along the way, before scuttling their decades-long partnership amidst a fair amount of reported acrimony during the mid-'70s. ---BillDahl, bluesharp.ca

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

1 Mean Old Frisco 	2:41 	
2 Man Ain't Nothin' But A Fool 	3:04 	
3 The Woman Is Killing Me 	2:43 	
4 Meet You In The Morning 	2:34 	
5 Stranger Blues 	2:22 	
6 Feel So Good 	2:31 	
7 Forgive Me 	2:18 	
8 Sittin' On Top Of The World 	2:44 	
9 Crying The Blues 	3:03 	
10 Key To The Highway 	2:15 	
11 Ease My Worried Mind 	2:48 	
12 Bulldog Blues 	2:29 	
13 C.C. Rider - Where Did She Go 	2:11 	
14 Going Down Slow 	3:16 	
15 Bad Blood 	3:18 	
16 Lightnin's Blues 	3:01 	
17 Dissatisfied Woman 	2:22 	
18 Pawn Shop Blues 	2:37 	

Brownie McGhee – guitar, vocals
Sonny Terry – harmonica, vocals

Plenty of delightful interplay between McGhee and Terry recommends these 18 1948-1951 sides for producer Bobby Shad for his Sittin' in With label, but they predate the duo's later folk period by a longshot. Back then, they were still aiming their output solely at the R&B crowd -- meaning "Man Ain't Nothin' But a Fool," "Bad Blood," "The Woman Is Killing Me," and "Dissatisfied Woman" are straightahead, uncompromising New York-style blues. -- Bill Dahl, Rovi

download:   uploaded 4shared ziddu yandex

back

1 Hooray Hooray (These Women Is Killing Me) 	Kirkland, Terry 	4:41
2 Cornbread, Peas and Black Molasses 	McGhee, Terry 	4:58
3 Sportin' Life 	Terry 	4:49
4 Come on, If You're Coming 	McGhee, Terry 	5:33
5 Blues Medley: Next Time You See Me/In the Evening/Key to the Highway 	Forest , Harvey 	9:53
6 Easy Rider 	McGhee, Terry 	3:15			play
7 Pack It Up and Go 	McGhee 	2:57
8 Hootin' the Blues 	Terry 	5:47			        play
9 Under Your Hood 	Dupree 	4:30
10 Walkin' My Blues Away 	McGhee, Terry 	6:53

Brownie McGhee 	Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Sonny Terry 		Harmonica, Vocals

Recorded In Montreal, Canada, on February 7, 1967

It sometimes seems like there are about 90 live albums by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, all from the 1960s. This one, taped at a show in Montreal in 1967, stands out from the rest because the duo are in unusually lively form, and its having been recorded in a more raw than usual manner. As with other releases in this Canadian-taped series by Michael Nerenberg, it's possible that the duo weren't even thinking about the fact that they were being recorded, and so were less stiff and formal than they could sometimes sound playing in front of white collegiate audiences. The result is a record a bit louder and noisier, but also more exciting than most of their other live albums -- the voices mesh together a bit rougher and more honestly than they do on some of their other live releases. The sound is clean mono, with the audience present but not overly obtrusive, and the repertory includes "Cornbread, Peas and Black Molasses," "Sportin' Life," "Easy Rider," "Pack It Up and Go," "Hooray Hooray (These Women Is Killing Me)," Champion Jack Dupree's "Under Your Hood," and a medley of stuff like the Broonzy/Segar "Key to the Highway" and Leroy Carr's "In the Evening." ---Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

From 1939 to their break-up as a duo nearly forty years later, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were quintessential American bluesmen, widely known and instantly recognizable. They were the oddest couple of the blues with contrasting styles and personalities. Their continuous onstage bickering was not staged, rather completely real and spontaneous. Their differences and competitiveness brought out the best in each man, and, at the same time, kept their artistic integrity as individuals. Unfortunately though, these contrasts eventually led to the duo's final split in the mid-1970s. Sonny was born Saunders Terrell in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1911. His father was a folk-styled harmonica player, but blues wasn't part of his repertoire. Nearly blind since childhood (he lost sight in one eye when he was five, and in the other at eighteen), Sonny had always played music on street corners or anywhere his harmonicas could take him. In 1937 he entered a recording studio for the first time with Piedmont pioneer, the legendary guitar player Blind Boy Fuller. Sonny was one-of-a-kind and his timing was perfect; in the Delta blues idiom, he established the criteria by which country blues harp players were to be measured by. His typical Southeastern "whooping style" had the power to fill with harmonics the space between his voice and the instrument; his moans and hollers were truly authentic field blues ‘grace-notes,’ found only in some of the most isolated rural areas of America. Even in his early days, through many original, memorable performances, Sonny Terry proved to be a sensational blues interpreter. One of those is Sonny's solo Mountain Blues from the 1938 Spirituals To Swing concert, probably one of his finest recordings sung completely in falsetto. Fuller died in 1939 and the same year, Sonny timely met his blues soul mate, Brownie McGhee. Walter "Brownie" McGhee, born in 1914 in Knoxville, Tennessee, came from a musical family. His style was unique, fusing together various influences; his guitar arrangements were jazzy in their harmonic and rhythmic convolution, still managing to hold on to the most traditional of blues.

The Sonny and Brownie duo was quick to gain popularity with both audiences and their fellow blues and folk artists; most blues musicians of their time never crossed local fences. Few of their contemporaries even had access to recording studios, notable exceptions being Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Rev. Gary Davis. Even fewer bluesmen got to the level of exposure that Sonny and Brownie enjoyed. They appeared separately and together in several movies, shows and Broadway productions. However, it was their performances as a duo that made them famous; the folk boom of the late '50s and early '60s was their golden moment. The hard work of perpetual touring and recording stretched for another decade or so, when, older, tired and less tolerant, Sonny and Brownie could no longer bear their antagonism toward each other. Their legacy, however, is secure, and their importance in blues history is undeniable.

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

01 Trouble In Mind 
02 Drinking In The Blues 
03 Boy 
04 Everybody's Blue 
05 I'm A Stranger Here 
06 Down By The Riverside 
07 Walk On 
08 Blues From The Lowlands 
09 Right On That Shore 
10 Blowin' The Fuses 
11 Daisy 
12 Draggin' My Heart Around 
13 Harmonica Hop 
14 Don't Dog Your Woman

Sonny Terry – harmonica, vocals
Brownie McGhee – guitar, vocals

The joyous whoop that Sonny Terry naturally emitted between raucous harp blasts was as distinctive a signature sound as can possibly be imagined. Only a handful of blues harmonicists wielded as much of a lasting influence on the genre as did the sightless Terry (Buster Brown, for one, copied the whoop and all), who recorded some fine urban blues as a bandleader in addition to serving as guitarist Brownie McGhee's longtime duet partner.

Saunders Terrell's father was a folk-styled harmonica player who performed locally at dances, but blues wasn't part of his repertoire (he blew reels and jigs). Terry wasn't born blind-he lost sight in one eye when he was five, the other at age 18. That left him with extremely limited options for making any sort of feasible living, so he took to the streets armed with his trusty harmonicas. Terry soon joined forces with Piedmont pioneer Blind Boy Fuller, first recording with the guitarist in 1937 for Vocalion.

Terry's unique talents were given an extremely classy airing in 1938 when he was invited to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall at the fabled From Spirituals to Swing concert. He recorded for the Library of Congress that same year and cut his first commercial sides in 1940. Terry had met Brownie McGhee in 1939, and upon the death of Fuller, they joined forces, playing together on a 1941 McGhee date for Okeh and settling in New York as a duo in 1942, There they broke into the folk scene, working alongside Leadbelly, Josh White, and Woody Guthrie.

While Brownie McGhee was incredibly prolific in the studio during the mid-'40s, Terry was somewhat less so as a leader (perhaps most of his time was occupied by his prominent role in Finian's Rainbow on Broadway for approximately two years beginning in 1946). There were sides for Asch and Savoy in 1944 before three fine sessions for Capitol in 1947 (the first two featuring Stick McGhee rather than Brownie on guitar) and another in 1950.

Terry made some nice sides in an R&B mode for Jax, Jackson, Red Robin, RCA Victor, Groove, Harlem, Old Town, and Ember during the '50s, usually with Brownie close by on guitar. But it was the folk boom of the late '50s and early Us that made Brownie and Sonny household names (at least among folk aficionados). They toured long and hard as a duo, cutting a horde of endearing acoustic duet LPs along the way, before scuttling their decades-long partnership amidst a fair amount of reported acrimony during the mid-'70s. –Bill Dahl, Rovi

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

1. One Monkey Don't Stop The Show
2. Changed The Lock On My Door
3. Tater Pie
4. She's So Sweet
5. Diggin' My Potatoes
6. Sonny's Coming
7. Ida Mae
8. Callin' My Mama
9. Bad Luck
10. Blues From The Bottom

Personnel: 
Sonny Terry (vocals, mouthharp), 
Lightnin' Hopkins, Brownie McGhee (guitars), 
Leonard Gaskin (bass), 
Belton Evans (drums).

Half of Sonny Is King is devoted to a rare session between Sonny Terry and Lightnin' Hopkins. The two guitarists are supported by bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, but the rhythm section fails to kick the pair into overdrive, and much of the music disappointingly meanders. Sometimes change is not a good thing. That's proven by the second side of the album, where Terry falls into the comfortable setting of duetting with Brownie McGhee. While these aren't among the duo's very best recordings, they are nonetheless enjoyable, suggesting that there's something to be said for the familiar. ---Thom Owens, Rovi

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega gett 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back