Walter "Brownie" McGhee - (Don,t)Move to Kansas City

Walter "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915, Knoxville, Tennessee - February 16, 1996, Oakland, California) was an American folk and blues singer and guitarist. He became known for his collaboration with harmonica player Sonny Terry.

 McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was struck by polio as a child. As a result, he had problems walking. Even as a child he devoted a lot of time to music, singing in the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet. He also taught himself to play the guitar. When he was 22, he started traveling as a musician and met Blind Boy Fuller, whose guitar playing had a great influence on him (so much so that McGhee took over Fuller's name after Fuller's death in 1941, and as Blind Boy Fuller II by the life went). During that time, McGhee made several recordings, but greater success did not come until he went to New York in 1942, where he worked with Sonny Terry. Together they experienced great successes that would continue until the early 1970s. When interest in folk music revived in the 1960s, Terry and McGhee were featured guests at concerts and festivals.

         One of McGhee's last concert appearances was at the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival.

    He died of stomach cancer on February 16, 1996, in Oakland, California, at the age of 80