Brownie McGhee - The Complete Brownie McGhee (1994)

That Brownie McGhee's career should span several decades really comes as no surprise. The energetic and charismatic bluesman managed to wear many hats during his lengthy musical life, appealing to several disparate audiences throughout the years without ever changing his basic style or direction.

Born in Tennessee in 1915 and raised in a musical family, a crippling childhood bout with polio kept McGhee housebound, and thus able to hone his musical skills. He was already in his twenties when he graduated from high school, a short time after which an operation provided the young artist with near total mobility. He began his musical career as a traveling bluesman, playing towns across Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. He made his way to North Carolina, where he was discovered by J.B. Long, manager for popular blues artist "Blind Boy" Fuller.

Collecting the initial sides recorded by McGhee for Okeh/Columbia during 1940 and 1941, The Complete Brownie McGhee showcases a talented artist developing his style from record to record. McGhee seems to have enjoyed a fair degree of commercial success with several songs, including Me And My Dog Blues and Picking My Tomatoes, but a number of the 47 recordings presented on The Complete Brownie McGhee are unreleased sides. His fluid vocals are accompanied by his own guitar, and the harmonica playing of old friend Jordan Webb and maybe a washboard player, offering up a healthy dose of traditional southern blues, mixing the best of that musical history with strains of Gospel and hillbilly music in the creation of a style and performance that remains unique to this day. (Sony Legacy Recordings)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Complete Brownie McGhee from Amazon.com)