Brownie McGhee x Sonny Terry: An Acoustic Blues

There are only a few blues players that possessed the ability to record over a few decades, maintain a coherent sound and have listeners not be able to guess at the date a track was set to tape. A recording’s fidelity has something to do with that, but Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were able to perform a unique spread of tracks from the American song book for the better part of the 20^th century and remain vibrant over the decades while doing it.

Each player learned music from their respective fathers. McGhee, though had options apart from music. Terry was blind by the time he was a teenager leaving him with few options to earn a living. His father being a farmer of some variety didn’t help, so Terry headed out onto street corners in order to make a wage. Along the way, though, he met Blind Boy Fuller, which led to an auspicious partnership – and one that eventually led to meeting McGhee.

As the thirties came to a close, and the States entered a war time prosperity, Terry and McGhee were able to secure a succession of recording dates. In an odd turn of events, though, the duo’s fan base eventually became overwhelmingly white. Bob Dylan was an avowed fan. But beyond that, the career of Terry and McGhee presaged the coming folk revival. And yes, the pair toured as a folk act, perhaps due to the fact that blues players still toted around a certain negative cache during the ‘40s. It was clear that Terry and McGhee weren’t ruffians, but they could have been.

Anyway, in keeping the continuity of their career together Terry and McGhee continued to record in the same manner during the ‘60s as they did in earlier decades. And with a growing marketplace for their work, the duo went in on a spate of albums during the decade.

Recorded during 1960, but not released until a few years later, Blues in My Soul represents one of the staunchest attempts to update their sound. Terry and McGhee would still eschew electric instrumentation, but the addition of Roy Haynes on drums was a statement in and of itself. On “Blue Feeling” the percussionist is barley noticed, but this approach to drumming fits the acoustic duo perfectly. There’s nothing to overwhelm the track and the music simply relies on McGhee’s smooth voice to get over.

Leading the entire endeavor off, though, is a Ray Charles cover. “I Got a Woman” is an instantly recognizable part of R&B’s history. And while others had covered the song in a blues setting – most notably Snooks Eaglin – the version that Terry and McGhee worked out includes ample reverb on those vocals making the rambunctious track a bit more ghostly than its writer had ever intended.

There’re a procession of traditional tracks over the course of Blues in My Soul. But it sounds as if the duo was invigorated by some of the music that would normally fall just outside of its grasp.