Alex or
Aleck Miller ( December 5, 1912– May 24, 1965), known later in his career as
Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American
blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.
He was an early and influential blues harp stylist who recorded
successfully in the 1950s and 1960s. 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 Boy Williamson II.
He first recorded with
Elmore James on "
Dust My Broom". Some of his popular songs include "
Don't Start Me Talkin'", "
Help Me", "
Checkin' Up on My Baby", and "
Bring It On Home". He toured Europe with the
American Folk Blues Festival and recorded with English rock musicians, including the
Yardbirds, the
Animals, and
Jimmy Page. "Help Me" became a
blues standard,
[5] and many blues and rock artists have recorded his songs(Wikipedia)
Williamson's first recording session took place in 1951 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 1955, 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
1953, 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 1955 to 1964. His first
LP record was a compilation of previously released singles. Titled
Down and Out Blues, Checker released the collection in 1959. A single, "Boppin' with Sonny" backed with "No Nights by Myself", was released by
Ace Records in 1955.
In the early 1960s 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 play the blues real bad,
and they do". Led Zeppelin biographer
Stephen Davis writes in
Hammer of the Gods,
while in England Williamson set his hotel room on fire while trying to
cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. The book also maintains that
future Led Zeppelin vocalist
Robert Plant stole one of the bluesman's harmonicas at one of these shows.
Robert Palmer
wrote in his blues history "Deep Blues", that during this tour
Williamson allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the
country abruptly.
[citation needed]
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 (1963).
[11] One of his final recordings from England, in 1964, featured him singing "I'm Trying to Make London My Home", with
Hubert Sumlin providing the guitar.
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, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time 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 apparent 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 date of death.
