Sonny Terry › Similar Artists

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - 100% match to Sonny Terry

Big Walter Horton - 86% match to Sonny Terry

6 April 1918, Horn Lake, Mississippi, USA, d. 8 December 1981, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Horton, also aka "Shakey", "Mumbles" and "Big Walter", claimed to have taught himself harmonica by the time he was five years old, and certainly the extraordinary skill he achieved speaks of a very special affinity with the instrument. By his teens, he was in Memphis and beginning to make Read more

Brownie McGhee - 83% match to Sonny Terry

Walter Brown McGhee, 30 November 1915, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, d. 16 February 1996, Oakland, California, USA. McGhee learned guitar from his father, and started a musical career early on, playing in church before he was 10 years old, and on the road with medicine shows, carnivals and minstrel troupes in his early teens. His travels took him into the Carolinas, and his tim Read more

Carey Bell - 81% match to Sonny Terry

Carey Bell Harrington, 14 November 1936, Macon, Mississippi, USA, d. 6 June 2007, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Bell began to play harmonica after being inspired by the records of Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williams. He played with a white C&W band and with his ‘stepfather’, Lovie Lee. He moved to Chicago with Lee in the mid-50s Read more

Snooky Pryor - 56% match to Sonny Terry

James Edward Pryor, 15 September 1921, Lambert, Mississippi, USA, d. 18 October 2006. As a child Pryor became drawn to the harmonica after watching an albino player, John Blissett, together with his friend Jimmy Rogers. When he was 13 he saw Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson number 2) play. After settling in Chicago in 1945 after US Army service, Pryor joined the Maxwell Str Read more

Frank Frost - 47% match to Sonny Terry

15 April 1936, Auvergne, Arkansas, USA, d. 12 October 1999, Helena, Arkansas, USA. Frost’s skills encompassed keyboards and guitar, but like many other blues artists, he started with the harmonica. After moving to St. Louis as a teenager, he took up playing with Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williamson in the mid-50s, appearing regularly with him on the famous radio Read more

Sugar Blue - 47% match to Sonny Terry

James Whiting, 16 December 1949, New York City, New York, USA. Born into a showbusiness family, Sugar Blue began playing harmonica as a child and by his mid-teens was an accomplished and assured performer. He sat in with acknowledged blues masters and held his own, leading to invites to appear on record with artists such as Victoria Spivey, Louisiana Red, Johnny Shines, and Read more

Billy Boy Arnold - 44% match to Sonny Terry

16 September 1935, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Arnold first played blues harmonica with Bo Diddley’s group in 1950 and became a well-known figure in Chicago blues throughout the following two decades. Among those he accompanied were Johnny Shines and Otis Rush. With a serviceable singing voice and a harmonica style influenced by John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson, Ar Read more

Kim Wilson - 44% match to Sonny Terry

6 January 1951, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Wilson is a member of the blues band the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Tigerman, his first solo album, predominantly comprised cover versions, performed by various combinations of ex-and current Thunderbirds, including Duke Robillard, Preston Hubbard, Fran Christina, Gene Taylor and Rusty Zinn, and also Derek O’Brien, Calvin Jones and Ge Read more

William Clarke - 44% match to Sonny Terry

29 March 1951, Inglewood, California, USA, d. 2 November 1996, Torrence, California, USA. Clarke began playing harmonica at the age of 16, inspired by the records of Junior Wells and Walter Horton. He turned professional two years later, and by the late 70s had become a well-respected harmonica player and singer on the Los Angeles blues scene. He associated with Smokey Wilso Read more

Sleepy John Estes - 42% match to Sonny Terry

John Adams Estes, 25 January 1899, Ripley, Tennessee, USA, d. 5 June 1977, Brownsville, Tennessee, USA. This influential blues singer first performed at local house-parties while in his early teens. In 1916 he began working with mandolin player Yank Rachell, a partnership that was revived several times throughout their respective careers. It was also during this formative pe Read more

Big Joe Williams - 41% match to Sonny Terry

Joe Lee Williams, 16 October 1903, Crawford, Mississippi, USA, d. 17 December 1982, Macon, Mississippi, USA. Big Joe Williams was one of the most important blues singers to have recorded and also one whose life conforms almost exactly to the stereotyped pattern of how a ‘country’ blues singer should live. He was of partial Red Indian stock, his father being ‘R Read more

Charlie Musselwhite - 41% match to Sonny Terry

31 January 1944, Mississippi, USA. Musselwhite grew up in Memphis where he was inspired to learn harmonica by hearing Sonny Terry on the radio. In 1962, he moved to Chicago, performing with Johnny Young, Big Joe Williams and J.B. Hutto. He also linked up with another white blues musician, Mike Bloomfield, before the latter went on to join Paul Butterfield’s group. Musse Read more

Sonny Boy Williamson - 41% match to Sonny Terry

Aleck/Alex Miller, 5 December 1899, Glendora, Mississippi, USA, d. 25 May 1965, Helena, Arkansas, USA. Being a man who would never compromise a good story by affording undue attention to veracity, and mischievous to boot, Sonny Boy’s own various accounts of his life were never to be trusted and led to much confusion. This artist was also known as Alex Ford (after his mo Read more

Lazy Lester - 35% match to Sonny Terry

Leslie Johnson, 20 June 1933 (or 1923), Torras, Louisiana, USA. Blues harmonica player and vocalist Lazy Lester recorded numerous singles for Excello Records in the late 50s and early 60s. Forming his first band in 1952, the musician’s first significant job was as a sideman for bluesman Lightnin’ Slim. Owing to his slow-moving, laid-back approach, Johnson received Read more