Good Morning, School Girl

During his very first recording session, held in an Illinois hotel room, John Lee Williamson fundamentally changed the role of the harmonica in the blues. He helped bring the harmonica to new prominence in recorded blues. On "Good Morning, School Girl," backed by the propulsive guitar of Big Joe Williams and Robert Lee McCoy, Sonny Boy used a technique called "cross-harping," playing intense, swinging, horn-like riffs that directly answered his own vocal lines. The record was a massive hit, making him the most influential harmonica player of the pre-war era and setting the absolute standard for the Chicago blues boom that followed.