Eyesight to the Blind

In 1951, Lillian McMurry, the white owner of a local record store in Jackson, Mississippi, launched Trumpet Records and signed a veteran, eccentric harmonica player named Sonny Boy Williamson II. "Eyesight to the Blind" was his very first recording session. Driven by Willie Love's pounding piano and Sonny Boy's intensely rhythmic, heavily amplified harmonica fills, the track was an explosive success. The lyrics brilliantly described a woman so beautiful she could cure the afflicted. The record was a massive regional hit, officially launching the recording career of one of the genre's most legendary and unpredictable characters.