SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON

Sonny Boy Williamson was born on the Sara Jones Plantation near Glendora, Mississippi. He was given the birth name of Alex Miller.
Miller would live with his mother and father and work as a sharecropper until the 1930s.

In the early 1930s he embraced the hobo lifestyle, traveling around the south playing blues harmonica mixed with a generous amount of whisky, women and fighting along the way.
In the mid 30s he was going by the mane of Little Boy Blue and traveling the Delta, playing the usual juke joints and country suppers, working with other emerging blues legends such as Robert Johnson, Elmore James and Robert Jr. Lockwood.
In 1941 Miller was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. This would be the first time America had heard a live blues show on the airwaves and also spawn one of the blues most legendary scams.
The show sponsor, Interstate Grocery Company, felt they could push more sacks of their King Biscuit Flour if Miller were to pose as Chicago Harmonica star John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, an act of amazing audacity when you consider that John Lee had already released dozens of successful and influential records. As fortune would have it when John Lee was murdered in Chicago, Miller became, in his own words, the original Sonny Boy.
Another major contribution to the history of Blues came about when Sonny Boy brought king Biscuit time guest Elmore James into the studio for a session. With Williamson blowing harp and the tape recording, Elmore recorded the first version of his signature tune “Dust My Broom”.

Twice Sonny Boy lived in Detroit playing with the Baby Boy Warren band among others. His popularity as a solo artist was also growing. A cunning, world weary delivery was broken by short, powerful bursts of laconic harp playing. Songs were about his life and experiences, full of caustic observations. His best work hangs on a swinging beat where blues harp, piano and guitar intertwine effortlessly. His use of space and tone would see him regarded as one of the blues greatest harp players.

In 1955 Williamson’s contract was sold to Chess Records in Chicago. Sonny Boys first recording session took place on August 12, and the single culled from it was “Don’t start me Talkin’,” which became his biggest hit so far on the R&B charts. A European tour took place in1963. Audiences craved the opportunity to hear authentic Blues and Williamson was more than happy to oblige. He loved the Adulation and freedom of 1960s Britain and started working the teenage Beat clubs between recording and touring with the Yardbirds and Animals. The record “Help Me” was a hit and charted throughout Europe.

Sonny travelled home to the Delta in 1965 and returned to playing many of the old haunts he had frequented as a boy. On May 25 he was found dead in his rooming house bed.
So ended the life of a true Blues legend, a simple Mississippi Delta share cropper who would go on to tour the world, host a radio show for 15 years, and had played with everyone from Robert Johnson to Eric Clapton.

Top Tracks

1 Help Me
2 Decoration Day
3 Bring it On Home
4 Don’t Start Me Talkin’
5 Lonesome Cabin

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