Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee: Rainbow Quest (DVD)

Read About This Recording

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were one of the most enduring blues acts of the post-war era, forming an association that was to last three decades. Terry's distinctive harmonica style combining whoops and hollers blended well with McGhee's warm voice and tasteful guitar picking. Along with Pete Seeger, Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, Brownie and Sonny were part of the burgeoning New York folk scene around 1940, and in their musical reunion here with Pete they perform a captivating mix of traditional blues and folk music.

Mississippi John Hurt's superb guitar playing and gentle, expressive voice made him one of the most acclaimed figures in blues history, and his appearance here shows his skills had not diminished since his classic 1928 recordings. Hedy West brought the musical heritage of her Georgia roots to the folk revival of the 1960s and performs several songs accompanying herself on five-string banjo. Paul Cadwell drew his material from turn of the century ragtime and plays a number of rags, cakewalks and traditional banjo pieces.

Extended Article

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest is a ground breaking television series from the 1960s featuring authentic traditional music played in the atmosphere of an informal back porch picking party with guest appearance by well known musicians from bluegrass, country, folk, blues, gospel and world music.

Contents

Seeger: Opening Medley; Blue Yodel; Peg and Awl; Rock Island Line; Buguncia Carol; Terry/McGhee: Key to the Highway; I Couldn't Believe My Eyes; I'm a Burnt Child; Easy Rider; Fighting a Losing Battle; McGhee: Don't Pity Me; Terry: Hootin' the Blues; All: Cindy; Rock Island Line; Down By the Riverside; In the Evening; When the Saints Go Marching In; Goodnight Irene; West: Cotton Mill Girl; Little Sadie; Ballad of William Moore (in German); Cadwell: Georgia Camp Meeting; Ragtime Episode Medley; Golden Slippers/Flop Eared Mule; Little Brown Jug; Hurt: You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley; Spike Driver Blues.