Interview with Brownie McGhee [Tape #008]

Side A description: Silence [00:00]; Moving as a child, jukebox [00:15]; Dancehall in house, bootlegging, Police chief Jim Broyles raid [02:11]; Bootlegging case dismissed by judge [06:00]; Judge convinces him to leave town [07:50]; Moves to North Carolina, New York [08:35]; Police confiscate his car because of bootlegging [10:38]; Travels to West Virginia to play music in the coal fields [15:15]; Moves to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, meets Jordan Webb and J.B. Long [17:09]; Outbreak of World War II, Blind Boy Fuller No. 2 [23:33]; Recorded with Big Bill Broonzy as Brother George and His Sanctified Singers [25:08]; Takes portrait with big black hat for album cover [26:53]; J.B. Long gives him Blind Boy Fuller’s guitar [29:40]; Breaks with J.B. Long and Columbia Records, signs with Decca Records [30:20]; Never played in nightclubs in New York City [32:15]; Moves out of Lead Belly’s apartment to Harlem, manager Nick Ray [33:28]; He was too rough to play in nightclubs [34:08]; Manager goes to war, moves in with cousin in Connecticut [35:40]; Woody Guthrie, Sonny and Brownie in play written by Guthrie [36:40]; Moves to Harlem, plays on the street and in liquor joints [39:47]; Sonny Terry joins him in Harlem, two play together on the street as a duet [41:00] Side B description: Silence [00:00]; Sonny Terry starts singing, learning to play together [00:07]; Identity as folk-blues musicians [06:10]; Sonny cast in Broadway play Finian’s Rainbow, joins musicians union [07:04]; Sonny records hit song, “Tuesday hoppin’ n’ hollerin’” [09:37]; Union musician as member of Local 802 [11:36]; Performing with Jack Dupree, Brownie McGhee and His Jook Blockbusters [13:10]; Playing on Lennox Ave. night Franklin Delano Roosevelt died [15:08]; Jukeboxes and records hurting business for live musicians [16:38]; Herman Lubinski, Savoy Records, drinking in recording studio [22:15]; Brownie McGhee and His Mighty Rockers [32:20]; Sticks McGhee’s song, “Drinkin’ wine spo-dee-dee”, Atlantic Records [35:40]; Contract with Okeh Records, J.B. Long [45:00]