Sonny Boy Williamson I

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John Lee Williamson (March 30, 1914 - June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player and the first to use the name Sonny Boy Williamson. He was born near Jackson, Tennessee on March 30, 1914. His original harmonica recordings were considered to be in the country blues style, but he soon demonstrated skill at making harmonica a lead instrument for blues, and popularized the instrument for the first time in a more urban blues setting. He has been called "the father of modern blues harp".

His very first recording, "Good Morning, School Girl", was a major hit on the 'race records' market in 1937. He was hugely popular among black audiences throughout the whole southern US as well as in the midwestern industrial cities such as Detroit and his home base in Chicago, and his name was synonymous with the blues harmonica for the next decade. Other well-known recordings of his include "Shake the Boogie", "You Better Cut That Out", "Sloppy Drunk", and "Early In The Morning". John Lee's style influenced a large number of blues harmonica performers, including Billy Boy Arnold, Junior Wells, Sonny Terry, Little Walter, and Snooky Pryor among many others. He was easily the most widely heard and influential blues harmonica player of his generation. His music was also influential on many of his non-harmonica playing contemporaries and successors, including Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers.

He was popular enough that by the 1940s, another blues harp player, Aleck/Alex "Rice" Miller, who was based in Helena, AR, began also using the name Sonny Boy Williamson. John Lee objected to this, though no legal action took place, possibly due to the facts that Miller did not release any records during Williamson's lifetime, and also that Williamson played mainly around the Chicago area, and Miller seldom ventured beyond the Mississippi delta region.

Williamson recorded prolifically both as a bandleader and a sideman over the entire course of his career, mainly for the Bluebird label, with many early sessions taking place at the Leland Hotel in Aurora, IL; most later sessions were recorded in Chicago. His final recording session took place in December of 1947, backing Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, John Lee Williamson was killed in a mugging on Chicago's South Side, as he walked home from his final performance at The Plantation Club, a tavern just a block and a half away from his home.

His legacy has been greatly overshadowed in the post-war blues era by the popularity of the musician who falsely assumed his name (who after Williamson's death went on to record many popular blues songs for Chicago's Checker Records label and others; he also toured Europe several times during the 'blues revival' in the early 1960s.) John Lee Williamson is buried at the former site of The Blairs Chapel Church, southwest of Jackson, Tennessee. In 1991, a red granite marker was purchased by fans and family to mark the site of his burial. A Tennessee historical marker, also placed in 1991, indicates the place of his birth and describes his influence on blues music. The historical marker is located south of Jackson on TN Highway 18, at the corner of Caldwell Road.