Editing Snooky Pryor (section)

==Career==
Pryor was born in [[Lambert, Mississippi]], United States.<ref name="Larkin"/> He developed a [[country blues]] style influenced by [[Sonny Boy Williamson I]] (John Lee Williamson) and [[Sonny Boy Williamson II]] (Aleck Ford "Rice" Miller). In the mid-1930s, in and around [[Vance, Mississippi]], Pryor played in impromptu gatherings of three or four harmonica players, including [[Jimmy Rogers]], who then lived nearby and had yet to take up playing the guitar.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/199 199]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/199}}</ref> Pryor moved to [[Chicago]] around 1940.

While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow [[bugle call]]s through a [[PA system]], which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. However, most {{who|date=October 2022}} historians credit the idea to Little Walter{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own [[amplifier]] and began playing harmonica at the outdoor [[Maxwell Street]] Market, becoming a regular on the [[Chicago blues]] scene.

Pryor recorded some of the first post-war Chicago blues in 1948,<ref name="Music"/> including "Telephone Blues" and "Snooky & Moody's 'Boogie'", with the guitarist [[Moody Jones]], and "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", with the singer and guitarist [[Floyd Jones]].<ref name="Larkin"/> "Snooky & Moody's 'Boogie'" is of considerable historical significance: Pryor claimed that the harmonica virtuoso [[Little Walter]] directly copied the signature riff of Pryor's song in the opening eight bars of his blues harmonica instrumental "Juke," an R&B hit in 1952.<ref>"I Started the Big Noise Around Chicago". Interview with Snooky Pryor conducted by Jim O'Neal, Steve Wisner, and David Nelson. ''Living Blues'', no. 123 (Sept.–Oct. 1995), pp. 10–11.</ref> This claim is historically questionable at best. During the 1950s, Pryor regularly toured in [[Southern United States|the South]].<ref name="Larkin"/> In 1967, Pryor moved to [[Ullin, Illinois]]. He quit music and worked as a carpenter in the late 1960s but was persuaded to make a comeback.<ref name="russell">{{cite book
| first= Tony
| last= Russell
| year= 1997
| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
| publisher=Carlton Books
| location= Dubai
| pages= 157
| isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref> Blues fans later revived interest in his music, and he resumed recording occasionally until his death in nearby [[Cape Girardeau, Missouri]], at the age of 85.

In January 1973 he performed alongside [[Homesick James]] with the American Blues Legends '73 tour, which played throughout Europe. On this tour they recorded an album in London, ''Homesick James & Snooky Pryor'', for Jim Simpson's label, [[Big Bear Records]], with Pryor also recording a solo album, ''Shake Your Boogie.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Simpson|first=Jim|title=Don't Worry 'Bout The Bear|publisher=Brewin Books|year=2019|isbn=978-1-85858-700-4}}</ref>

Pryor appeared on [[Bob Margolin]]'s 1995 [[Alligator Records]] release ''My Blues and My Guitar''.

Some of his better-known songs are "Judgement Day" (1956), "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" (from ''Snooky'', 1989), "Where Did You Learn to Shake It Like That" (from ''Tenth Anniversary Anthology'', 1989), and "Shake My Hand" (1999).

Pryor's son Richard "Rip Lee" Pryor is also a blues musician and performs in and around his hometown of [[Carbondale, Illinois]].