AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Sonny Terry

Artist:Sonny Terry

Song:Whoopin' the Blues

Album:Whoopin' the Blues: The Capitol Collection 1947-1950

Of course Sonny Terry is best known for his long time partnership with Brownie McGhee. Both guys recorded solo occasionally. Terry wrote and recorded Whoopin' the Blues for Capitol Records in 1947. The song became a regular part of the Terry/McGhee repertoire. He was born Saunders Terrell Oct. 24, 1911 in Greensboro, GA. His farmer father taught him to play blues harmonica as a child. A couple of farm accidents left Terry blind at age 16. He couldn't work on the farm so he had to play music to make a living. After his father died, Terry moved to Shelby, NC to play with Blind Boy Fuller. After Fuller's 1941 death, Fuller's manager sent guitarist Brownie McGhee on the road to look after Terry. Of course that turned into a decades long partnership. The two moved to New York and performed together. Terry became an in demand session musician. He played on recordings by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Terry also appeared in the 1946 Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow. Terry signed with Capitol Records and recorded ten songs in 1947 including Whoopin' the Blues. Those songs are all on this comp plus some from 1950. This is available as a digital download. Beware of off label comps with inferior versions. Brownie McGhee does appear on these recordings. But the guitarist on Whoopin' the Blues is Granville "Stick" McGhee. He is not related to Brownie. Stick is best known for co-writing Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee. He was a jump blues musician. Terry and McGhee both led jump blues bands in the mid-40s. As I said, Terry and McGhee were mostly known as a duo. But Terry recorded solo mostly for Folkways. He died on Mar. 11, 1986 at age 74. Here's Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee performing Whoopin' the Blues.