Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American

Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melod ...

and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts.

Career

Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and went blind by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work, and was forced to play music in order to earn a living. Terry played " Campdown Races" to the plow horses which improved the efficiency of farming in the area. He began playing blues in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died, he began playing with

–style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, Terry established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and they recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well known among white audiences during the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including for collaborations with Styve Homnick,

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspire ...

and Moses Asch, producing classic recordings for

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

(now Smithsonian/Folkways). In 1938, Terry was invited to play at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

for the first '' From Spirituals to Swing''

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide var ...

, and later that year he recorded for the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

. He recorded his first commercial sides in 1940. Among his most famous works are "Old Jabo", a song about a man bitten by a snake, and "Lost John", which demonstrates Terry's precisely honed breath control. Despite their fame as "pure" folk artists, in the 1940s Terry and McGhee fronted a jump blues combo with honking saxophone and rolling piano, which was variously billed as "Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers" or "Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five". Terry was in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy ''

Finian's Rainbow ''Finian's Rainbow'' is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane, produced by Lee Sabinson. The original 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances, while a film version was r ...

''. With McGhee, he appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy '' The Jerk''. Terry also appeared in the 1985 film ''

The Color Purple ''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.

'', directed by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

. Terry collaborated with

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...

on "Walkin' Away Blues", and also performed a cover of Robert Johnson's " Crossroad Blues" for the 1986 film ''

Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...

''. Terry and McGhee were both recipients of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. That year's fellowships were the first bestowed by the NEA. Terry died of natural causes in Mineola, New York, in March 1986, three days before ''Crossroads'' was released in theaters. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the same year.

Discography

* '' Songs for Victory: Music for Political Action'', with the Union Boys (1944) * ''Sonny Terry's Washboard Band'' (Folkways, 1955) * ''Folk Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee'' (Roulette, 1958) * '' Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee'' (Fantasy 3254, 1958) * ''Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee'' (Folkways, 1959) * '' Down South Summit Meetin''' (World Pacific, 1960), with Brownie McGhee, Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams * '' Down Home Blues'' (Bluesville, 1960), with Brownie McGhee * '' Blues In My Soul'' (Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry album) (Bluesville 1033, September 1960) * ''

Brownie's Blues ''Brownie's Blues'' is an album by blues musician Brownie McGhee recorded in 1960 and released on the Bluesville label in 1962.

'' (Bluesville, 1960), with Brownie McGhee * '' Sonny's Story'' (Bluesville, 1960) * '' Last Night Blues'' (Bluesville, 1960 961, with Lightnin' Hopkins * '' Sonny Is King'' (Bluesville, 1960/62 963, with Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams * '' Blues Hoot'' (Horizon, 1961 963 with * '' Sonny Terry and His Mouth Harp'' (Stinson, 1963 963 * ''Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry at The Bunkhouse'' ( Smash, 1965) * ''Sing & Play'' (Society, 1966) * ''Sonny Terry's New Sound: The Jawharp in Blues and Folk Music'', with Brownie McGhee & J. C. Burris (Folkways, 1968) * ''

A Long Way from Home A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' (BluesWay, 1969) * '' I Couldn't Believe My Eyes'' (BluesWay, 1969 973 * '' Sonny & Brownie'' (A&M Records, 1973) * ''Robbin' the Grave'' (Blue Labor, 1974) * ''Whoopin'', with Johnny Winter and Willie Dixon (Alligator, 1984) * ''Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing'' (

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fo ...

, 1990) * ''Whoopin' the Blues: The Capitol Recordings, 1947–1950'' (Capitol, 1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Sonny 1911 births 1986 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers A&M Records artists Alligator Records artists American blues harmonica players American blues singers Blind musicians Blues revival musicians Capitol Records artists Chess Records artists Country blues musicians East Coast blues musicians Elektra Records artists Folkways Records artists Groove Records artists Harmonica blues musicians Josie Records artists Musicians from Greensboro, North Carolina National Heritage Fellowship winners Piedmont blues musicians RCA Victor artists Savoy Records artists

Career

Discography

See also

References