Sonny Boy Williamson: Unseen Eye

Recently, I caught a rerun of an episode of “House, M.D.” where today’s song was featured toward the end of the episode. I immediately recognized the voice and the unmistakable harp of Sonny Boy Williamson – or more accurately Sonny Boy Williamson II and “Unseen Eye.” The show was the 21st episode of the seventh season of the show and was titled “The Fix.”

Born as Aleck Ford in Mississippi, he later took the last name of his stepfather and was known by the nickname of Rice – and hence Aleck Ford became Rice Miller. As a regular on the King Biscuit Time show with Robert Junior Lockwoord on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas, the show’s sponsor capitalized on the recent success of Chicago bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee Curtis), Miller was hereafter billed as “Sonny Boy Williamson.”

The name took and the Sonny Boy imposter became more famous than his predecessor who is now known in the music world as Sonny Boy Williamson I.