Brownie McGee & Bert Jansch - Walk On

Extract from the BAFTA nominated film documentary Acoustic Routes, filmed at Brownies home in Oakland, California, 1992.

                                                      

 

LEMAN PRODUCTIONS ARCHIVE

Bert later said this was the greatest moment of his life! Brownie was already retired then but open his house to some great stories and music.

                                        Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.

                             

Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. He recorded more than 28 albums and toured extensively from the 1960s to the 21st century.

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

 
 

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee

 

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  Sonny Terry Sonny Terry in 1981 Saunders Terrell ( Greensboro ( Georgia ), 24 oktober 1911 - Mineola ( New York ), 11 maart 1986 )

 Brownie McGhee was born on November 30, 1915 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA as Walter McGhee

  By the late 50s there was a huge demand for folk/blues in the clubs around the East coast and as their fame as a double act grew and as record sales climbed steeply, Sonny and Brownie became national household names. They cut a gospel album in Oakland CA in 1957, then toured Britain and recorded an album in London the following year, to great acclaim.(All About Blues Music)

               

           Burnt Child

 TV appearances took them into the world mainstream and they were soon issuing a studio album or live set every few months. They covered a lot of ground with these recordings; they had learned a lot of Piedmont Blues as young men and also gave their interpretations of many other Blues players’ best songs, as well as forays into other styles.(All About Blues Music)

                                                 Gonna Move Across The River

 The Festival movement loved them for their wide repertoire of folk, blues, gospel and protest songs, and they toured the world for the whole of the 60s as a headline attraction. The sight of the tall man with a heavy limp leading the small blind man on stage was seen on five continents.(All About Blues Music)

                                              Stranger Blues

 Despite their affable stage act, the two men did not get along too well personally as the years went by. On the 1973 album ‘Sonny and Brownie’ with John Mayall and John Hammond Jr. they banter like old friends, but outside the studio they would barely talk. It finally came to the point where they would be billed together, but Sonny would play with another guitarist and then Brownie would do a solo set. Thus the affair came to a messy end at some indeterminate time in the late 70s.(All About Blues Music)

 

                                                         All About Blues Music

                                                  https://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/