Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Sonny Terry
Whoopin The Blues
19581974
Photo by Dave Peabody
playing partner, Sonny Terry. Together theyd been working the streets and tobacco sheds together around
Durham and Terry roomed in Fullers house. Obviously
the area was fertile for street musicians depending on
change from passerbys it was where the work and
money was. Sonnys energetic accompaniment meshed
deftly with Fullers driving lines, and he wound up being
used on 4 or 5 more sessions over the next three years.
At the time the harp was still considered somewhat
of a novelty instrument. It was used as accompaniment
in jug bands where its high tones played a penetrating
counterpoint to the huffing bass tones of clay jugs, or in
white string bands to play fiddle-like melody lines. The
few solo harp recordings were often barnyard animal
imitations, train pieces (with steam engine and whistle
sounds), or fox-chase numbers, where the baying of
hunting dogs was duplicated. (See GREAT HARP PLAYERS 1927-30, Matchbox 209, for a collection of solo
harp pieces). Terry had quick instinct and was able to
weave in and out of the vocal-guitar lines with a deftness that set him apart. His plaintive vocal-like tones
commented on lyrics and underscored feelings, his
whoops harked back to field-hollers of down home
sharecroppers. He also used chords percussively, chopping them off abruptly, so they worked almost as a
snaredrum-like punctuation.
Sonny was born Saunders Terrell, October 24 1911,
in Greensboro, Georgia. He told Kent Cooper (author of
the excellent biographical/instructional book, Harp
Styles Of Sonny Terry, where many of these stories come
from), that his father was a tenant farmer. Sonny was
one of eight kids. He recalled his father playing harp
after a tough days work in the fields and at Saturday
night fish frys: buck dances, reels, and jigs stuff you
can dance to. I never heard no blues till I was about
eighteen years old. (You might want to check out HARMONICA MASTERS, Yazoo 2019, for a really interesting compilation of string-band and blues tunes with harp
accompaniment both styles being played equally by
blacks and whites. The notes make the point that whites
recorded more harp blues in the 1920s than did blacks.
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duction dance numbers, and after auditioning a number of musicians they wound up hiring Terry to play a
version of his Lost John piece for a dance number, six
nights a week for two years. The $300 per week stipend
convinced him to play the piece the same way every
night, a story he tells on himself with gusto as he introduces the Shouting The Blues clip seen here.
In 1948, Sonny married the woman hed been living with; Roxie became his first wife. Leadbelly, whod
been ailing for some time, with a progressive muscle
disease, died in late 1949. By next spring Sonny and
Brownie were booking themselves, doing club dates as
well as rent parties, fish fries and barbecues, gigs which
they kept up until the mid 1950s. The duo was hired
together for yet another Broadway production, The Cat
On A Hot Tin Roof, lasting for almost a three year run.
The duo filled in on some English dates for Big Bill
Broonzy, the Chicago based bluesman who had a second career as a solo folk-blues acoustic bluesman
overseas. Their tour was well received, and led to regular trips across the ocean. In 1952 Asch recorded Sonny
for his first album. SONNY TERRYS WASHBOARD
BAND was a 10" LP album of Sonny with washtub bass
and percussion band backup, doing many of his regular tunes , like Louise, Fullers Custard Pie and
Sonnys Baby Change The Lock, an autobiographical
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Some Notes On
Sonnys Harp Style
The first thing you notice is that Sonny is left
handed, which means he holds the harp upside down
(with the low notes to his right) in his right hand. This
way, when he wraps his left hand over to cup and get
wah-wah tremolo effects, he can completely close over
the lower octaves on the harp.
On the majority of the tracks here Sonny is using a
Bb harp, playing in cross, or 2nd position (i.e. the key
of F). Its kind of fragmentary and hard to hear, but he
may be in 1st position when he accompanies his dancing on the opening clips. When hes playing behind
Brownies vocals he uses a lot of single notes, playing
melody variations, mixed with occasional chords to fill.
(As on Poor Man and Midnight Special). One of
Sonnys most distinctive traits is the percussive chords
heard on Crazy About You Baby, Rock Island Line,
and on both versions of his signature piece, Shouting
The Blues and Whooping The Blues. He gets the effect by using tongue slaps to the roof of the mouth while
simultaneously slapping his cupped hands closed, for
that sharp chopped effect. The latter two pieces also
showcase his rapid alternation between harp and falsetto vocal tones as he builds the tempo the excitement increases. The solo pieces give a good chance to
check out his tone and the sounds he achieves by a mix
of throat vibrato and tongue flutters, producing a mellow warbling sound; check out My Baby Done Changed
The Lock.
Sonny plays with a nice mix of melodic improvisation and chordal rhythm accompaniment, suited to both
solo and duo situations. He knows how to listen and
when to lay back. Spaces and volume dynamics are as
important as any other effect in his repertoire.
Tony Glover
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Vestapol 13057
ISBN: 1-57940-987-3
1 1 6 7 1 30579