Sonny Terry

I am your host, P.W. Fenton.

On this day in 1960, Sonny Terry joined Lightnin Hopkins in the studio for Last Night Blues, and Lightnin did the singing.

You know I went home last night.

On that very same day, Lightning and Sonny recorded Conversation Blues and Sonny Terry did the singing.

I want to tell you something, Junior.

Well, I want you to tell me something to make me see.

Santo Farina was born in 1937, one half of the instrumental rock duo Santo and Johnny, who had a big hit back in 1959 with the number one single Sleepwalk.

Sonny Terry was born in 1911, a Piedmont blues icon who overcame childhood blindness to become a harmonica virtuoso and and also had a decades-long partnership with Brownie McGee.

Oh, by the way, Sonny Terry's real name, Saunders Terrell.

Jerry Edmonton was born in 1946, drummer for the group Steppenwolf.

Ted Templeman was born in 1942, musician and also a producer for Warner Brothers.

People like Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, you know, Hedy West, uh, you know, the, the real, the real authentic folk, uh, performers and blues performers.

You know, um, Sun House, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and I would see them, you know, literally five feet away, and I watched them play, and I got to meet some of them, you know, through a, through a guitar teacher that I had who was involved with the, the folk blues scene.

So, you know, I was, I was absorbing all this music and, and it was, you know, as, as a young kid, and what an amazing experience to have that as my, my kind of learning experience, my, you know, my formative, uh, musical training, basically.

Was, was it kind of, uh, was it kind of odd? Were you, w- were you, like, um, you know, on an island by yourself, being that young and really being into folk and blues? Was ...

They had a really kind of interesting stage presence in that era.

I mean, the other duo that I saw a lot of at that time was Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, who came through once or twice a year also, and were terrifically entertaining and energetic.

Ian and Sylvia brought a more serious kind of vibe to it.

I mean, not that Browning McGee wasn't serious.

Playing at the dozens, or putting in the dozens, is a folk game in which two or more participants hurl insults and boast at one another and are invariably obscene, frequently pornographic, and always aim to disparage an opponent's genealogy.

Acoustic blues harmonica master Sonny Terry was famous for mixing dazzling harp work with exuberant whoops, hollers, and unmistakable personality.

Born October 24, 1911 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Terry first recorded with Blind Boy Fuller in 1937 before forming his legendary partnership with Brownie McGee.

His remarkable career carried Piedmont blues from southern stages to Carnegie Hall, Broadway, television, and even classical music.

You're listening to Jazz on a Saturday, uh, on Radio 3CR 855 on your, uh, AM dial and, uh, we, uh, we present, uh, Jazz on a Saturday, uh, every Saturday between, uh, 4:00 PM and 5:30.

Fans of Chris Barber are gonna be delighted with a, uh, new release, a release on the British, uh, Lake label of a, uh, CD reissuing an album, uh, entitled Sonny, Brownie and Chris.

Chris Barber was not only an outstanding musician and bandleader, uh, in the United Kingdom, but he was fascinated by the roots of jazz and, uh, against the advice of his management in, uh, the 1950s following the gradual passing or demise of the skiffle craze, he decided to tour a number of American blues and gospel musicians.

You might recall a couple of weeks back we, we played a track of, uh, Chris Barber with Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

But, uh, most of these, uh, performers were generally unknown to the British public at that stage and, uh, but luckily Barber was at the height of his popularity, uh, and so, uh, he decided to finance these tours himself and there were performers such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Bill Broonzy, Brother John Sellers, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and Jim- Jimmy Cotton.

And it's, uh, pleasing to note that, uh, most of these tours turned out to be a financial as well as a cultural and a critical success.

Then 1958, uh, Barber toured the blues harmonica player Sonny Terry and his, uh, musical partner on guitar and vocals Brownie McGhee and this tour was a, uh, phenomenal success and unlike previous tours, uh, was, uh, properly recorded.

They...

They would be in these workshops in the afternoon, all gathered on a stage.

So John Hammond, John Hurt, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Dick Cooper, just a range of people and performers.

Dave Van Ronk, you know.

And they're, and they're, they're muttering to each other too, you know.

And he was.

He didn't live at Almanac House, but he hung out with them like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

Yeah.

Or other people on the periphery of that.

And then I just imagined him changing into a suit to do an R and B set up town.

Yeah, sure.

And also Sonny Terry was on Broadway.

He played in Brigadoon.

Many well-known blues songs, such as Leadbelly's Midnight Special, Junior Parker's Mystery Train and Elizabeth Cotton's Freight Train, feature trains as symbolic means of escape.

The harmonica player Sonny Terry specialised in imitating trains with his instrument.

Dylan recorded Curtis Jones' 1938 song Highway 51 Blues, in which the road runs right by my baby's door, on his first album, and also performed the song live on a number of occasions.

Highway 51 and Highway 61, both of which run from the deep south to the northern cities, are mentioned in many blues songs.