The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    oldenGoldenDecoy's picture

    The Highway is My Middle Name

    By oldenGoldenDecoy on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 5:07pm |

    Life's travels .  .  .

    Thanks to Orion for tickling the memories...


    Brownie McGhee -  born November 30,1915 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

    Here he is in 1966 performing "Key to the Highway" with Sonny Terry on harmonica and Pete Seeger.

    This is the very same year I first met and worked with these two fine gentlemen in Memphis.

    In July through December 1966 I was 20 and attending a Navy aviation ejection seat school in MillingtonTennessee 15 miles northeast of Memphis out Hiway 51.

    While in Memphis I was befriended by a fella named Charlie Brown. You can find a short graph on Charlie here in producer/musician Jim Dickerson's (wiki career) book  I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone.

    Charlie put me to work on the weekends. Charlie not only owned and booked the Bitter Lemon Coffee house out off Poplar Street but also the concerts at the armory. He knew every musician and poet that ever lived in or passed through Memphis. And yes, Elvis. But since he's left the building that's another whole story.

    There's no fooling 'round when it's the real deal. I hope you Enjoy.

    Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded this song in 1940.

     

     

    ~OGD~

    Comments

    I actually know a lot about the jazz/blues/Greatest Generation era. I could teach a class about it, if that's something anyone is interested in. There were a lot of videos like the one of Brownie McGhee you posted, where a talented musician would just be performing in a casual environment, back then. I guess they showed them before the main feature at the cinema.


    by Orion on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 5:59pm

    Easy enough to set up classes on the internet, do a Patreon acct if you think to get paid a bit... May be a decent audience for it, depending.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 6:11pm

    Any ideas for a title for such a subject? I have a few but I could use others.


    by OrionXP (not verified) on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 10:30pm

    PeraclesPlease - this was a fantastic idea. I started an account and am working on the first podcast now.


    by Orion on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 11:55pm


    by Orion on Wed, 12/02/2020 - 12:20am