Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Live from the Ash Grove (1963/2024) [Official Digital Download]

When you talk about Blues and particularly Piedmont Blues legends, there’s no denying how easily the conversation will inevitably gravitate to blind harpist, Sonny Terry (born, in Greenboro, N.Carolina and, guitarist Brownie McGee (Knoxville, Tennessee).
Between them they have influenced countless budding exponents of the Folk Blues genre over the last sixty plus years, with the duo playing a huge part in the various Folk Blues revivals in that time.

Recorded live in 1973 at the famed, Ash Grove (a number of fabulous recordings over the years have been made there over the years), in Hollywood the duo were well into their 35 year partnership when these eight (plus two from 1965) previously unreleased tracks were captured.
Starting out in New York City, circa 1941; they rubbed shoulders with others of the Folk Blues crowd that would go onto become legends themselves, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Josh White, Paul Robeson, Cisco Houston and Woody Guthrie plus a bunch more.

It’s a little known fact that Sonny Terry was part of the original cast of the 1947 Broadway Musical, Finian’s Rainbow and the couple can be seen in the Steve Martin comedy, The Jerk, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple and, McGhee on his own in Alan Parker’s Angel Heart.

It’s no surprise Terry and McGhee are relaxed here, completely at ease and in charge on the stage of a venue they performed on at its opening in 1958.
Piercing blasts on harmonica, chugging guitar tools coupled with genuine “working man’s” vocals and stories to match are a must here, for your listening pleasure; and they’re not only for followers of the genre, but for anyone with ‘catholic’ musical taste.

McGhee’s charismatic style offers huge appeal as he holds court on stage with great stories come from being survivors of WW2, constants of the 1960’s Folk and Blues ‘booms’ and of course the civil rights troubles, Cuban missile crisis and the loss of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr; plus their two-time Newport Folk Festival appearances helped cement their position.

TRACKLIST

01. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Trouble in Mind (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
02. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Intro Hootin' the Blues (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
03. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Hootin' the Blues (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
04. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Blowin' the Fuses (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
05. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Life's a Gamble (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
06. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - (I Gotta Look) up Under Your Hood (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
07. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - My Father's Words (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
08. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Midnight Special (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
09. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Packin' up Gettin' Ready to Go (February 21, 1973 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
10. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Baby, I Got My Mind off You (October 29, 1965 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)
11. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - C'mon If You're Comin' (October 29, 1965 Ash Grove, Hollywood Ca)



Thanks to the Original customer.