Page 64 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2016

Kings and Queens, Dogs and T-Bones:

NicKNames aND The Blues

By CC Rider
Stage names are common in the music industry, but nowhere Skip James:
are they so prevalent – and so colorful – as in the blues. Of Nehemiah Curtis James is a pretty
course you’ve got the Big and the Little, the Slim and the Blind heavy handle for everyday use. So
– but there are far more than that. Ever wondered how your Mr. James took the name Skip. It’s said
favorite blues musician got his or her name? I’ll tell ya. Here’s the Bentonia-based picker could be
a list of some of the most famous blues men and women, their like sunshine or lightning at any given
pseudonyms, and how they got ‘em. moment. “I never was in anything too
long or deep,” he once said, “that’s
why I reckon they called me Skip.” Nehemiah Curtis James a.k.a
Skip James
Lightnin’ Hopkins:
The official story goes that Sam Hopkins got his nickname as
many bluesmen did – from a record company. While recording
his first session in 1946 with piano-man Wilson Smith, an
Aladdin Records exec thought their names could use a little more
fire. So he dubbed Smith “Thunder” and Hopkins “Lightnin’.”
But Lightnin’ himself told a different tale – two different ones
in fact. The first goes that his mentor Blind Lemon Jefferson
gave him the name: “Blind Lemon said that when I sang and
played, I electrified people. He was the one that started callin’
me Lightnin’.” And the second? Hopkins told drummer Doyle
Riley B. King a.k.a B.B. King Photo courtesy B.B. King Museum Bramhall that he took his name after he was struck by, yep,
lightning, while sitting on his front porch.
B.B. King: Big Mama Thornton:
King of the Blues, Riley B. King got his start at a Memphis radio Singer, songwriter and gender-
station while working as a singer and disc jockey. It was on air bending pioneer Willie Mae
that he took the name now synonymous with the blues: “All the Thornton is better known as “Big
deejays had nicknames, so the station started calling me the Mama” Thornton. Why? She said it
Beale Street Blues Boy," he said. "That was three Bs and it was – or sang it, rather – best. “Well, they
a mouthful. Soon I was getting letters to just the Blues Boy... call me Big Mama/ ’Cause I weigh
From Blues Boy it was shortened to just Bee Bee, and then B.B.” 300 pounds.” That’ll do it.
And that’s how we came to know B.B. King. Sonny Boy Williamson II: Willie Mae Thornton a.k.a
Big Mama Thornton
Koko Taylor: Aleck Miller was called “Rice” by his Photo by PHOTOFEST
Queen of the Blues Cora Walton friends and family. But to the rest of the
Taylor’s story is much simpler world, he’s known as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Why Number
than that. She got her name Koko 2? Well, Miller’s first steady gig was on a popular Arkansas
‘cause she loved chocolate! radio station. The show’s promoter wanted to capitalize on the
T-Bone Walker: stardom of the reigning Chicago harmonica master, Sonny Boy
The origin of Aaron “T-Bone” Walker’s Williamson, so he did what anyone would do – named Miller
stage name is pretty straightforward. after him. History’s tacked on the II to distinguish, but there’s
Take his middle name – Thibeaux – nothing second rate about the second Sonny Boy.
and consider that it’s French, so it’s Hound Dog Taylor:
pronounced “Tee-Bo.” Not so much Theodore Roosevelt Taylor had a pretty good name to start
of a stretch to T-Bone from there. And – but someone else had it first. So the six-fingered guitar-
Cora Walton Taylor a.k.a Koko
Taylor Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer that’s pretty tasty. slinger took a new name, one that fit him better. What do

62 Blues Festival Guide 2016