That Brownie McGhee's career should span several decades should really come as no surprise. The energetic and charismatic bluesman managed to wear many hats during his lengthy musical life, appealing to several disparate audiences throughout the years without ever changing his basic style or direction.
One of the leading proponents of the Piedmont blues style, which mixes acoustic country blues with ragtime and gospel spirituals, McGhee was also capable of playing electric blues and even R&B. Best known for his lengthy association with harpist Sonny Terry, McGhee also enjoyed a lengthy solo career that crossed six decades.
The Complete Brownie McGhee
Born in Tennessee in 1915 and raised in a musical family, a crippling childhood bout with polio kept McGhee housebound, and thus able to hone his musical skills. He was already in his twenties when he graduated from high school, a short time after which an operation provided the young artist with near total mobility.
McGhee began his musical career as a traveling bluesman, playing towns across Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. He made his way to North Carolina, where he was discovered by J.B. Long, manager of popular blues artist "Blind Boy" Fuller, who got McGhee a deal with the Okeh label. In fact, when Fuller died in 1941, Okeh reissued several of McGhee's early sides under the name "Blind Boy Fuller No. 2."
Collecting the initial sides recorded by McGhee for Okeh/Columbia during 1940 and 1941, The Complete Brownie McGhee showcases a talented artist developing his style from record to record. McGhee seems to have enjoyed a fair degree of commercial success with several songs, including his tribute song, "Death Of Blind Boy Fuller," "Me And My Dog Blues" and "Picking My Tomatoes."
A number of the 47 recordings presented on The Complete Brownie McGhee were previously unreleased sides. Across these songs, McGhee's fluid vocals are accompanied by his own individual guitar style, which was heavily influenced by Fuller. The harmonica playing of old friend Jordan Webb accompanies several songs, along with a washboard player.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Although McGhee is usually judged for his work as part of the popular folk-blues duo with Sonny Terry, the guitarist's lengthy solo career, with its vast catalog of recordings, had a significant influence on the folk and country blues artists of the 1960s and beyond.
The Complete Brownie McGhee really only scratches the surface of this talented artist's greatness, documenting his relatively brief relationship with the Okeh and Columbia labels. Nevertheless, the album offers up a healthy dose of traditional southern blues, mixing the best of that musical history with strains of gospel and hillbilly music in the creation of a style and performance that remains unique to this day. (Sony Legacy)
