RE: [Harp-L] Sonny Boy I and II history question



Although Alex Miller (SBW II) had sometimes been called "Sonny Boy" even as a youth, by most accounts he did not begin using the name Williamson until around 1942 when he landed the King Biscuit Flour Hour gig on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. The sponsor, Max Moore of the Interstate Grocery Company, is usually given the credit/blame for the name appropriation, but Miller was obviously comfortable enough with it to go along. At the time John Lee Williamson (SBW I) was settled in Chicago and had been recording for five years. His records were popular down south, and evidently Moore and Miller were not above a bit of skullduggery to boost ratings for the radio show.

There is little question that John Lee (SB I) was aware Miller was impersonating him. On December 18, 1947, in what would turn out to be his final recording session, John Lee and Big Joe Williams (together with Ransom Knowling on bass and Judge Riley on drums) recorded King Biscuit Stomp for Columbia Records. On it, Big Joe references the town of Helena and King Biscuit Flour, and proudly proclaims, "We're the King Biscuit Boys!"

In the film documentary Blues Story, Snooky Pryor had the following to say: "Sonny Boy No. 2 was broadcastin' down in Helena, Arkansas, and usin' Sonny Boy Williamson's name. Sonny Boy No. 1 went from Chicago down to Helena, Arkansas, and took him off the air and stopped him from usin' his name. And later on, the company and them, they made a deal."

To this, blues historian Jim O'Neal adds, "Robert Lockwood remembered this episode very well and Houston Stackhouse told much the same story. Snooky Pryor was adamant about it. I never doubted that it happened, but all I have so far is the oral history (including a version from Sonny Boy No. 1's family.) I'm hoping to find more solid details."

Gérard Herzhaft's Encyclopédie du Blues (Seghers Editions, 1990) takes it a step further by asserting that John Lee Williamson, Big Joe Williams, and Walter Davis all supposedly armed themselves and headed off south to get Miller. Truth or mythical embellishment? Either way it makes a great story. And ironically, Miller's insistence upon the use of the name may have inadvertently impeded his efforts to record while John Lee Williamson was living -- Miller being unable to secure a contract until 1951, by which time John Lee Williamson had been murdered on the streets of Chicago.

--Tom Ball
http://www.tomball.us


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