Sonny Terry

Musician

• Born: October 24, 1911
• Birthplace: Greensboro, North Carolina
• Died: March 11, 1986
• Place of death: Mineola, New York

American blues singer-songwriter and harmonicist

Terry was one of the foremost exponents of the blues harmonica, playing single-note runs punctuated by falsetto whoops. In addition, the duo he formed with guitarist Brownie McGhee was perhaps the best known in blues history, exemplifying the Piedmont and East Coast blues style.

The Life

Saunders Terrell was raised on a small farm in North Carolina. His parents were musical; his father played the harmonica and his mother sang. Terry learned to play his father’s harmonica when he was eight and practiced long hours, experimenting with the sounds that can be coaxed from that small instrument. Unfortunately losing sight in his left eye in an accident when he was eleven years old and most sight in his right eye when he was sixteen, Terry decided to pursue a career as a musician. He moved with his family to Shelby, North Carolina, and played with various bands at fish fries, at medicine shows, at house parties, and on the street.

After a tractor trailer ran over his father, killing him, Terry moved in with his sister Lou Daisy. Around 1934, he began playing with guitarist Blind Boy Fuller and moved in with him. He also worked selling liquor and in a factory for the blind, making mattresses. Fuller and Terry traveled to New York to make their first recordings under the Vocalion label. Terry gained prominence at a famous Carnegie Hall concert, titled “Spirituals to Swing,” in 1938. In 1941, Terry formed a duo with Brownie McGhee and they moved to Washington, D.C., for the duration of World War II.

After the war, Terry and McGhee returned to New York, moving into a large house on downtown’s Sixth Avenue. Over the next thirty years, Terry was in great demand, performing with McGhee, recording with various other musicians, playing in folk revivals and blues concerts, and starring in Broadway shows. In the late 1970’s Terry’s partnership with McGhee dissolved, and health problems ended his musical career.

The Music

Terry was already a talented harmonica player when he first heard blues music, at about age fourteen. Harmonica music in the Piedmont area was known for its soundings of rural life, of trains and animal hunts. Terry developed a distinct style of rapid, single-note runs and driving chordal rhythms. Terry’s unique vocal style added to the electricity of his harmonica playing (in the context of blues music, often referred to as “harp” playing). He sang with a high falsetto and added arresting “whoops.” Incredibly, he seemed to be “whooping” not only between but often during his rapid harmonica runs.

Guitarist Blind Boy Fuller was sufficiently impressed with Terry’s street playing that around 1934 the two formed a partnership and played throughout North Carolina. Their first recordings came to the attention of John Hammond, who invited Fuller to play in his pathbreaking “Spirituals to Swing” concert in Carnegie Hall on December 23, 1938. However, Fuller was incarcerated at the time, so Terry traveled to New York by himself. The concert brought Terry instant acclaim. His recorded performance of “Fox Chase” is an incredible mix of whoops, stomping, and relentless single-note runs on the harmonica, all simulating the sound of a fox hunt (the composition originates in the old English ballads “Lost John” and “Louise, Louise”). After the concert, Terry made his first solo recordings at Havers Studio.

“John Henry.”Terry returned to Carnegie Hall the following Christmas Eve (1939) for another “Spirituals to Swing” concert. He recorded performances of two of his most celebrated songs. The first, “John Henry,” accompanied by Bull City Red on washboard, was a traditional African American song that Terry gave an entirely original and idiosyncratic sound. He tells the story of John Henry with an assortment of whoops, falsetto howls, and short, chugging harmonica blasts.

Terry recorded a much different version of “John Henry” with McGhee twenty years later, on their well-received record, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing. A smoother version, thanks to McGhee’s steady strumming and their unison singing, it features Terry’s driving harp playing, simulating John Henry’s hammer.

“Mountain Blues.”Terry’s other favorite song performed at Carnegie Hall on December 24, 1939, was “Mountain Blues.” Terry plays it in a slow, mournful style, keeping a steady beat by banging on his harmonica. He wails his tale of abandonment with alternative blasts of harp playing and haunting falsetto.

After Fuller’s sudden death during surgery on February 13, 1941, Terry joined with guitarist and vocalist McGhee. With the combination of Terry’s ferocious, whooping style and McGhee’s smooth singing and dexterous guitar riffs, the duo became celebrated in the blues and folk revival of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

“Stranger Blues.”A good example of the work of Terry and McGhee is their recording of “Perfect Strangers,” which was captured on videotape. The duo introduce the song by recounting the baleful life of strangers—a classic blues theme. McGhee provides a steady background with his fluid singing and guitar playing. Terry wails away on his harmonica, punctuated by his patented whoops. His two hands flap around his harmonica like birds, bending and scooping his notes at will.

Terry also made appearances in theater, on television, and in film. In the late 1960’s, the McGhee and Terry duet toured Australia, India, and Europe. The “British invasion” brought Terry new fans.

“Sonny’s Whoopin’ the Doop.”In 1984, Terry recorded the album Whoopin’ with Johnny Winter and Willie Dixon. The instrumental number “Sonny’s Whoopin’ the Doop” is featured on this album. Terry begins the song with virtuosic harmonica playing, punctuated by his old-fashioned falsetto yelps. In the middle of the song, Terry slows the tempo of his playing to accentuate the wails and moans of his harp. He concludes the song with frenetic runs and a flurry of whoops.

Musical Legacy

Terry had a unique harmonica style based on the rural, acoustic blues of the Piedmont Carolina country. Much indebted to the folk tradition as well, Piedmont blues harmonica imitated the locomotion of trains and the sounds of fox chases, accompanied by the frenetic yelps of chased and chasing animals. Terry was a master of tone color, vibrato, and tremolo, accentuated by his vocal falsetto and whoops. A versatile musician, he recorded blues, folk, and gospel music. His partnerships with Blind Boy Fuller and especially Brownie McGhee were without parallel, and along with them, Terry was a seminal figure in the blues and folk revival of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Principal Recordings

albums:Sonny Terry and His Mouth Harp, 1953; Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing, 1958 (with Brownie McGhee); The 1958 London Sessions, 1958 (with McGhee); Sonny Terry’s New Sound, 1958; Just a Closer Walk with Thee, 1960 (with McGhee); Sonny’s Story, 1960; Sonny and Brownie at Sugar Hill, 1961 (with McGhee); Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry at the Second Fret, 1963 (with McGhee); Sonny Is King, 1963; Sonny Terry and Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1963 (with Lightnin’ Hopkins); Sonny Terry and Woody Guthrie, 1969 (with Guthrie); Sonny and Brownie, 1973 (with McGhee); Black Night Road, 1976; Harmonica Blues, 1976; Walk On, 1977 (with McGhee); Midnight Special, 1978 (with McGhee); Whoopin’, 1984 (with Johnny Winter and Willie Dixon); Backwater Blues, 1999 (with McGhee; recorded 1961).

Bibliography

Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. This volume in the series Music in American Life focuses on blues from the Piedmont belt and North Carolina. The chapter on Terry is based on an extensive 1974 interview.

Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstrata, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues. 3d ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003. In a biographical entry and various essays, this blues reference work explains Terry’s importance in Piedmont blues and the development of harmonica blues.

Cooper, Kent, ed. The Harp Styles of Sonny Terry. New York: Oak, 1975. Terry’s instructional book on playing the blues harmonica, with autobiographical material.

Dicaire, David. Blues Singers: Biographies of Fifty Legendary Artists of the Early Twentieth Century. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999. A collection of breezy biographies of blues pioneers, including Terry.