[Harp-L] Re:Sonny Terry

[SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx]

Sonny told me his father played the harmonica, to what degree I am sure we  
will never know. Sonny really isolated after losing the sight in his second eye 
 at age 16, first was at 11, both accidents. The harmonica became his life, 
and  like Little Walter playing for countless hours to develop his style, a lot 
must  have been done before he started going out and trying to make money on 
Friday  paydays on the street. Sure there were some whoopers back then, but 
Sonny was  beautiful in being able to play on harp what the singer was 
vocalizing, so I am  sure he listening to extraneous sounds and tried to recreate them 
on harp. " I  know the sun's gonna shine, in my, back door, some day." Was 
just one example of  that line he played so sweetly.  The flailing of the hands, 
whooping,  falsetto, all developed while the money was dropping in Sonny's hat 
as there  could have been a number of musicians vying for the same money when 
people got  paid. The more it dropped, the more he went off. If was the was 
he performed the  rest of the his life, audience reaction to what he was doing, 
not being able to  see, only feel. Towards the end it was one of the issues 
Brownie had with  Sonny, as Brownie wanted to expand the music, do different 
things, which would  mean Sonny would have to play differently, which was not 
going to happen. The  audience called out songs from their albums, and Sonny 
wanted to continue giving  them what they wanted. Brownie was more a philosopher, 
defiantly sung about  racism, I had many long interesting conversations with 
Brownie. Mark Hummel and  I just had this conversation when we played together 
at David Barrett's  Masterclass in Chicago a few months ago, as Mark played 
with Brownie briefly.  That would be all I will say about their not talking for 
so many years, being  together for 45-50 years is one helluva long time to be 
with anyone. I tried  ONCE to get in the middle and bring them together, 
after a long  conversation with Brownie, said something to Sonny like, "you know 
Sonny,  Brownie said>>>> I was cut off with a very quick, " Man, you work  for 
ME". End of subject.