Sonny boy williamson ii biography book

Sonny Boy Williamson II

American blues composer (–)

This article is about the blues musician who lived from c. to For the Sonny Boy Williamson who lived from to , see Sonny Teen Williamson I.

For other people named Alex Miller, see Alex Miller (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Sonny Bill Williams.

Musical artist

Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, [3][a] – May 24, ),[4] known later in his career as Sonny Lad Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.[2] He was an early and influential blues harp stylist who recorded successfully in the s and s.

Miller used various names, including Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue, before calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson, which was also the name of a popular Chicago blues singer and harmonica player. To distinguish the two, Miller has been referred to as Sonny Young man Williamson&#;II.

He first recorded with Elmore James on "Dust My Broom".[5] Some of his widespread songs include "Don't Start Me Talkin'", "Help Me", "Checkin' Up on My Baby", and "Bring It On Home".[6] He toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival and recorded with English rock musicians, including the Yardbirds and Animals.

"Help Me" became a blues standard,[7] and many blues and rock artists have recorded his songs.

Biography

Early days

Miller's date and place of birth are disputed. There are various opinions about his year of birth, five of which are , , , , and According to David Evans, professor of music and an ethnomusicologist at the University of Memphis, census records indicate that Miller was born in about , being seven years elderly on February 2, , the day of the census.[8][9] Miller's gravestone at Tutwiler, Mississippi, put up by record company owner Lillian McMurry twelve years after his death, gives his meet of birth as March 11, [4][10] In a spoken pos performance called “The Story of Sonny Boy Williamson” that was later included in several compilations, Miller states that he was born in Glendora, Mississippi in According to researchers Bob Eagle and Eric S.

LeBlanc, he was born in the tiny community of Money, near Greenwood, Mississippi, in [11]

He lived and worked with his sharecropper stepfather, Jim Miller, whose last label he soon adopted, and mother, Millie Ford, until the preceding s.

Beginning in the s, he traveled around Mississippi and Arkansas and encountered Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, who would play guitar on his later Checker Records sides.

He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years. Willie Dixon recalled seeing Lockwood and Miller playing for tips in Greenville, Mississippi, in the s.

He entertained audiences with novelties such as inserting one finish of the harmonica into his mouth and playing with no hands. At this time he was often known as "Rice" Miller—a childhood nickname stemming from his love of rice and milk[12]—or as "Little Boy Blue".[1]

In Miller was hired to engage the King Biscuit Time exhibition, advertising the King Biscuit mark of baking flour on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas, with Lockwood.

Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in , he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the finish of it.

The program's sponsor, Max Moore, began billing Miller as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalize on the fame of the well-known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer Sonny Boy Williamson (birth name John Lee Curtis Williamson, died ).

Although John Lee Williamson was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the identify "Sonny Boy Williamson" from onward, Miller would later claim to have been the first to use the name.

Some blues scholars believe that Miller's statement he was born in was a ruse to convince audiences he was old enough to have used the name before John Lee Williamson, who was born in

While in Clarksdale, Williamson stayed at the Riverside Hotel.[13] A year-old Ike Turner backed Williamson on piano during local gigs.[14]

Radio show in West Memphis

In , Williamson relocated to West Memphis, Arkansas, and lived with Howlin' Wolf.

(Later, for Checker Records, he did a parody of Howlin' Wolf, entitled "Like Wolf".) He started his own KWEM radio show from to , selling the elixir Hadacol. He brought his King Biscuit musician friends to West Memphis—Elmore James, Houston Stackhouse, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Robert Nighthawk, and others—to perform on KWEM radio.

Williamson married Howlin' Wolf's half-sister Maggy and he showed Wolf how to play harmonica.[12]

Recording career

Williamson's first recording session took place in for Lillian McMurry of Trumpet Records, based in Jackson, Mississippi.

It was three years since the death of John Lee Williamson, which for the first time allowed some legitimacy to Miller's carefully worded claim to being "the one and only Sonny Boy Williamson". When Trumpet went bankrupt in , Williamson's recording contract was yielded to its creditors, who sold it to Chess Records in Chicago.

He had begun developing a following in Chicago beginning in , when he appeared there as a member of Elmore James's band. During his Chess years he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim, recording about 70 songs for the Chess subsidiary Checker Records from to His first LP record was a compilation of previously released singles.

Titled Down and Out Blues, Checker released the collection in A free, "Boppin' with Sonny" backed with "No Nights by Myself", was released by Ace Records in [15]

In , Chess released This Is My Story, a compilation album featuring Williamson's recordings for the label.

It was later included in Robert Christgau's "basic record library" of s and s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies ().[16]

s European tours

In the early s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze, backed on a number of occasions by the Authentics (see American Folk Blues Festival), recording with the Yardbirds (for the album Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds) and the Animals, and appearing on several television broadcasts throughout Europe.

Around this time he was quoted as saying of the backing bands who accompanied him, "those British boys want to participate the blues real bad, and they do".[17]

Sonny Boy took a liking to the European fans, and while there had a custom-made, two-tone suit tailored personally for him, along with a bowler hat, matching umbrella, and an attaché case for his harmonicas.

He appears credited as "Big Skol" on Roland Kirk's live album Kirk in Copenhagen ().[18]

Death

Upon his return to the U.S., he resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed in the Helena, Arkansas area.

As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, , the broadcast hour was approaching and Williamson was nowhere in sight. Peck left the radio station to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he had been staying, dead of an clear heart attack suffered in his sleep the night before.

Williamson is buried on New Africa Road, just outside Tutwiler, Mississippi at the site of the former Whitman Chapel cemetery. Trumpet Records owner McMurry provided the headstone with an incorrect go out of death.[4]

Naming

The recordings made by John Lee Williamson between and his death in and those made between and by "Rice" Miller were all originally issued under the name Sonny Male child Williamson.

It is believed that Miller adopted the name to suggest to audiences (and to his first record label) that he was the "original" Sonny Boy.[19] To differentiate between the two musicians, scholars and biographers have referred to John Lee Williamson (–) as "Sonny Young man Williamson I" or "the authentic Sonny Boy" and to Miller (circa –) as "Sonny Teen Williamson II".[20]

Legacy

In , Williamson was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Helena, Arkansas.[21]

Discography

Albums

  • Down and Out Blues (Chess, )
  • A Portrait in Blues (Storyville, )
  • The Blues of Sonny Boy Williamson (Storyville, )
  • Sonny Teen Williamson and Memphis Slim (Disques Vogue, )
  • Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds (Fontana TL, )
  • The Real Folk Blues (Chess, [])
  • More Real Folk Blues (Chess, )
  • Don't Send Me No Flowers (Marmalade, []) with Brian Auger, Jimmy Page
  • Bummer Road (Chess, )
  • King Biscuit Time (Arhoolie, )
  • Sonny Boy Williamson and the Animals (Faces & Places, Vol.

    2) (BYG , )

  • One Way Out (Chess, )

Singles and EPs

  • "Eyesight to the Blind" / "Crazy About You Baby" (Trumpet , 2/51)
  • "Do It if You Wanta" / "Cool, Fresh Blues" (Trumpet , 9/51)
  • "Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues" / "Pontiac Blues" (Trumpet , 11/51)
  • "Stop Crying" / "Come on Back Home" (Trumpet , 3/52) as 'Sonny Young man Williamson, His Harmonica and Dwelling Rockers'
  • "Stop Now Baby" / "Mr.

    The BluesHarp Page:Legends:Sonny Boy Williamson II: He was an preceding and influential blues harp stylist who recorded successfully in the s and s. Miller used various names, including Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue, before calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson, which was also the call of a popular Chicago blues singer and harmonica player.

    Downchild" (Trumpet , 8/52) as 'Sonny Boy Williamson, His Harmonica and House Rockers'

  • "Nine Below Zero" / "Mighty Long Time" (Trumpet , 2/53)
  • "I Cross My Heart" / "West Memphis Blues" (Trumpet , 8/53) as 'Sonny Boy Williamson, His Harmonica and House Rockers'
  • "Too Close Together" / "Cat Hop" (Trumpet , 12/53)
  • "Going in Your Direction" / "Red Hot Kisses" (Trumpet , 4/54)
  • "She Brought Existence Back to the Dead" / "Gettin' Out of Town" (Trumpet , 7/54)
  • "From the Bottom" / "Empty Bedroom" (Trumpet , 2/55)
  • "No Nights by Myself" / "Boppin' with Sonny" (Ace , )
  • "Don't Start Me Talkin'"/ "All My Love in Vain" (Checker , )
  • "Let Me Explain" / "Your Imagination" (Checker , )
  • "Keep It to Yourself" / "The Key (To Your Door)" (Checker , )
  • "Fattening Frogs for Snakes" / "I Don't Know" (Checker , )
  • "Born Blind" / "Ninety-Nine" (Checker , )
  • "Your Funeral and My Trial" / "Wake Up, Baby" (Checker , )
  • "Cross My Heart" / "Dissatisfied" (Checker , )
  • "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" / "Unseeing Eye" (Checker , )
  • "The Goat" / "It's Sorrowful to Be Alone" (Checker , )
  • "Lonesome Cabin" / "Temperature " (Checker , )
  • "Trust My Baby" / "Too Close Together" (Checker , )
  • "Stop Right Now" / "The Hunt" (Checker , )
  • "The Hunt" / "Little Village" (Checker , ) re-release
  • "One Way Out" / "Nine Below Zero" (Checker , )
  • "Help Me" / "Bye Bye Bird" (Checker , )
  • "Trying to Get Back on My Feet" / "Decoration Day" (Checker , )
  • "I Want You Finish to Me" / "My Younger Days" (Checker , )
  • "Bring It On Home" / "Down Child" (Checker , )
  • "Baby Let Me Come Back Home" / "November Boogie" / "All Nite Boogie" / "Leavin' Blues" [EP] (Collectors Special [Denmark] Records CS, )
  • "From the Bottom" / "Empty Bedroom" (Blue Horizon [UK] Records , ) as 'Sonny Boy Williamson and His Houserockers'[22]

Compilations

  • In Memoriam (, reissued as The Real Folk Blues, )
  • Blues Classics by 'The Original' Sonny Boy Williamson ()
  • This Is My Story (, reissued as Chess Blues Masters: Sonny Boy Williamson, ) 2-LP
  • King Biscuit Time () [the first 5 Trumpet singles, plus 5 more tracks recorded in ]
  • The Inherent Sonny Boy Williamson (Chess/MCA, ) 2-CD
  • His Best (Chess/MCA, )
  • On various Youtube videos from live European performances [1]

As Sonny Boy Williamson, His Harmonica and Houserockers

Singles

  • "Stop Crying" / "Come on Back Home" (Trumpet, )
  • "Stop Now Baby" / "Mr.

    Downchild" (Trumpet, )

  • "I Cross My Heart" / "West Memphis Blues" (Trumpet, )
  • "From the Bottom" / "Empty Bedroom" (Blue Horizon, )[22]

Notes

  1. ^ abPlease see the "Early days" section for more information.

References

  1. ^ abc"Sonny Boy's Lonesome Cabin".

    . Retrieved July 11,

  2. ^ abKoda, Cub. "Sonny Boy Williamson". AllMusic.

    While tall tales, fibs, or mysteries were a part of Sonny Boy Williamson II throughout his life, his most crucial contributions have been documented adequately through countless recordings on myriad labels.

    Retrieved December 12,

  3. ^"Sonny Boy Williamson". Mississippi Blues Trail. Retrieved July 11,
  4. ^ abcCochoran, Robert.

    "'Sonny Boy' Williamson II". Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

    Alex or Aleck Miller originally Fordpossibly December 5, [ 3 ] [ a ] — May 24,[ 4 ] known later in his career as Sonny Young man Williamsonwas an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. Miller used various names, including Rice Miller and Little Boy Bluebefore calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson, which was also the label of a popular Chicago blues singer and harmonica player. Miller's date and place of birth are disputed. There are various opinions about his year of birth, five of which are, and

    Retrieved July 11,

  5. ^*"Dust My Broom". Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Pressurize. ISBN&#;.
  6. ^"The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson" (CD booklet). Sonny Boy Williamson II.

    Universal City, California: MCA Records. p.&#; CHD: CS1 maint: others (link)

  7. ^Herzhaft, Gerard (). "Help Me". Encyclopedia of the Blues. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  8. ^Donoghue, William E.

    (July ). "Sonny Boy II Told His Sisters 'Keep It to Yourself' but They Told Me His Best-kept Secret". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved July 11,

  9. ^" Census".

    Presented by the Blues Foundation. So, do we know who he really was? Perhaps not, but more facts has come to light in recent years concerning the gentleman referred to as Sonny Teen Williamson II. He was born in, or near, Glendora, MS, and that is about all there is for fact.

    . Archived from the original on December 14, Retrieved July 11,

  10. ^"Sonny Boy Williamson II". . Retrieved July 11,
  11. ^Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (). Blues - A Regional Experience.

    Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

  12. ^ abDonoughue, William. "'Fessor Mojo on Rice Miller (Sonny Boy II)". . Retrieved July 11,
  13. ^"Riverside Hotel".

    The Mississippi Blues Trail. Retrieved July 22,

  14. ^Kiersh, Ed (August ).

    By the period of his death inhe had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim, and simply wrote, played and' sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records. His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp playing was full of short, rhythmic bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed page.

    "Ike's Story". Spin:

  15. ^"Ace Records discography". . Retrieved July 11,
  16. ^Christgau, Robert (). "Consumer Guide '70s: W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies.

    Ticknor & Fields. ISBN&#;. Retrieved March 22, &#; via

  17. ^Collum, Danny Duncan (January ). "Embracing Art's Sacred Power". Sojourners. p.&#; Retrieved December 27,
  18. ^"Roland Kirk Catalog".

    . Retrieved July 11,

  19. ^Barry, Sam (September ). How to Play the Harmonica and Other Life Lessons. Gibbs Smith. pp.&#;89– ISBN&#;. Retrieved September 6,
  20. ^Guides, Rough; McHugh, Rich (July 1, ).

    The Rough Guide to Chicago – Rich McHugh. Rough Guides Limited. p.&#; ISBN&#;. Retrieved September 6,

  21. ^"Sonny Boy Williamson getting Mississippi Blues Trail marker |". Mississippi Blues Journal.

    Created for free using WordPress and Kubio. He became renowned for his harmonica skills, distinctive voice, and charismatic stage presence, leaving an indelible mark on the blues landscape. Growing up in the Grave South, Williamson learned to compete the harmonica and developed his vocal prowess at an initial age. Influenced by the sounds of the Delta blues and the vibrant musical culture surrounding him, he honed his craft through street performances and local gigs.

    October 8, Archived from the original on July 22, Retrieved July 22,

  22. ^ ab"Sonny Boy Williamson (2) Discography". Discogs. Retrieved September 6,