From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Thu Oct 24, 2002 1:18 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Sonny Terry SONNY TERRY Born Saunders Terrell, 24 October 1911, Greensboro, North Carolina Died 11 March 1986, Mineola, New York Blues singer / harmonica player. By the age of 16, Sonny Terry was virtually blind following two accidents, which encouraged his concentration on music. After his father's death, Terry worked on medicine shows, and around 1937 teamed up with Blind Boy Fuller, moving to Durham, North Carolina, to play the streets with Fuller, Gary Davis and washboard player George Washington (Bull City Red). Terry made his recording debut in December 1937 as Fuller's harmonica player. His vocalized tones were interspersed with a distinctive falsetto whoop, and he continued in this fashion until Fuller's death in 1941. By Terry's good fortune, Fuller was in jail when John Hammond Jnr. wished to recruit him for the 1938 Spirituals To Swing concert, and Terry took his place. His inextricably interwoven harmonica playing and singing were a sensation, but had little immediate effect on his career, although OKeh Records did record him as a name artist. In 1939 he started a musical partnership with Brownie McGhee (1915-1996), which would continue until the 1980s, even though the two men didn't get along very well. Both men relocated to New York, where they made their first recordings together for OKeh in 1941. In New York Terry also recorded, as leader and sideman, for many black-orientated labels, but his first New York sides were made for Moses Asch of Folkways Records with accompa- niment by Woody Guthrie, and this was a pointer to the future. By the late 50s, Terry and McGhee had effectively ceased to perform for black audiences, and presented their music as "folk-blues". This was seen as a sell-out by those who demanded uncompromisingly "black" music from blues singers. However, an objective examination of their repertoire reveals a large number of songs that had been recorded for black audiences in an R&B setting, while the children's songs and country dance music Terry recorded for Asch remain a valuable documentation. Even so, Terry's singing voice was rather coarse, and sometimes badly pitched. Terry and McGhee were a world-famous duo, who brought the blues to a vast audience worldwide. (Adapted from All Music Guide.) Some selected CD's: Sonny Terry, Wine-headed woman (Collectables) Sonny Terry, The Folkways Years, 1944-63 (Smithsonian Folkways) Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Hometown Blues (Mainstream) Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Absolutely the Best (Varese Sarabande)