Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell
1911-1986
Sonny Terry was born into a
poor farming family in Greensboro, North Carolina. Like his father, Sonny played the harmonica at an early
age, with spirituals and dance tunes. Sonny reflected that he didn't hear Blues until
he was about 18 years of age.
By the time he lost his eye
sight in two separate accidents around 1927, Sonny was already a well-polished
player.
It was a common occurrence
that blind Sonny would walk the 11 miles to town alone to play on street
corners, venturing back late at night with the few coins of change that he had earned playing
that day. As did many other itinerant musicians in the South, Sonny took to the streets in front of
the factories, and was particularly busy during the fall tobacco harvest. He
drew large crowds eager to hear and see this blind harmonica player. During
these years, he often traveled the entire South for months at a time as a
member of a patent medicine show.
Sonny was then invited to play
with guitarist Blind Boy Fuller and the legendary Reverend Gary Davis. This
three-some moved Sonny into semi-professionalism and it provided him with a
chance to record.
In 1938, Sonny, in the
"Spirituals to Swing Concert", stood alone on center stage at
Carnegie Hall in New
York City and
electrified the audience with his fantastic sounds.
Following Fuller's death in
1941, Sonny found a place to stay with the stellar Folk/Blues singer and 12
string guitarist Huddle Ledbetter [Leadbelly] in New York City. Performances came with such greats as Woody Guthrie,
Pete Seeger and Cisco Houston. Sonny teamed up with
guitarist Brownie McGhee, traveling all over the world for over 40 years,
becoming idolized in Europe.
Sonny could produce musical
sounds that just didn't seem possible. When you listen to his recordings,
you'll hear him deliver the Blues, conveying deep feelings. He is on his own
terms a virtuoso on an instrument that does not readily tend itself to virtuoso
playing. You can hear his famous "Whoop!" on Alligator, Verve,
Prestige, and Folkways recordings. He performed on Broadway in "Finian's Rainbow" and the films "Color
Purple" with Oprah Winfrey and with Brownie in "The Jerk"
which starred Steve Martin.
Sonny Terry passed away on March 12, 1986. In June of 1998, at a special ceremony in
Washington,
DC, Sonny was honored with a United States postage stamp in recognition of his very special role as
an American Folk Musician.
