John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson (March 30, 1914 – June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player and singer-songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of recordings by many pre–World War II blues artists. Under his own name, he was one of the most recorded blues musicians of the 1930s and 1940s and is closely associated with Chicago producer Lester Melrose and Bluebird Records. His popular songs, original or adapted, include "Good Morning, School Girl", "Sugar Mama", "Early in the Morning", and "Stop Breaking Down".
Williamson's harmonica style was a great influence on postwar performers. Later in his career, he was a mentor to many up-and-coming blues musicians who moved to Chicago, including Muddy Waters. In an attempt to capitalize on Williamson's fame, Aleck "Rice" Miller began recording and performing as Sonny Boy Williamson in the early 1940s, and later, to distinguish the two, John Lee Williamson came to be known as Sonny Boy Williamson I or "the original Sonny Boy".
Biography and career
Williamson was born in Madison County, Tennessee, near Jackson, in 1914. His original recordings are in the country blues style, but he soon demonstrated skill at making the harmonica a lead instrument for the blues and popularized it for the first time in a more urban blues setting. He has been called "the father of modern blues harp". While in his teens he joined Yank Rachell and Sleepy John Estes, His killer was never traced.
Williamson is buried at the former site of the Blairs Chapel Church, southwest of Jackson, Tennessee. In 1991, a red granite marker was purchased by fans and family to mark the site of his burial. A Tennessee historical marker, also placed in 1991, indicates the place of his birth and describes his influence on blues music.
Name issues
His legacy has been somewhat overshadowed in the postwar blues era by the popularity of the musician who appropriated his name, Rice Miller. In order to differentiate between the two musicians, many later scholars and biographers have referred to John Lee Williamson (1914–1948) as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Miller (c. 1912–1965) as Sonny Boy Williamson II.
To add to the confusion, around 1940 the jazz pianist and singer Enoch Williams recorded for Decca under the name Sonny Boy Williams and in 1947 as Sunny Boy in the Sunny Boy Trio.
Singer-songwriter Randy Newman included a song about Miller ripping off Williamson's name on his 2017 album Dark Matter - "Sonny Boy," in which Newman, singing from the original Sonny Boy Williamson's perspective, imagines Williamson encountering Miller in a concert hall and calling him out for impersonating him (in reality, the two bluesmen never met), before leaving the hall in a frenzy and being shot. Williamson, in Newman's song, laments being "the only bluesman in heaven" because he did not live long enough to sin. He also resents how Miller went on to fame and fortune using Williamson's name, though he adds that Miller eventually went to England to "teach those English boys the blues . . . and it killed him".
Discography
Singles
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year || A-side || B-side || Label
|-
| 1937 || "Skinny Woman" || "Got the Bottle and Gone" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1937 || "Good Morning, School Girl" || "Sugar Mama" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Worried Me Blues" || "Frigidaire Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Suzanna Blues" || "Black Gal Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Up The Country Blues" || "Collector Man Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Miss Louisa Blues" || "Until My Love Come Down" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Decoration Day Blues" || "Down South" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Lord, Oh Lord Blues" || "Shannon Street Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Honey Bee Blues" || "Whiskey Head Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1938 || "Sunny Land" || "My Little Cornelius" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1939 || "Susie-Q" || "Goodbye Red" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1939 || "Doggin' My Love Around" || "Little Low Woman Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "Tell Me Baby" || "Honey Bee Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "I'm Not Pleasing You" || "New Ailhouse Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "I've Been Dealing With the Devil" || "War Time Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "Joe Louis & John Henry Blues" || "Thinking My Blues Away" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "Good Gravy" || "T. B. Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1940 || "Something Going On Wrong" || "Good Gal Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "Coal and Iceman Blues" || "Mattie Mae Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "Welfare Store Blues" || "Train Fare Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "Jivin' The Blues" || "My Little Machine" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "Western Union Man" || "Shotgun Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "My Baby Made a Change" || "Big Apple Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "You Got to Step Back" || "Sloppy Drunk Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1941 || "I'm Gonna Catch You Soon" || "Million Years Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1942 || "She Don't Love Me That Way" || "Black Panter Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1942 || "I Have Got to Go" || "My Black Name Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1942 || "Springtime Blues" || "Drink On Little Girl" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1942 || "Ground-Hog Blues" || "Broken Heart Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1942 || "Shady Grove Blues" || "She Was a Dreamer" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1944 || "Decoration Day Blues No. 2" || "Love Me, Baby" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1945 || "Miss Stella Brown-Blues" || "Desperado Woman" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1945 || "Win the War Blues" || "Check Up On My Baby" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1946 || "Sonny Boy's Jump" || "Elevator Woman" || style="text-align:center;"| Bluebird
|-
| 1946 || "You're an Old Lady" || "Early in the Morning" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1946 || "Shake the Boogie" || "Mean Old Highway" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1947 || "Hoodo Hoodo" || "Sonny Boy's Cold Chills" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1947 || "Lacey Belle" || "Polly Put the Kettle On" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1947 || "Mellow Chick Blues" || "G. M. & O. Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1948 || "Super Gal" || "Willow Tree Blues" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1948 || "All of Me" § || "Rub A Dub" § || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1948 || "Better Cut That Out" || "The Big Boat" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1948 || "Alcohol Blues" || "Apple Tree Swing" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1948 || "Rub A Dub" || "Stop Breaking Down" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1949 || "Wonderful Time" || "Blues About My Baby" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1949 || "Southern Dream" || "I Love You For Myself" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|-
| 1949 || "Bring Another Half A Pint" || "Little Girl" || style="text-align:center;"| RCA Victor
|}
§ Credited to Louis Prima and His Orchestra / Sonny Boy Williamson
Compilation albums
Williamson's recordings were issued on 78 rpm records by Bluebird Records (a subsidiary of RCA Victor Records) or, after the label was discontinued, RCA Victor. Over the years, RCA has released several compilations of Williamson's material, including:
- Big Bill & Sonny Boy (Side 2 only) (RCA, 1964)
- The Original Sonny Boy Williamson (Blues Classics, 1965)
- Bluebird Blues (RCA, 1970)
- Rare Sonny Boy (1937-1947) (RCA, 1988)
- RCA Blues & Heritage Series: The Bluebird Recordings, 1937-1938 (RCA, 1997)
- RCA Blues & Heritage Series: The Bluebird Recordings, 1938 (RCA, 1997)
- When The Sun Goes Down: The Secret History of Rock & Roll, Vol. 8: Bluebird Blues (RCA Victor, 2003)
Specialty labels, such as JSP Records, Saga, Indigo, Snapper, and others, have also released compilations. In 1991, Document Records issued Williamson's Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order as five CDs.