Brownie McGhee

Brownie McGhee's passing in 1996 left a major void across the blues world. Even while coping with stomach cancer and a semi-retired status, the guitarist remained the foremost exponent of Piedmont-style blues anywhere, admired on every continent for his extensive output both solo and alongside his longtime collaborator, blind harpist Sonny Terry. For decades the pair specialized in acoustic folk-blues, delivering venerable numbers such as "John Henry" and "Pick a Bale of Cotton" to receptive listeners around the globe. McGhee's range extended well beyond that partnership, however. In the years right after World War II he recorded electric blues and R&B throughout the New York circuit, scoring a major R&B success in 1948 with "My Fault" on Savoy, where Hal "Cornbread" Singer contributed tenor saxophone.

Walter Brown McGhee was raised in Kingsport, Tennessee. Polio struck him at age four, producing a pronounced limp that kept him out of school for long stretches and gave him extra hours to master guitar chords taught by his father, Duff McGhee. Brownie's younger brother, Granville McGhee, also proved a gifted guitarist and later scored a hit with the lively "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"; his nickname "Stick" originated from the task of propelling his brother's small cart with a pole.

A March of Dimes-funded operation in 1937 largely restored McGhee's ability to walk. Once recovered, he immediately set out, roaming and performing across the Southeast. Those travels led to an encounter in 1940 with washboard player George "Oh Red" (or "Bull City Red") Washington, who introduced McGhee to talent scout J.B. Long. Long secured him a contract with OKeh/Columbia that same year; the initial Chicago session yielded a dozen sides across two days.

When Long's chief blues artist, Blind Boy Fuller, died in 1941, Okeh released several of McGhee's early recordings under the name Blind Boy Fuller No. 2. McGhee soon composed the elegiac "Death of Blind Boy Fuller." His third extended OKeh session in 1941 marked the first time he shared a 78 with whooping harpist Terry, on "Workingman's Blues."

The two musicians moved to New York in 1942. They quickly entered the city's expanding folk-music network, sharing stages with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Leadbelly. After World War II ended, McGhee recorded at a rapid pace, with and without Terry, for numerous R&B imprints: Savoy (where "Robbie Doby Boogie" appeared in 1948 and "New Baseball Boogie" the following year), Alert, London, Derby, Sittin' in With and its Jax subsidiary in 1952, Jackson, Bobby Robinson's Red Robin label (1953), Dot, and Harlem, before shifting toward folk listeners in the late '50s with Terry. One of his final Savoy dates in 1958 produced the strikingly up-to-date "Living with the Blues," featuring Roy Gaines and Carl Lynch on lead guitars and a sound far removed from conventional folk arrangements.

McGhee and Terry ranked among the earliest blues performers to tour Europe in the '50s and returned overseas repeatedly. Their many late-'50s and early-'60s albums for Folkways, Choice, World Pacific, Bluesville, and Fantasy showcased the duo strictly in acoustic folk settings, their Piedmont-style interplay remaining a steady, if increasingly familiar, pleasure. McGhee applied his skills beyond live performance as well. He spent three years on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof beginning in 1955 and later appeared in Langston Hughes' Simply Heaven. His measured presence also graced films such as Angel Heart and Buck and the Preacher plus an episode of the television series Family Ties. The long partnership between McGhee and Terry finally dissolved in the mid-'70s. In later years they avoided sharing a stage, preferring separate sets. One of McGhee's last public performances occurred at the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival; although his voice carried slightly less power than before, it remained deeply affecting, while his full-toned acoustic guitar resonated clearly through the evening air. No one quite like him is likely to appear again.