Sonny Terry

Saunders Teddell,[2][3] or Saunders Terrell (or other variants, sources differ) (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986),[4] known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician,[1] who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts.

Sonny Terry
Terry performing at Nambassa in 1981
Background information
Birth nameSaunders Terrell
Born(1911-10-24)October 24, 1911
Greensboro, Georgia, U.S.
OriginNorth Carolina, U.S.
DiedMarch 11, 1986(1986-03-11) (aged 74)
Mineola, New York
GenresHarmonica blues, Piedmont blues,[1] country blues, blues revival, folk-blues, East Coast blues
Occupation(s)musician
InstrumentsVocals, harmonica, jaw harp
Years active1930s–1980s
LabelsAtlantic, ABC
Associated actsBrownie McGhee, Sonny Terry and His Night Owls

Career

Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia.[5] 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,[4] 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 in the trio of Piedmont blues–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. This included collaborations with Styve Homnick, Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing classic recordings for Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways).

In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert,[4] and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. He recorded his first commercial sides in 1940. Some of his most famous works include "Old Jabo", a song about a man bitten by a snake, and "Lost John", which demonstrates his amazing 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 also in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy Finian's Rainbow.[6] He also appeared in the film The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg. With McGhee, he appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. Terry collaborated with Ry Cooder on "Walkin' Away Blues". He also performed a cover of Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues" for the 1986 film Crossroads.

Terry and McGhee were both recipients of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[7] 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.[8] He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the same year.[4]

Discography

See also

References
  1. Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 181. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
  2. Herzhaft, Gérard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. pp. 227. ISBN 978-1-55728-252-1.
  3. Clarke, Joseph F. (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 159.
  4. Campbell, Al. "Sonny Terry: Biography". AllMusic.com. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  5. Terry, Sonny (as told to Kent Cooper) (1975). The Harp Styles of Sonny Terry. Oak Publications. p. 7. Other sources give his place of birth as Greensboro, North Carolina.
  6. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. pp. 62–63. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  7. "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1982". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  8. Doc Rock. "The 1980s". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  9. "Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, At the Bunkhouse: Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.com. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
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