BUSTER BROWN

This Georgia-born singer and harp player had a wild, animated style with whoops and shrieks borrowed from Sonny Terry. Someone said he played harp like he was falling off a cliff! Buster was well into his forties when Fire Records brought him to New York to record ‘Fanny Mae’ in 1960. It was a big hit and crossed into the pop charts, but Buster never repeated that success.

A remake of Louis Jordan‘s ‘Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby’ and ‘Sugar Babe’ crawled into the charts, but the rest of Buster’s excellent material was ignored.

He cut a fine version of ‘Crawlin’ Kingsnake’ for Checker and recorded again in 1964 for Blue Horizon, but the records sank without trace. His song ‘Doctor Brown’ appeared on the first album by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.

Buster is quite restrained on his big hit, but it shows off his fine voice;