RE: [Harp-L] Rice Miller's age

[Donnie MorTone <harp_boy@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:08:39 -0600
> From: michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Harp-L] Rice Miller's age
> 
> H-Town Fess said: there are claims that the census says SBWII barely made it
> past fifty.
> 
> This seems completely contradictory to my understanding, I see
> pictures of him that seem like he is at least 70 years old. There is
> only one picture I know of with him looking anywhere around 40 years
> old, everything else he seems to be 60 years old or older. Am I
> missing something?
> Michael Rubin
> Michaelrubinharmonica.com


"Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time 

of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert 

Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson 

at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey hoboed around the country, had 

a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim, and simply wrote, 

played and' sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records. 

His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp playing was full of short, rhythmic 

bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of 

mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed 

page. Though he took his namesake from another well-known harmonica player, no one really 

sounded like him. A moody, bitter, and suspicious man, no one wove such a confusing web of 

misinformation as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Even his birth date (either 1897 or 1909) and real 

name (Aleck or Alex or Willie "Rice"-which may or may not be a nickname-Miller or Ford) cannot 

be verified with absolute certainty."

 

from: http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/sboy2.html

 

another good site is: http://www.sonnyboy.com/