BB King called him the 'King of the Harmonica', and there can be little doubt that Sonny Boy Williamson was one of the all time great moothie players. Aleck Miller aka Ford was the 21st child born to Millie Ford, the illegitimate son of her and Jim Miller, born on a plantation in Glendorra, Mississippi in 1912, although there is much speculation about his birthdate. However I'll go with the old Blues Calendar on the kitchen wall, if you don't mind - it has served me well till now. Sonny Boy took on the name 'Rice' Miller and then Little Boy Blue.
However it is his next name adoption that really created the big confusion and controversy. In 1941 he managed to blag an audition for the King Biscuit Time radio show. At some point Miller adopted the name Sonny Boy Williamson, even though there was a SBW already - one John Lee Curtis Williamson, a well-known blues player who had written the likes of 'Good Mornin' Little Schoolgirl'. The original SBW confronted the pretender who immediately chased him clean out of town. He was reputedly a mean old son-of-a-gun. Things became a bit blurrier when the original SBW was stabbed to death in Chicago in 1948.
Sonny Boy ll went on to have a very successful career on the Blues tours that came to Europe. There's no doubt that Sonny Boy Williamson II was a fearsome-looking man. He had large hands and feet, stood six feet two inches tall, and had a history of violence. “I’m the original Sonny Boy, the only Sonny Boy. There ain’t no other,” he told British interviewers.
Robert Plant says that as a fourteen-year-old he approached him and was curtly told to F*** off. So he slipped into his dressing room and stole his harmonica.
Here he is in imperious form on 'Your Funeral, My Trial'.
Randy Newman wrote a song about the two SBWs called 'Sonny Boy'.
However it is his next name adoption that really created the big confusion and controversy. In 1941 he managed to blag an audition for the King Biscuit Time radio show. At some point Miller adopted the name Sonny Boy Williamson, even though there was a SBW already - one John Lee Curtis Williamson, a well-known blues player who had written the likes of 'Good Mornin' Little Schoolgirl'. The original SBW confronted the pretender who immediately chased him clean out of town. He was reputedly a mean old son-of-a-gun. Things became a bit blurrier when the original SBW was stabbed to death in Chicago in 1948.
Sonny Boy ll went on to have a very successful career on the Blues tours that came to Europe. There's no doubt that Sonny Boy Williamson II was a fearsome-looking man. He had large hands and feet, stood six feet two inches tall, and had a history of violence. “I’m the original Sonny Boy, the only Sonny Boy. There ain’t no other,” he told British interviewers.
Robert Plant says that as a fourteen-year-old he approached him and was curtly told to F*** off. So he slipped into his dressing room and stole his harmonica.
Here he is in imperious form on 'Your Funeral, My Trial'.
Randy Newman wrote a song about the two SBWs called 'Sonny Boy'.
I suppose it's good to have a break from time-to-time. 
However, this morning I was listening to some Memphis Minnie, and she seems to have had a wee thing for Joe Louis, the great African-American heavyweight fighter. Here she is giving all on 'He's in the Ring (Doin' the same old thing)'
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