Biography: Sonny Boy Williamson II

Biography: Sonny Boy Williamson II
Aleck "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II)
One of the most interesting, creative and original artists in the blues...frustratingly little is known about Sonny Boy and he has made the search more difficult by giving out widely contradictory accounts of his life history and accomplishments...He claimed his recording debut began as early as 1929 and continued into the next decade, working with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Jim Jackson and Big Joe Williams...he was well known in the South....wide travels...regular broadcasts over radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas, which was sponsored by the Interstate Grocery Company...Sonny Boy quickly became identified with the firms King Biscuit brand of flour, even billing his group as "Sonny Boy Williamson and his King Biscuit Entertainers".. In 1948 he recorded for Trumpet in Jackson Mississippi and signed with Chess in 1951...moved to Chicago and continued wide tours through the south... his recordings with Chess are significant: ironic, devastatingly witty songs...laconic wry singing...dry, spare harmonica solos all played with simplicity of means and a understated approach, attained to the highest level of artistry.
The blues world was deprived of one of its finest, most original voices in his death in Helena, Arkansas, May 25, 1965...Pete Welding
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