Why Rice Miller became Sonny Boy II ?
William E. Donoghue
The story you heard was quoted from "Trumpet Records" by Marc Ryan (Big
Nickel Publishing, Milford NH) and the story about the mule is probably
true. I have several sources on this story including Sonny Boy's sisters
Mary and Julia. There are other sources as well. However, the alias he
chose (this happened in the 1920s) was "Willie Miller." Willie was his
brother who was born a twin in 1898. Sonny Boy II was "Alex Miller" who was
probably born in 1912. The process of adopting the name Sonny Boy
Williamson is much more complicated and not a blatant as you might suspect.
Alex Miller's real performing alias was "Little Boy Blue" but people
insisted on calling him "Sonny Boy Williamson" after "Good Morning Little
Schoolgirl" by Sonny Boy I was released in 1938.
Alex Miller used as many as a dozen or more aliases during his life and
quoted as many birth dates. My book, "Don't Start Me To Talkin'" is
available at 1-800-982-2455 during East Coast working hours. I will be
discussing Sonny Boy Williamson at the Chicago, Mississippi Valley
(Davenport IA) and Sunflower Blues Festivals this summer.
Now, you can help me. Who is Robert D. Rayford? What radio station was
this person on? I have never heard any reference to Sonny Boy Williamson II
being in New York City or being interviewed by an American. He must have
interviewed Marc Ryan. I would love to talk with him and the hosts of the
show about the details of this claim.
Bill Donoghue AKA 'fessor Mojo
Biographer, Sonny Boy Williamson II and host of sonnyboy.com
From: Sam Cable <cab...@physics.Auburn.EDU>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 12:23:40 -0600 (CST)
Subject: why Rice Miller became Sonny Boy II ?
I was listening to a radio show this morning (The John Boy and Billy Big
Show,
for those of you in the southeast) and the commentator (Robert D. Rayford
[sic?]) was reminiscing about his days as a radio host in New York City years
ago. At the time he knew alot of people in the blues recording crowd up
there,
including Rice Miller, aka Sonny Boy II. He said Miller had taken the name
because he actually *needed* an alias. He needed an alias because he had
escaped from prison and still had time to serve on a prison sentence. He was
arrested for stealing a neighbor's mule. He got away with it for a while
because he disguised the mule by painting it white! Eventually he was
caught.
(I reckon the paint eventually wore off.) There was no TV at the time, of
course, and a fairly renowned musician (like Sonny Boy I) could be more or
less
visually unrecognizable, so I guess Miller figured he could pass himself
off as
someone else who had already made a name playing harmonica, since he had a
good
deal of talent in that regard himself.
Anybody out there know if all this is true?
- --Sam