b. c. 1912 · d. 1965 · American blues singer and harmonica player
Born Alex “Rice” Miller in Mississippi around 1912, he took the name of an earlier Chicago harmonica player in 1941 and spent the rest of his life outplaying the borrowed reputation. After first recording for Trumpet Records in 1951, he moved to Chess’s Checker subsidiary, where he made roughly seventy sides between 1955 and 1964 — among them “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” “Help Me” and “Checkin’ Up on My Baby.” He toured Europe in the early 1960s at the height of the British blues boom, recording with the Yardbirds and the Animals, and died in Helena, Arkansas in May 1965 — before the “Bring It On Home” single reached shops.