He was a creative genius - indisputably one of the greatest blues musicians of all time. His innovations led to a whole new style of playing the harmonica. His personal magnetism and good natured generosity made him one of the best loved bluesmen ever among his contemporaries. He died tragically at the height of his creative power and commercial success. Despite his contributions to the music he is underappreciated by must blues fans and overshadowed by a man who stole his name.

• The Name Game
  
         He was born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1914 and given the name John Lee Williamson. By his midteens he had already developed a proficiency on the harmonica and was playing professionally with established bluesmen such as Sleepy Joe Estes, Yank Rachell, Big Joe Williams and Robert Nighthawk. It was during this time that he was first called "Sonny Boy" by the older men due to his relative youth.
  
         This nickname was to become the source of subsequent confusion and controversy. In the time honored blues tradition of attempting to capitalize on the success of a more famous predecessor, another bluesmen began calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson sometime after John Lee's death. This man, whose real name was Aleck "Rice" Miller also played the harmonica and went on to have a long and successful musical career. Though not the
  innovator that the original Sonny Boy was, Mller (sometimes known as Sonny Boy #2) became one of the great blues harp stylists after World War II. He achieved tremendous exposure through his own radio show and a recording career that spanned decades. Eventually this second Sonny Boy became more strongly associated with the nickname than the first in the minds of most modern blues fans.
   
• Suck don't blow
  
         Today almost anytime you listen to a blues harmonica player you are hearing the influence of Sonny Boy Williamson. In fact probably no single player has had as much of an effect on modem styles. He single handedly lifted the harmonica from the realm of a novelty instrument such as a kazoo, washboard or a jug and brought it to the forefront as a lead voice in blues bands, making it an indispensable part of the Chicago urban style.
  
         Sonny Boy developed and refined a number of techniques such as tongue blocking, using cupped hands around the harp to vary the tone, employing a wide vibrato, repeating percussive riffs, inserting precise staccato fills between vocal lines and playing through an amplifier.
  
         His most lasting contribution, however, was his method of playing in what is sometimes referred to as "crossed" or "crossed keys". This involves using a harmonica tuned to a key that is a fourth below the key or the song being played. On a song in the key of E for example, a harp tuned to the key of A is used. This technique allows the harmonica player to hit the notes in the blues scale by drawing or inhaling rather than blowing or exhaling. Playing in this way, it is much easier to obtain variations in ,one and vocalization effects by "bending" the notes as they are played. Virtually all blues harmonica players use this method today.
   
• "One of the finest fellers I know..."
  
         The few surviving photographs of Sonny Boy make a vivid impression. He looks back from every one with a huge beaming smile - open, generous and expressive. He has been described by those who knew him:
  
        "He had a big wide grin. He had a powerful presence and would grin at any little thing."
  
        "He told us kids please don't steal. If you ever need show fare or something come by and ask me and I'll give it to you."
  
       "He was a good hearted boy and free handed as he could be. He would give you the shirt off his back to his fried and he had a lot of them, too."
  
       "He was 'bout one of the finest fellers I know... He worked to help the people with something to eat and something to drink. He was just good. He was good to the crowd around him. That's all he did, was work for them."
   
• Lord Have Mercy
  
       But there was yet another side to Sonny Boy. He drank heavily and often became quarrelsome and belligerent when drunk. The pianist Eddie Boyd tells of an incident that occurred while they were working together at the Flame Club on Chicago's south side. Sonny Boy, drunk and staggering, refused to apologize to a man whose foot he had stepped on. The man pulled a knife and it was only Boyd's intervention that prevented a possibly fatal attack. The next day, sober and having no recollection of the previous night's occurrence, Sonny Boy broke down and cried when told how close he had come to being killed.
  
      This lurking danger surrounding the blues and bar life ultimately claimed Sonny Boy's life. On the morning of June 1, 1948, his wife found him lying in a pool of his own blood on the steps of their home at 3226 S. Giles in Chicago. He had been attacked while walking home from a gig at the nearby Plantation Club. He gasped his last words - "Lord have mercy" - as he lay dying of stab wounds to his head. He was only 34 years old.