His father, George Duffield Mc Ghee, a singer-pianist, was the head of a family
of five children. Brownie lost part of his right arm to poliomyelitis when he
was just 4, but this did not stop him from building a guitar for himself at the
age of 6. He left school at an early age, started singing in the Baptist church
with his father (1927-1928), then began a career as a traveling musician at
carnivals, balls and during movie intermissions in the state of Tennessee. In
the early '30s, he returned to work with his father in the Golden Voice Gospel
Quartet in Maryville, Tennessee. He...