Snooky Pryor (September 15 1921 ? October 18 2006[LINK: http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/2006b.html] Dead Rock Stars Club) was an American blues harp player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although his earliest records in the late 1940s he did not utilize this method. Career James Edward Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi and developed a Delta blues style influenced by both Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He moved to Chicago around 1940. While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through the powerful PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own amplifier, and introduced the sound to Maxwell Street audiences, becoming a regular in the Chicago blues scene.

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