New York Blues and R&b

Granville McGhee, born in 1917 in Knoxville, TN, was two years younger than his brother Brownie, who contracted polio and was left with a right leg shorter than the left. Granville made him a cart and became known as 'Stick', for the wooden utensil with which he pushed the cart. Both boys learned guitar from their father. The brothers played at parties, sometimes Brownie playing piano. Then they met Lesley Riddles, a multi-instrumentalist who worked the riverboats for drinking parties escaping 'dry' Sullivan County. Brownie and Riddles played guitar and Stick would dance with 'a couple of girls with short dresses on'. America entered the war and Stick landed at boot camp in St. Petersburg, FL, where he put together a song which would become Drinkin' Wine, Spo De O Dee Drinkin' Wine. Stick's war service lasted four years. Back in New York in 1946 he wasted no time in doing a session with his brother, as part of Dan Burley's Skiffle Boys. Thereafter, Brownie would work with Stick on the 'wine' song. Eventually they cut it on the obscure Harlem label. It sank without trace. In February 1949 Ahmet Ertegun wanting to record the obscure song, phoned the only blues singer he knew in New York - Brownie McGhee. A session followed. The Atlantic version hung around the R&B charts for 22 weeks, climbing to No. 3. There was an obstacle. 'We forgot about the original version. Next thing we know, Decca is competing with us. They found the original version, and put it back on the market. But we outsold them ...' Drinkin' Wine was Atlantic's first hit. At the turn of 52/53, Stick signed with King Records. Stick went on to work for a variety of labels - a progress that's documented here. There was a final single for Herald in 1960, with Sonny Terry in attendance. In the same year he died from lung cancer in the Bronx Veterans Hospital on August 15, 1961. Also featured on this collection are Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee who, as a duo and solo, took blues to the world.