Have you ever watched Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan or any other rock musician start blowing on a harmonica?  You know you have--Mick Jagger's been doing it for years!  They're all inspired by Sonny Boy Williamson II, Master of the Blues Harmonica, who hosted the King Biscuit Blues Hour for years in the deep South.

While I was on my "blues history tour", I drifted through Glendora and Tutweiler, Mississippi, two towns which are practically Sonny Boy II's back yard.  Glendora is about the most destitute place I have ever seen in this country or overseas--literally nothing but shacks and poverty and mud roads, yet the town limits proudly displays a "hometown pride" sign proclaiming it as the birthplace of Sonny Boy Williamson II.

In nearby Tutweiler, a national historical landmark where W.C. Handy, considered the "father of the blues", first heard an itinerant farm hand playing a guitar in his lap by scraping it with a flat jackknife blade, there is a mural illustrating Sonny Boy II's career. 

(This church was razed since these pictures were taken (and yes, there were some huge holes in the floor of the church!)  

Notice how the blues fans stayed true to tradition and left a drink, coins, notes and a harmonica on the bluesman's grave.

And you just know I wasn't going to break with tradition...

...I brought my own bottle of Captain Morgan spiced rum and, after pouring about two shots out for Sonny Boy II, I had one for myself!  (Don't tell my mom about this picture!) <grin> (but we can say that Sonny Boy II had probably four shots that 105 Degree F day, courtesy of blues fans including me!) 

* * * * *

For more information on Sonny Boy Williamson II, stop by these great web sites:

It's Biscuit Time on the Blues Web

Sonny Boy's Lonesome Cabin

Sonny Boy Williamson's Info Brasil (an interesting site from Brazil) (in English)

* * * * *