Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee was an African-American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth30 November 1915
CountryUnited States of America
lead records steel truth
I didn't make too many records with Leadbelly. The truth about it, Lead had his 12-string guitar, and I was playin' a steel National.
guitar home six street
I started a guitar school. It was called Home of the Blues, on 125th Street in New York. I did that for five, six years and had a lot of students.
good musicians pass unheard
There's a lot of good musicians who are unheard of. Get it down before they pass away.
bucks record ten time
Something is better than nothing. Doin' anything for a man, there's investments involved, there's time and production. It's better to give him ten bucks and get a record out than to never record the cat.
everybody fuller met played sonny streets
I met Sonny after (Blind Boy) Fuller died, and me and Sonny played in the streets like everybody else.
sonny
From then on in, me and Sonny started makin' records. My first records, Sonny was backin' me up. Sonny wasn't singin' natural at the time; he was singin' falsetto.
entitled money
Long made it possible for me to get on records, so what little money he did take from me, if any at all, he was entitled to it. He didn't take something from me.
dream
Blues is not a dream, blues is truth.
attitude smart boys
The last thing that the blues needs is another smart-ass white boy with an attitude.
wanted
Anywhere I'm wanted, I'll go. I've got to be wanted, though.
writing happens
I only write about what I do, what happens to me.
running song guitar
Everybody would grab a guitar and listen to somebody else and call themselves a folk singer. When they didn't know no more songs, they'd run out of them.
new-york years ukulele
I got Sonny up to Harlem, and we started street playin' in New York. We did that for three or four years and survived. We brought it back to the streets again.
guitar steel amplification
I was playing with steel picks on a steel guitar, and there was no amplification needed.