Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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McGHEE, Brownie

(b Walter Brown McGhee, 30 November 1915, Knoxville TN; d 18 February 1996, San Francisco) Blues singer, guitarist; also piano, kazoo, etc. Polio as a child left him with one short leg. Father taught him guitar c.1922; he attended high school but dropped out to hobo as an itinerant musician: met Sonny Terry '39 and they worked together almost continuously thereafter. He often worked with his brother in the late 1940s: Granville H. 'Stick' McGhee (b 23 March 1918, Knoxville; d of cancer 15 August 1961, NYC) got his nickname using a stick to push his brother around on a cart as a child. They recorded together on Decca '47, worked in trio as the Three B's in Harlem clubs. Stick's 'Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, Drinkin' Wine' '49 was the first big hit on the Atlantic label, no. 3 R&B, followed up with no. 2 'Tennessee Waltz Blues' '51. Stick recorded for King, Savoy, Prestige '50s; but Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were a world-famous duo (see Terry's entry).