Re: [Harp-L] Re: Sonny Terry Huang's

["Mark Lavoie" <lavoie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,
I first saw Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in Platsburgh N.Y in1974. It was
around Nov-Dec and the temperature was in the teens with ligtht snow
falling.. We drove from Bristol,Vt and it took a couple of hours. I started
playing  harmonica in 1971. Sonny Terry was the player I listened to most of
all.Paul Butterfield was the other player I listened to, but Sonny's
acoustic sound had me hooked.  We got seats six rows back from the front of
the stage. When they started playing the energy was incredible. Sonny's
rythem just knocked me out. His foot was tapping with every beat and
doubling up at times when he would do those difficult timmings andh his arms
would be flailing. The first thing I noticed he was playing was this Red
harmonica. There was an intermission, and I got to go back stage and meet
Sonny and Brownie. That was when Sonny showed me his Golden Melody. On the
way back home I was as happy as I could be, meeting Sonny Terry and Brownie
McGhee. Six months later I had a few Golden Melodys in my harp box.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Mark LaVoie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tom ball" <havaball@xxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 11:26 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Sonny Terry Huang's


> >Gary writes:
> >Sonny played Golden Melody's throughout his career, many years before I
was
> with him in the late 70's. <snip>
> _________
> Hi Gary,
> I don't mean to nitpick here (and I also respect the fact that you
> knew Sonny a helluva lot better than I did,) but the wording of the
> above sentence may be misinterpreted. Golden Melodys were not
> introduced until after Sonny had been playing for at least 3 decades.
> Not sure what year GM's were intro'd (Rick?), but for the majority of
> his career, Sonny was a player of Marine Bands.  It's true of course
> that he changed to GMs once they became available.
>
> cheers and respect,
> Tom Ball
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