Brownie McGhee
b. 30 November 1915, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. McGhee learned guitar from his father, and started early on a musical career, playing in church before he was 10 years old, and on the road with medicine shows, carnivals and minstrel troupes in his early teens. His travels took him into the Carolinas, and his time there proved very influential in moulding his musical style. He met Sonny Terry in 1939, and their partnership was to become one of the most enduring in blues. The following year, he made his first records, reminiscent of those of Blind Boy Fuller; indeed some of them bore the credit Blind Boy Fuller No.2. Also around this time, he settled in New York, where his career took a rather different turn, as he took up with a group of black musicians—including Terry, Leadbelly and Josh White—favoured by the then small white audience for the blues. For a number of years, he catered very successfully both for this audience, playing acoustic blues in an older style, and for an entirely separate one. Through the late '40s and early '50s, he recorded electric blues and R&B aimed at black record buyers. In retrospect, it is this second type that stands up best, and indeed, some of his records from this period rank among the finest blues to come out of New York in the post-war years. He was also very prolific as an accompanist, playing superb lead guitar on records by other artists such as Champion Jack Dupree, Big Chief Ellis and Alonzo Scales, as well as his brother Stick. His partnership with Terry became more firmly established during this period, and, as the original market for blues and R&B faded, they carved a very strong niche for themselves, playing concerts, festivals and clubs, and making albums aimed at the growing audience for folk music. For many years, they travelled the world and made record after record, establishing their names among the best-known of all blues artists. However, critical opinion seems agreed that their music suffered to a large degree during this period, as it was diluted for such a wide, international audience and as successive recordings trod similar ground. McGhee seems to have been inactive since Terry's death in 1986, although in fact their partnership broke up shortly before this.