Sonny boy williamson born

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson was born in southwest Madison County on March 30, , to Ray Williamson and Nancy Utley. John Lee's father died when he was a baby, and he was reared by his mother. At age eleven, he received his first harmonica as a Christmas gift form his mother. According to his half-brother, T. W. Utley, when he was not chopping cotton, milking cows, or doing other farm chores, he was teaching himself to play the harmonica by listening to and playing along with records on an old wind-up record player. By the time he was sixteen, Williamson was jamming around Tennessee and Arkansas with guitarist "Sleepy John" Estes and mandolin demon James "Yank" Rachell.
        In , Williamson moved to Chicago, where a thriving blues scene was in full swing. An experienced artist, he immediately made his imprint, first as a much-recruited accompanist and, when he began to play his own compositions, as a much-sought-after headli