Sonny Burgess, Doug Greeno, J.R. Rogers, and Terry Carter at the Swifton Community Center. 8-1-1997.

Albert Austin "Sonny" Burgess (born May 28, 1931, on a farm near Newport, Arkansas) is an American rockabilly guitarist and singer. Burgess, Kern Kennedy, Johnny Ray Hubbard, and Gerald Jackson formed a boogie-woogie band they called the Rocky Road Ramblers. In 1954, following a stint in the US Army (1951--53), Burgess re-formed the band, calling them the Moonlighters after the Silver Moon Club in Newport, where they performed regularly. After advice from record producer Sam Phillips, the group expanded to form the Pacers. The band's first record was "We Wanna Boogie" in 1956 for Sun Records, in Memphis, about 80 miles southeast of his birthplace. The flip side was "Red Headed Woman." Both were written by Burgess. The songs have been described as "among the most raucous, energy-filled recordings released during the first flowering of rock and roll." Burgess was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of Europe in 1999. The group was inducted in 2002 into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

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