Sonny Boy Williamson II

American blues singer, songwriter, and harmonica player

• Born: December 5, 1899
• Birthplace: Glendora, Mississippi
• Died: May 25, 1965
• Place of death: Helena, Arkansas

Williamson was the first blues harmonica player known to use amplification and was among the first Delta blues artists to perform live on radio.

The Life

Born near Glendora in the Mississippi Delta, the son of Millie Ford and Jim Miller was given the name Aleck, though he was known by many as Rice. He probably began playing harmonica in his early teens. It ceased to be a pastime when a reported fight with his stepfather prompted him to leave home and to begin the itinerant life of a bluesman. By the early 1930’s, he was becoming well known across a wide area encompassing parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri. In his travels, he frequently teamed with other itinerant bluesmen, notable among them the singer-guitarists Robert Johnson, Elmore James, and Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett), to whom he passed some of his expertise on harmonica.

In 1935 Williamson settled briefly in Helena, Arkansas, a town to which he would return throughout his life. In the late 1930’s, Robert Junior Lockwood became his partner, and they jointly explored the then-novel electrical amplification of instruments. Blues songwriter Willie Dixon vividly recalled hearing the Williamson-Lockwood team playing on the streets of Greenville in the late 1930’s. By 1941 the duo was bringing a bold new blues sound to live radio broadcasts on Helena’s station KFFA, sponsored by King Biscuit Flour. The daily King Biscuit Time broadcasts were heard throughout the Delta.

Williamson recorded for the first time in 1951 for the Jackson-based label Trumpet. When it folded four years later, Williamson’s recording contract was sold to the Chicago-based Chess label. His first recordings for Chess featured the band of Muddy Waters, and he would later record with his old friend Lockwood and such new talents as Buddy Guy.

European tours between 1963 and 1965 introduced him to new audiences, and he recorded in England with popular rock bands the Yardbirds and the Animals. He returned to Helena in 1965, he resumed his old King Biscuit Time broadcasts, and he died there on May 25.

The Music

Williamson was a key figure in the development of blues after World War II, in which amplified ensembles were the dominant force. He had pioneered the amplification of the harmonica prior to World War II, and his live radio broadcasts in the 1940’s were as influential among developing Delta-based blues players as his later recordings would be nationally. The fact that he appropriated the name of an established recording artist may simply have been a promotional convenience at a time when the media were localized, and few would have noticed that he was not the Williamson who recorded for Bluebird. This Williamson was an individual who, borrowed name aside, created a musical persona entirely distinct from the first Sonny Boy Williamson. Indeed, he was one of the great “characters” in all American vernacular music, one never forgotten by anyone who worked with him or who saw him perform.

“Eyesight to the Blind.” Williamson’s first recording at his debut session in 1951 was of an original song that was one of his best and that would be closely associated with him throughout his career. Williamson’s witty lyrical bragging dares his listeners to believe the magical powers he attributes to his beloved. He credits his woman with rousing a dying man to leave his deathbed to praise her beauty. This is the sort of clever fantasy in which Williamson reveled. His performance at his initial session bristles with the enthusiasm of an artist who knows he has a great song at hand and who delights in delivering it. The performance suffers only from the quality of the recording: Trumpet was a small regional label with far from first-rate equipment. Six years later, Williamson rerecorded the song at Chess with professional engineering and backing from pianist Otis Spann from Muddy Waters’s band and his old friend Robert Lockwood on guitar. The song, inexplicably retitled “Born Blind,” was performed in a more subdued manner and at a more relaxed pace, but the clever lyrics and assertive harmonica solo benefit from the vastly improved sound quality.

“Nine Below Zero.” This song was recorded early in Williamson’s career, and he returned to it later. Again, his lyrics employ exaggeration for dramatic effect: in this instance, to underline the cruelty of a woman who waits till sub-zero temperatures set in before putting him out “for another man.” The 1951 Trumpet recording finds Williamson delivering vocals that are plaintive as he pleads his case against such injustice. His harmonica solo is front and center, though the badly balanced recording renders Elmore James’s guitar nearly inaudible. By contrast, the 1961 Chess recording of the same song is a minor masterpiece benefiting from a radically different arrangement and vastly superior audio engineering. This time Williamson’s voice sounds worn out, yet his backing musicians use their combined skills to support him musically.

Spann’s piano is a steady bulwark, Luther Tucker’s stinging lead guitar punctuates Williamson’s litany of injuries, and Lockwood’s distorted rhythm guitar frames the bass lines of Willie Dixon and the crack drumming of Fred Below. The overall impact has as strong an impact as any Chicago blues recording of its time.

“Don’t Start Me to Talkin’.” This was the second song Williamson recorded at his first session for Chess. It became his first single release on the Chess subsidiary label, Checker, and it became his biggest chart hit: It peaked at number seven on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1955. Williamson’s energy and the crack backing of Muddy Waters and his band in their prime demonstrate why this was Williamson’s biggest hit: It represents the cream of the era’s blues crop in action.

“Keep It to Yourself.” This recording opens with a blaring flourish on harmonica, Williamson riveting the listener’s attention to his tale of infidelity and the advice he offers in the song’s title. The guitars of Lockwood and Tucker blend as a single strong instrument, Spann’s piano sits this one out, and the resulting sound is a more developed version of what Delta listeners heard on the King Biscuit Time radio shows of the 1940’s. Williamson’s second greatest chart success, this peaked at number fourteen on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1956.

“Help Me.” Although this song appeared late in Williamson’s career, it did show up on the rhythm-and-blues charts. It is essentially a groove tune built around a framework lifted from Booker T. and the MGs’ 1962 hit, “Green Onions.” Compared with the lyrical wit displayed in his earlier songs, this one sounds like what it is: an instrumental with words added. However, the change in instrumentation—as with Booker T., an electric organ appears instead of piano—and the evident effort to update Williamson’s sound for a younger audience make this a noteworthy performance. The instrumental emphasis allows Williamson to play more harmonica than usual, and there is an urgent intimacy to his plea for help.

Musical Legacy

Williamson left three distinct legacies. First, there is the legion of harmonica players who were directly influenced by his radio performances, his live shows, and his recordings. They include Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Little Walter Jacobs. Stylistically, Williams was a master of economy; he was less interested in virtuosic displays than in musically punctuating a song’s stories. Second, his songs are marked by wit, imagination, sly humor, and a slightly bent worldview. The best of his seventy recordings for the Chess label rank with the finest Chicago blues recordings of the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Unlike such major contemporaries as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, Williamson rarely utilized the Chess house songwriter, Willie Dixon. Thus, Williamson’s songs stand out in their originality. Unlike those whose music is heard evolving through their recordings, Williamson came to record fully formed as an artist. Any obvious changes reflect the musicians who accompanied him or the state of his health at the time of the recordings.

Third, performances Williamson made for European television while touring Europe between 1963 and 1965 have been unearthed. These showcase his unique talents and on-stage antics. They are a wonderful complement to his recorded legacy, and they help us understand how he made such a terrific impression on young European blues fans, especially those in England, where he recorded with such British beat groups as the Animals and the Yardbirds.

Principal Recordings

albums:Down and Out Blues, 1959; Sonny Boy Williamson and Memphis Slim in Paris, 1963 (with Memphis Slim); Help Me, 1964; In Memorium, 1965.

singles: “Eyesight to the Blind,” 1951; “Nine Below Zero,” 1951; “Don’t Start Me to Talkin’,” 1955; “Keep It to Yourself,” 1956.

Bibliography

Oakley, Giles. The Devil’s Music: A History of the Blues. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997. Oakley’s well-written overview of the genre includes a finely crafted description of a Williamson performance.

Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. New York: Viking Press, 1981. Palmer effectively conveys the world of the King Biscuit entertainers and their audience.

Rowe, Mike. Chicago Blues: The City and the Music. New York: Da Capo Press, 1975. Rowe writes about Williamson’s role in the richly creative blues milieu of 1950’s Chicago.

Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues. New York: Penguin, 1993. Santelli’s blues encyclopedia entry on Williamson neatly encapsulates the man, his music, and the impact of both.