Although they recorded in a surprisingly varied number of styles,
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee are best remembered for their fortuitous take on traditional Piedmont blues material during the folk boom of the 1950s and early '60s, a musical revival that no doubt rescued
Terry & McGhee from the scrap pile of blues history. Driven by
Terry's trademark high-pitched and whooping harmonica and
McGhee's solid, steady acoustic guitar playing, the pair updated their traditional blues material just enough to earn steady gigs on the college and coffeehouse circuit, and if they had a tendency to knock off most of the rough edges in the songs they did, enough of the Piedmont tradition remained to make them valuable keepers of the flame. This set combines two of their albums for Fantasy Records, 1957's Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and 1962's Blues & Shouts, in a single package, presenting the blues duo during their urban folk boom peak. ~ Steve Leggett