Free Spirit Records

He has been credited with accompanying J. Cale, but this is a fallacy arising from a typographic error involving an American musician with a similar name, Bob Brozman.

• Name — Sonny Black (Bill Boazman) • Birth Name — William Boazman • Alias — Sonny Black • Origin — England • Genre — Blues, folk • Occupation — Guitarist, singer, songwriter • Years Active — 1960s–present • Label — Various, see Discography • Website — http: sonnyblack.co.uk

During the early 1970s, he worked with Heron, alongside a line-up of Michael Cooper – Vocals; Gerald (G.T.) Moore – Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals; Roy Apps – Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals; Mike Finesilver – Bass; Steve Jones – Keyboards; Tony Pook – Percussion, Vocals; Mike Cooper – Guitar; and Terry Gittins – Drums. Boazman appeared on the early Heron albums, but (contrary to some sources) was not formally a member of the band. These albums are now highly collectible, fetching about £150 each.

With Mike Cooper, a contributor the emerging UK country blues scene in the late 1960s, Boazman began playing acoustic and slide guitar on gigs around the UK and Europe. He played on a couple of Cooper's albums on the Dawn label, alongside Danny Thompson, Stefan Grossman, Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore. He also added his vocals and guitar to albums by Ian A. Anderson.

• Illustration — Boazman in singer/songwriter mode at the Bracknell Festival in July 1978 There then followed a period in the 1970s and '80s when Boazman spent much of his time working as a trucker by day and playing solo gigs in the evenings at which he performed mainly self-penned songs with guitar accompaniment, in his distinctive blues-influenced style. Occasionally, during this period, he was accompanied by multi-instrumentalists Tim Pinton and Howard Fullbrook. In 1976, the vocal group BMW (Bower, Morrison & Woollard) invited Boazman (together with Pinton and Fullbrook) to record some tracks during their sessions at Sun Studios in Reading. The songs recorded were "Ballad of Charlie Daniels", "The Worm Forgives the Plough", "Bless These Children" and "The River Waits for No Man (Roll on River)". These tracks are available for download on various sites (iTunes, Napster, Amazon, etc..) from the BMW album called From the Lion to the Plough – The Sun Sessions. There are also recordings of his songs by other artists, such as "The Worm Forgives The Plough", recorded by both Johnny Coppin and Paul Downes; and "Roll on River" recorded by Wizz Jones and Werner Lämmerhirt. Other notable Boazman compositions of this period include "Tall Ship" and "Breaking Even".

Boazman then adopted the persona of "Sonny Black" and formed the first line-up of Sonny Black's Blues Band Dave Bispham on drums, Dick Jones on bass guitar, with Paul Swinton on harmonica and additional vocals. The band's first album, The Filth (recorded in 1983 to 1987), also included guest musicians Graham Hobbs on organ, Ian Smith on bass and Frank Sidebottom on piano. Over the following years, they played their hard Chicago type of blues and acted as the houseband at Dino's Blues Bar at the West End Centre in Aldershot. Here they played with Eddie C. Campbell, Lowell Fulson, Guitar Shorty, Carey Bell and others. Various line-ups featured, at different times, Sam Kelly (drums), Dan Smith (piano), George Pearson (bass), Alan Glenn (harmonica), Dino Coccia and Damon Sawyer (drums) and Bob Haddrell (organ/piano) – some of whom reformed as The Barcodes. Although performing entirely in a traditional blues idiom, most numbers were written by Sonny Black. Over time and through various line-up changes (including a change of name from Sonny Black's Blue Band to Sonny Black and the Dukes), the driving style of the band mellowed and jazz influences became more apparent.

In the 2000s, Sonny Black was drawn back to playing just finger picking acoustic and national steel guitar, often accompanied by bassist Chris Belshaw. His repertoire is now a varied selection, including blues, ragtime, jazz standards. He has performed live sessions for BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones and Johnnie Walker shows and, under the name of Bill Boazman, has produced a guitar tutorial DVD, Jazzin' The Blues. His recent recordings are on his own independent label, Free Spirit Records, which he founded in 2002 in Yateley, Hampshire. During 2008, Sonny Black performed at festivals in France and Italy as well as the UK.