Sonny Rhodes(1940-2021)
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Blues guitarist Sonny Rhodes was born Clarence Smith in Smithville, TX, in 1940. He learned to play the guitar and bass as a young man. Joining the US Navy in 1957, he served one hitch and after his discharge he got work playing bass for such musicians as Freddie King and Albert Collins. In 1963 he left Texas for Califonia, settling in Oakland. He hooked up with a musician named L.C. Robinson (aka "Good Rockin' Robinson") who played the steel Hawaiian lap guitar. Robinson taught Rhodes how to play the instrument, which Rhodes had first heard played by Hop Wilson years before in Texas.
His proficiency on that instrument got him recording deals with a few small labels, but nothing really broke for him. While touring Europe in the late 1970s he recorded a pair of albums, "I Don't Want My Blues Colored Bright" and "Live in Europe". The next year he came out with "Forever and a Day", an album on which he was backed by the Paris National Symphony Orchestra. He has since recorded several more albums and has toured in both the US and Europe, where he has a very large fan base. He has also headlined at various blues festivals all over the US.
His proficiency on that instrument got him recording deals with a few small labels, but nothing really broke for him. While touring Europe in the late 1970s he recorded a pair of albums, "I Don't Want My Blues Colored Bright" and "Live in Europe". The next year he came out with "Forever and a Day", an album on which he was backed by the Paris National Symphony Orchestra. He has since recorded several more albums and has toured in both the US and Europe, where he has a very large fan base. He has also headlined at various blues festivals all over the US.
