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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Sonny Terry Bio Question
Sonny Terry Bio Question
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Dog Face
232 posts
Jan 13, 2014
7:35 AM
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I picked up the harmonica as a joke, but when I heard Sonny Terry whoopin and a hollering I was addicted and have never been able to put the thing down.
I'm putting together a project about Sonny and and have found conflicting information. Was Sonny born in Greensboro, GA or Greensboro, NC? Wikipedia says GA another source says NC.
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Brad
Last Edited by Dog Face on Jan 13, 2014 7:36 AM
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tmf714
2330 posts
Jan 13, 2014
8:00 AM
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AFAIK he was born in Greensboro,North Carolina.
Wiki is an ok source,but most of the info is uploaded there by random people.
My info on Sonny comes from two very reputable sources.
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tmf714
2331 posts
Jan 13, 2014
8:05 AM
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Its also mentioned in the book "The Harp Styles of Sonny Terry"
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tmf714
2332 posts
Jan 13, 2014
8:08 AM
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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.It wasn’t until the 1930s that the pendulum swung the
other way).
Last Edited by tmf714 on Jan 13, 2014 8:10 AM
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