Album Reviews

Talk about a confusing pedigree: though the jacket reproduces an "electronically reprocessed for stereo" edition of this album, the tape used is  mono, thank goodness.

The "one sheet" says "...we reissue the original 1968 Folkways studio recording in its original form."

But when you listen, you'd swear this sounds much older than 1968. Look at the jacket liner notes and it says "Previously released as Verve/Folkways FVS 9019© 1960,1968."

Talk about a confusing pedigree: though the jacket reproduces an "electronically reprocessed for stereo" edition of this album, the tape used is  mono, thank goodness.

The "one sheet" says "...we reissue the original 1968 Folkways studio recording in its original form."

But when you listen, you'd swear this sounds much older than 1968. Look at the jacket liner notes and it says "Previously released as Verve/Folkways FVS 9019© 1960,1968."

So obviously the recording pre-dates 1968.

Then you read the annotation and it begins with "Late in January of 1958, Sanford Terry and Walter Brown McGhee boarded a Chicago plane at New York's Idlewild Airport...."

So I did some net snooping and had trouble finding this album's catalog number, but I did find FV9019, the mono edition, and judging by the other albums in the Verve/Folkways discography that's the catalog number of the 1968 edition, but the album is actually titled Guitar Highway and according to this source, the album was recorded in 1950! And that's what it sounds like too.

Search some more and you find a 1950 Folkways release of the same material as Brownie McGhee And Sonny Terry Sing (Folkways FA 2327), which equals, it says, Brownie McGhee/Sonny Terry - Guitar Highway (Verve-Folkways FV 9019). Got that? 

Oh, and the label used appears to be the original Folkways with no mention of Verve/Folkways but the title is the title used here: Preachin' the Blues. 

So color me confused.

The inexperienced reissue producer has the best of intentions, particularly in using an analog tape, which sounds more like one processed with '60s era reverb than what the original original might have sounded like, but that's only conjecture on my confused part.

But his notes on the one sheet say the duo was "at the peak of their powers" here and "became well known when they joined the growing folk movement of the 1960s."

Go to the Smithsonian website and they have it listed as having been recorded in 1990! Damn those Republican budget cuts. There the album is called "Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing" and the cover looks like this:

So look, this is a botched reissue in terms of presenting to you the original cover, and the notes are clearly from the 1968 reissue but forget all of that: the music is sublime and the recording pure mono but somewhat distant and it sounds as if it's mildly bathed in some kind of electronic reverb that doesn't really mar the sound as much as it makes the two sound like they were recorded in a tin can.

The music is easy going, lilting North Carolina blues/folk Piedmont style that you can be sure is Eric Clapton's favorite blues. It's similar to what the great Doug McLeod does today. The last track is "If You Lose Your Money," which I could swear Clapton covered (I'm not talking about the Cream song that uses the title in the lyrics). 

What these guys do here (aided by a drummer) may sound simple on the surface but its doubtful anyone could do it this way today, no matter how accomplished (McLeod included but he's damn good at it). If you read Sonny Terry's bio, you'll find he was in the original Broadway cast of the '40s musical comedy "Finian's Rainbow" and you can hear his harmonica sampled on Paul Simon's latest album So Beautiful Or So What. 

Or you can hear him and Brownie sing themselves here. The sound is dated, yes, but between this and Clapton's Unplugged I'd rather hear this, and probably so would Eric. Which is not to say that Unplugged isn't a great record!

The mastering is well done and while the first copy I received of this United Record Pressing pressed LP was scuffed and gashed and awful, the second copy was very good. The producer assured me the second was what you'll get if you buy a copy of this $18.99 album, which I recommend you do.