Sonny Terry was the most prominent blues harmonica player on the American folk music scene for over thirty years, He became known for crossing over from blues to folk music and blurring the lines between the two styles. He also introduced the innovation of using vocal sounds through his harmonica while playing, giving the instrument a unique sound. Terry was born Saunders Terrell in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1911.

He was partially blinded as a young child, and another accident at around age sixteen blinded him completely. Because he needed a career that took his handicap into account, Terry opted to take up singing blues and playing the harmonica, having been taught by his father.

Terry first recorded with Blind Boy Fuller in 1937, and teamed up with his longtime music partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, in 1941. The pair became popular on the folk music circuit, and, through relationships formed there, Terry began recording with folk luminaries Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Leadbelly. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee per-formed together until the middle of the 1970s. Terry died in 1986.