Sonny Boy Williamson
Wikimp3 information about the music of Sonny Boy Williamson. On our website we have 70 albums and 70 collections of artist Sonny Boy Williamson. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Sonny Boy Williamson represents Blues genres.
Biography
[Edit]Easily the most important harmonica player of the prewar era, John Lee Williamson almost single-handedly made the humble mouth organ a worthy lead instrument for blues bands — leading the way for the amazing innovations of Little Walter and a platoon of others to follow. If not for his tragic murder in 1948 while on his way home from a Chicago gin mill, Williamson would doubtless have been right there alongside them, exploring new and exciting directions.
It can safely be noted that Williamson made the most of his limited time on the planet. Already a harp virtuoso in his teens, the first Sonny Boy (Rice Miller would adopt the same moniker down in the Delta) learned from Hammie Nixon and Noah Lewis and rambled with Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell before settling in Chicago in 1934.
Williamson's extreme versatility and consistent ingenuity won him a Bluebird recording contract in 1937. Under the direction of the ubiquitous Lester Melrose, Sonny Boy Williamson recorded prolifically for Victor both as a leader and behind others in the vast Melrose stable (including Robert Lee McCoy and Big Joe Williams, who in turn played on some of Williamson's sides).
Williamson commenced his sensational recording career with a resounding bang. His first vocal offering on Bluebird was the seminal "Good Morning School Girl," covered countless times across the decades. That same auspicious date also produced "Sugar Mama Blues" and "Blue Bird Blues," both of them every bit as classic in their own right.
The next year brought more gems, including "Decoration Blues" and "Whiskey Headed Woman Blues." The output of 1939 included "T.B. Blues" and "Tell Me Baby," while Williamson cut "My Little Machine" and "Jivin' the Blues" in 1940. Jimmy Rogers apparently took note of Williamson's "Sloppy Drunk Blues," cut with pianist Blind John Davis and bassist Ransom Knowling in 1941; Rogers adapted the tune in storming fashion for Chess in 1954. The mother lode of 1941 also included "Ground Hog Blues" and "My Black Name," while the popular "Stop Breaking Down" (1945) found the harpist backed by guitarist Tampa Red and pianist Big Maceo.
Sonny Boy cut more than 120 sides in all for RCA from 1937 to 1947, many of them turning up in the postwar repertoires of various Chicago blues giants. His call-and-response style of alternating vocal passages with pungent harmonica blasts was a development of mammoth proportions that would be adopted across the board by virtually every blues harpist to follow in his wake.
But Sonny Boy Williamson wouldn't live to reap any appreciable rewards from his inventions. He died at the age of 34, while at the zenith of his popularity (his romping "Shake That Boogie" was a national R&B hit in 1947 on Victor), from a violent bludgeoning about the head that occurred during a strong-arm robbery on the South Side. "Better Cut That Out," another storming rocker later appropriated by Junior Wells, became a posthumous hit for Williamson in late 1948. It was the very last song he had committed to posterity. Wells was only one young harpist to display his enduring allegiance; a teenaged Billy Boy Arnold had recently summoned up the nerve to knock on his idol's door to ask for lessons. The accommodating Sonny Boy Williamson was only too happy to oblige, a kindness Arnold has never forgotten (nor does he fail to pay tribute to his eternal main man every chance he gets). Such is the lasting legacy of the blues' first great harmonicist.
Title: Charly Blues Masterworks, Volume 22: Nine Below Zero
Artist: Sonny Boy Williamson
Genre: Blues
Collections
Title: Compact Disc Club - The Blues Story CD 3
Genre: Blues
Title: Essential Blues Vol. 1 CD 1
Genre: Blues
Title: Essential Blues Vol. 2 CD 2
Genre: Blues
Title: Essential Blues Vol. 3 CD 1
Genre: Blues
Title: ABC Of The Blues CD 50
Genre: Blues
Title: The Encyclopedia Of Music CD1
Genre: Pop
Title: Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Chicago
Genre: Blues
Title: Land Where The Blues Began
Genre: World Music, Country, Pop
Title: Blues Harp Boogie
Genre: Blues
Title: Blue Yule: Christmas Blues And R & B Classics
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: Popular Songbook
Title: How Blue Can You Get?
Title: Pure... Blues (CD1)
Genre: Blues
Title: Pure... Blues (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Essential Blues (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: Alan Lomax: Popular Songbook
Genre: Pop
Title: R & B Legends (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B
Title: R & B Legends (CD2)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B
Title: R & B Legends (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: R & B Legends (CD2)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: Definitive Chicago Blues (CD1)
Genre: Blues
Title: Blues Blues Christmas Vol. 1 (1925-1955) (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: Just Wailing (CD1)
Genre: Blues
Title: Just Wailing (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: Clownin' With The World
Genre: Blues
Title: Wolf Of Wall Street (Original Soundtrack)
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: The Very Best Of Blues 25 Legendary Tracks
Genre: Blues
Title: Deep Harmonica Blues
Genre: Blues
Title: Thirties Blues (The Blues Collection Vol. 80)
Genre: Blues
Title: Electric Blues 2005 Part 3 - 1960-1969 (CD1)
Genre: Blues
Title: Electric Blues 2005 Part1 Beginnings 1939-1954 (CD1)
Genre: Blues
Title: Gonna Rock The Blues Again
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: The Blues Story (CD3)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Blues Story (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD05)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD06)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD07)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD08)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD09)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Chess Story 1947-1975 (CD10)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Classic Bluesmen (Volume 1)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Classic Bluesmen (Volume 2)
Genre: Blues
Title: The Classic Bluesmen (Volume 3)
Genre: Blues
Title: Get On The Right Track: Mod R&B, Jazz & Ska (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul
Title: Blues Connection (Vol. 1: How Long Blues) (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: Blues Connection (Vol. 1 - How Long Blues) (CD2)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: Blues Connection (Vol. 1: How Long Blues) (CD3)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: Blues Connection (Vol. 3 " After Midnite ") (CD3)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues
Title: The R&B Years 1956 Vol. 1 (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B
Title: 100 Blues Classics & Greatest Blues Hits (CD2)
Genre: Blues
Title: Living The Blues ~ Blues Classics 1955-1956
Genre: Blues
Featuring albums
Title: The Complete Blues Anthology (Doxy Collection, Remastered)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues
Title: The Best Of Blues Guitar 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues
Title: The Animals with Sonny Boy Williamson
Artist: Sonny Boy Williamson The Animals
Genre: Electronica, Dancefloor
Title: Down Home and Street Corner Blues: 30 Legendary Blues Songs
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues
Title: Chicago Blues Sessions the Rarities Collection 1950 to 1965
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues
Title: Lost Blues Tapes / More American Folk Blues Festival 1963-65
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rap
Title: He Wille Dixon Story 1940-1960 (CD2: The Session Man)
Artist: Willie Dixon
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues, Jazz