Sad News From Helena AR.

Josephine Payne, the wife of King Biscuit Time host Sonny Payne has passed. Memorials can be sent to St. Mary's Cathorilci Church Building Fund, 123 Columbia St., Helena AR 72342 and rememberences to Sonny Payne c/o SBBS, PO Box 237,Helena AR 72342.

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Just Released! Learn the secrets behind the mysterious life of Sonny Boy's sidekick Elmore James

"The Amazing Secret History of Elmore James by Steve Franz, is a fascinating 328-page read for only $US40 domestic, $US45 international. Make check to Steve Franz and mail to Bluesource Publications, PO BOX 20074, St. Louis MO 63144-0074 USA.

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WWW.Sonnyboy.com Welcomes its 93,000th Visitor

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Don't Start Me To Talkin', 'fessor Mojo's book on the life of Sonny Boy Williamson is available at 1-800-982-2455 VISA/MC accepted

For further information, contact Bill Donoghue at sonnyboy@donoghue.com ********************************************************************* *********************************************************************

PBS' "American Roots Music" (ARM) Series features a prominent Delta Blues segment on Sonny Boy Williamson and KING BISCUIT TIME.

Here's Your chance to see Sonny Boy in action from Belgium's Channel 3 in 1963 doing "Your Funeral and My Trial" and "Bye Bye Bird." (on the ARM Box Set) Although they are not complete performances, they are a peak at the "King of the Harmonica" at his peak popularity in Europe. Also included is James Cotton doing "The King Biscuit Time Theme" and Robert Lockwood Jr. doing "Take A Little Walk With Me," (both on the ARM Box Set) his 1941 recording just before joining Sonny Boy on King Biscuit Time. Although the show has been hosted by Sonny Payne since 1953, the photos of announcers show are of KFFA founder and Herb Langston. Sonny Payne was there at the beginning of the show but was not an on-air personality until he returned from his service in the Navy and a long stint as bass player with Tex Ritter (yes, the dad of John Ritter of "Three's Company") Sonny hated playing behind a farting horse as much as Sonny Boy hated working behind a farting mule in the cotton fields.

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Sonny Boy Lives! Four different Sonny Boy Williamson-involved CDs have been either released or will soon be released: the American Roots Music Box Set with "Bye Bye Bird", David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." movie soundtrack Milan 73138 35791-2 features Sonny Boy's "Bring It On Home," "U. K. Blues," Fuel 2000 302 061 130 2 (a compilation definitely NOT "The Complete U. K. Recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson" but a nice compilation with fascinating new insights in the liner notes) and "Eyesight To The Blind," an import CD due November 27, 2001. Stay tuned for details on the last one.

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Top Ten Countries from which visitors have come to www.sonnyboy.com (11/11/01): Germany, Canada, United States (must be due to American Roots Music on PBS), United Kingdom, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Argentina, Brazil and Australia.

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Don't Miss The Research LINKS of Sonny Boy's Lonesome Cabin. I guarantee it teach you new facts about Robert Johnson, Robert Lockwood Jr. and several close friends of Alex "Rice" Miller AKA Sonny Boy Williamson.

Sonny Boy Williamson Rare and Unissued Recordings Now on CD

GET YOURS NOW!!Several bodies of Rare and/or Unissued Recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson II exist: (1) the early ‘50s Trumpet Records alternative and Unissued recordings, (2) his wonderful sideman performances in the early ‘50s with Tampa Red, Baby Boy Warren, Charles Clark and King Biscuit Entertainers “Dudlow” Taylor and James “Peck” Curtis and other obscure blues singers, (3) his alternative and unissued Checker recordings, including the amazing final recordings with Buddy Guy, (4) his 1963 and 1964 American Folk Blues Festival recordings, (4) his exciting recordings with Chris Barber and his wife Ottilie Patterson (at Abbey Road), (5) the audio from 10-15 TV and even more radio shows on which he guested, (6) four private sessions, two “dinner party” tapes, one with Victoria Spivey and one in an apartment in a Copenhagen, including among them two recordings of Sonny Boy playing guitar(!) sounding very much like Robert Johnson, (6) some risqué studio outtakes plus a gospel classic, and well, more keep turning up all the time.

Not all these recordings are represented in this series of CDs; many are on CD for the first time. While I welcome the availability of these recordings, I am not privy as to whether they are bootlegs or authorized releases. The serious Sonny Boy fan among you will enjoy these for what they are.

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SONNY BOY INDUCTED INTO FARISH ST. (Jackson MS) WALK OF FAME

Jackson MS, January 6, 2000...Jackson MS ... Sonny Boy Williamson, Sam Myers and Dorothy Moore (who sang at Trumpet Records founder Lillian McMurry's funeral) were inducted into the Farish St. Museum's Walk of Fame. Across the street from 309 Farish St., the home of Trumpet Records recording studio and down the street from 509 1/2 Farish where Sonny Boy lived when in Jackson, The newly renovated 500-seat Alamo Theater sold out for a show featuring Sam Myers with Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets and Dorothy Moore. Myers thanked the museum for "getting him laid in Jackson." Dorothy Moore, moved to tears, thanked the community. 'fessor Mojo, who along with Vitrice McMurry, daughter of Lillian and Willard McMurry, accepted the award for the family of Alex "Rice" Miller AKA "Sonny Boy Williamson II," pointed out when referring to the stone tablets to be placed on the Farish Street sidewalk, tongue in cheek, that this proves that Dorothy Moore is a "stone fox!" much to Moore's delight.

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ROBERT JOHNSON'S TRUE GRAVESITE DISCOVERED

Greenwood, Mississippi, January 7, 2001..."My husband dug the grave," Rosie Eskridge of Greenwood, who did not know Robert Johnson in life, told 'fessor Mojo last week. "Reverend Stark said a few words at the burial. I was taking some water to my husband," she added.

The true site of Johnson's unmarked grave? Little Zion Baptist Church "on the curve" in the Money Road just outside of Greenwood MS.

This is the same site that Johnny Jennings, Greenwood City Councilman, told me earlier that day that Sonny Boy described to him in 1964. Sonny Boy said that Robert Johnson was buried at Little Zion. This is ironically not the site of either of the current memorial gravestones for Johnson already placed in Minter City and Morgan City MS.

This location of Johnson's grave and its story fits current research by myself and others. Sonny Boy grew up in nearby Money (see below) and still had immediate family in the area. His niece still lives only about a mile away. Sonny Boy was a Baptist and this may have been his local church; it’s only a couple of miles from his childhood home. It probably would have taken a church member to get a singer of "the devil's music," such as Robert Johnson, buried in a church graveyard.

It is also consistent with Sonny Boy's first interview in England where he told Blues Unlimited "Robert Johnson died in my arms," and that Johnson died "in an ambulance." While there is no evidence of what Sonny Boy meant by "an ambulance," Honeyboy Edwards claimed he left Robert Johnson alive in the Baptist Town section of Greenwood on Tuesday, the day before Johnson died. The front of Johnson's death certificate that reports that he was buried at "Zion" church and the reverse side revealed that Johnson "died on a plantation," indicating that he was moved to somewhere other than Baptist Town on his last day on this earth. (That is consistent with Rosie Eskridge who told me that Johnson died, down the road from her one-room home on the Star of the West plantation (named for the Riverboat sunk in the Yazoo River to frustrate the North in the "War on Northern Aggression" as Southerners tend to call the Civil War) just outside of Greenwood.)

Cable TV’s A&E Channel's “City Confidential” has already reported some of these facts. This is not the first “discovery” of the true location of Johnson's body, it is does add new credibility to Sonny Boy's claim that Johnson "died in his arms". I have found no interview where anyone said they heard, soon after Johnson's death, from anyone but Sonny Boy. Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Lockwood Jr., Houston Stackhouse and Johnny Shines all reported that they heard of Johnson's death from Sonny Boy (Alex “Rice” Miller) Williamson. Jennings also reports that Sonny Boy attributed Johnson's death to some lead poisoned corn whiskey from Cascilla, MS that sickened several customers of Three Corners. Johnson seemed to get the sickest as he was on his usual binge at the time. That is still not inconsistent with the possibility of his being encouraged deliberately to drink more or to drink some more with an additional poison in it by a jealous husband. Only Rice Miller and Robert Johnson apparently know the true story. However, if new information like this can turn up today, more could turn up tomorrow.

It's time to re-write the History of Robert Johnson's death.

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LONG-RUMORED 1964 SONNY BOY AND THE SKUNKS RECORDING SESSION UNEARTHED AFTER 36 YEARS. GET YOURS NOW!!

Grammy-nominated keyboard player Rick Allen (Dukes of Dixieland) was a member of a Milwaukee-based group (with bizaare white-striped dyed hair, Skunk-style) which was apparently the first white rock group signed to Chess Records. Just their luck Sonny Boy Williamson II was in the studio that day and sat in on one of their recordings. Rick Allen, with some help from 'Fessor Mojo, was able to encourage Andy McKaie to search the Chess/MCA vaults and find the tapes. With still more encouragement, MCA finally released a copy of the tapes to Allen. Allen is in the process of making CDs of this single song with Sonny Boy Williamson. Soon you can hear the results on The Skunks' "Fannie Mae."

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"SONNY BOY'S CHILDHOOD HOME REDISCOVERED"

I have definitely found what I believe to be Alex "Rice" Miller's childhood home. It is in Money MS near the site of the Tallahatchie Bridge made famous in Billie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe" and probably the one from which Emmett Til's mutilated body was thrown weighted down with a Cotton Gin Fan. Sonny Boy's niece wrote me to confirm the location as the one which she visited as a child in the early 1930's. She visited the old home recently. When I was there in June 2000, I could almost could feel his tangible presence. I believe this is the home in which he lived from 1920 or earlier after moving from the Cell-Jones Plantation in Glendora where he was born. He apparently lived here from when he was a very young child until his father kicked him out of the house about 1929. It also probably housed his parents, Jim and Millie Miller, and the survivors among his 20 siblings ("Rice" was the last of 21 children of Millie Ford Miller): his sisters Mary and Julia (who I interviewed before their death in a fire in 1995), Rometa (or Romelia), and Mariah; his brothers James, Boykin (pronounced "Balkin") and possibly Manjonja (pronounced "Mendonia"); and a cousin, Pearlie Mae Goodman. The family house is still standing (barely). (I did find two anonymous empty pint bottles of whiskey in a nearby building, possibly from Rice's last visit.) We found the anvil and forge where blacksmith Jim Miller worked. One could imagine a woodpile, where Rice practiced his harp. (Incidently, Sonny Boy was NEVER Alex Ford, only Alex "Rice" Miller, nor was he ever illegitimate. His parents Jim and Millie Miller married in 1895. Those were smokescreens. More soon...)

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A SONNY BOY LOVE STORY, NEW YORK STYLE

(Excerpted From Wedding Announcements New York Times May 7, 2000) “Cicily Wilson and Gregory John Speller were married yesterday by Richard Gilligan, a Roman Catholic deacon, at St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church in South Ozone Park Queens. Ms. Wilson, 27, will keep her name….The bride, her parents and her sister, Chaney Sims, were subjects of “An American Love Story,” a 1999 PBS documentary that examined their experiences in a biracial family.” “The couple met on a blind date in 1997. Ms. Wilson’s family has a test for her dates: prospective suitors have to know the blues, or they’re out. Saying B. B. King is your favorite artist isn’t enough,. “Too mainstream,” Ms. Wilson said. To her astonishment and delight, the unsuspecting Mr. Speller said he had a long list of favorite blues artists, starting with Sonny Boy Williamson, a guitarist and harmonica player whose songs were covered by the Allman Brothers and others. “The date went excellent,” Ms. Wilson said. “The two became inseparable.” ######################################################################

******"NEW" SONNY BOY REISSUE******

I AIN'T BEGGIN' NOBODY, Sonny Boy Williamson with B. B. King, Willie Love and Joe Willie Wilkins, Purple Pyramid/Mimosa/Trumpet CLP 0833-2,

This is apparently the first reissue of Trumpet recordings on Robert Johnson Estate agent Steve LeVere's Mimosa label.

These recordings are masters planned but unreleased Sonny Boy Williamson by Trumpet at the time the company ceased operations in 1955. (The McMurry's Diamond Recording Company/Trumpet did not go bankrupt. Being the responsible businesspersons they were they however, took five years to pay off their debts. They did lease two masters to the late Johnny Vincent's Ace Records.) This is an excellent companion CD the Arhoolie King Biscuit Time CD which includes all of the singles released plus some bonus cuts. There is a lot of overlapping cuts with Clownin' With The World, Goin' In Your Direction, Boppin' With Sonny and From The Bottom. Unlike some of overlapping CDs, this does not, however, include Sonny Boy's Trumpet sideman appearances on Elmo James' "Dust My Broom," Slim AKA Elmo James'" "Catfish Blues", and "Elmer James" (Big Boy Crudup) "Take A Little Walk With Me" and "Gotta Find My Baby."

The highly-touted B. B. King appearance is restricted to a single take of "From The Bottom." B. B. King told me recently that he was simply in Jackson Mississippi, playing with his hero Sonny Boy Williamson (who gave him his first paying gig) at the time of the recording. Speculation that he was "returning a favor" to Sonny Boy or he was in conflict of his contract with the McMurry's nemisis: the Bihari brothers, for whose RPM label he recorded at the time. B. B. was just playing another gig, no special drama involved. *********************************************************************

Don't Miss The Excellent Six-Page article on "Sonny Boy II, Don't Start Me Talkin'" by Chris Smith in the Autumn 1999 Issue No. 45 of JUKE BLUES Magazine !***************************************

---- "The Ultimate Sonny Boy II site: www.sonnyboy.com." -- Blues Harp Page ***************************************

-------- SONNY BOY MYSTERY #1 -------- When did Dr. John Record With Rice Miller? Or Did He? (See Links)

-------- SONNY BOY MYSTERY #2 --------- Was Sonny Boy married to two different women (Mattie and one in Chicago) when he lived in Milwaukee? I met a man who claimed they married sisters!

-------- SONNY BOY MYSTERY #3 --------- When did he leave England for the last time? The End of April 1965 after his session with Jimmy Page? Or January 28 when the Home Office says his visa expired? His letter to Mose Allison said he was returning March 25. That would have taken an extension of his Visa.

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FLASH FROM 1999 BLUES FOUNDATION AWARDS! ROBERT LOCKWOOD JR. WINS TWO W. C. HANDY AWARDS: Traditional Blues Artist of the Year and Album of the Year (I Got To Find Me A Woman) **********************************

DISCOVERIES GIVES SONNYBOY.COM A RAVE REVIEW ..."An excellent in-depth on the enormously influential blues harpist. Here you will find a detailled discography and song list, a discussion of Williamson's harp style, a fine photo gallery, RealAudio sound bites and plenty more. The site is nicely done graphically and is full of solid information, plus it's lots of fun. The site's master, Bill Donoghue, has also written a book on the blues legend." Jeff Tamarkin, Discoveries Magazine **********************************

SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK!

Blues & Rhythm, for whom 'fessor Mojo is an active contributor, received a "Keeping The Blues Alive Award" during W. C. Handy weekend

Don't Start Me To Talkin', 'fessor Mojo's book on the life of Sonny Boy Williamson is available at 1-800-982-2455 VISA/MC accepted