Sonny Rhodes (born Clarence Edward Mauldin; November 3, 1940 – December 14, 2021) was an American blues singer and lap steel guitar player. He has recorded over two hundred songs.
"I'm what you call a self-proclaimed Disciple of the Blues!" said Rhodes
about his years playing and singing for fans of blues around the world.
He has been nominated 15 times for the Blues Music Awards and won in
the category Instrumentalist–Other in 2011.
Born in Smithville, Texas, Texas, Rhodes was the sixth and last child of sharecroppers Le Roy and Julia Smith. He received his first guitar at the age of eight as a Christmas present and became serious about the blues at age 12. He credits his uncle as his source of inspiration. Rhodes began performing around Smithville and nearby Austin in the late 1950s, while still in his teens. He listened a lot to T-Bone Walker when he was young. He acknowledges as influences the guitarists L. C. Robinson, Pee Wee Crayton and B. B. King and the singer Percy Mayfield.With his first band, Clarence Smith and the Daylighters, he played blues clubs in the Austin area until he joined the Navy after high school graduation.
In the Navy, he was stationed in California, where he worked for a while as a radio man and closed-circuit Navy ship disc jockey, telling off-color jokes in between the country and blues records he would spin for the entertainment of the sailors. Rhodes recorded a single, "I'll Never Let You Go When Something Is Wrong", for Domino Records in Austin in 1958. He also learned to play the bass guitar. He played bass behind Freddie King and his friend Albert Collins. After his stint in the Navy, Rhodes returned to California while in his mid-20s, and lived in Fresno for a few years before signing a recording contract with Galaxy Records in Oakland. He recorded a single, "I Don't Love You No More", in 1966 and another single for Galaxy in 1967. Frustrated with the San Francisco Bay area record companies, he recorded "Cigarette Blues" on his own label, Rhodes-Way Records, in 1978.
Rhodes toured Europe in 1976 and released numerous recordings on European labels, including I Don't Want My Blues Colored Bright and the live album In Europe. In 1985, he released Just Blues on Rhodes-Way. In the late 1980s, he recorded Disciple of the Blues, released by Ichiban Records in 1991, and Living Too Close to the Edge, released by Kingsnake Records in 1992.
Sonny Rhodes-(1977)- I Don't Want My Blues Colored Bright
Sonny Rhodes-(1991)- Disciple of the Blues
Sonny Rhodes-(1992)- Livin' Too Close To The Edge
Sonny Rhodes-(1994)- The Blues Is My Best Friend
Sonny Rhodes-(1996)- In Europe
Sonny Rhodes-(1996)- Out Of Control
Sonny Rhodes-(1997)- Born To Be Blue
Sonny Rhodes-(1999)- Blue Diamond
Sonny Rhodes-(2001)- A Good Day To Play The Blues
Sonny Rhodes-(2003)- Texas Fender Bender
Sonny Rhodes-(2009)- I'm Back Again
