http://youtu.be/Fqy8ER56HN0

Tonight’s Daily Dose features a bit more blues, but blues with a much different flavour than last night’s hit of Wolf. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee played together for about a million years before they finally got sick of one another. They played a brand of blues from the Carolinas known as Piedmont Blues or sometimes East Coast Blues. When I was growing up they had some kind of public service announcement on Canadian television supporting workers with handicaps. I recall it started out showing the two of them, Sonny first and then Brownie and the voice-over said something like this man is blind and this man is lame but they’re two of the best loved musicians in the world. That’s all I remember of it. By that time, I already had one of their records, which was simply blowing my mind. You didn’t hear this kind of material on the radio. I went to see them with a friend from highschool (I know you’re out there somewhere RB…drop a comment in and say hello). It was at the old El Mocombo and there we were, kids really, sitting at a table steps from these music legends.  It was impossibly good.

http://youtu.be/-QuIGKvdevs

Now let’s go back down the road a little…

As a sidenote, Brownie had a younger brother who was also a musician. He was known as Stick McGhee. He was apparently called Stick because he used to push Brownie around in a wagon with a stick. He died in 1961, still in his 40s. Stick was what you might call a one-hit wonder, but what a hit it was. Here’s Stick McGhee performing Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee from 1947….

Finally, here are Sonny and Brownie singing Brownie’s brother’s tune

http://youtu.be/csZ8SMEx5tY