Sonny Boy Williamson Down And Out Blues

Alex or Aleck Miller, known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp stylist who recorded successfully in the 1950s and 1960s. Down and Out Blues is the first LP record by Sonny Boy Williamson. The album was released in 1959 by Checker Records. The album was a compilation of Williamson's first singles for Checker Records, from "Don't Start Me to Talkin'" b/w "All My Love in Vain" through "Dissatisfied" b/w "Cross My Heart". The album features many famous blues musicians backing Williamson, including Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, and Willie Dixon. 2010 Extended remastered reissue by "Not Now Music" includes an additional CD "The Trumpet Singles." It's original 7" singles released on Trumpet Records 1951-1955.

Sonny Boy Williamson's original 1959 album made it to digital reissue but has now been supplanted by MCA's exhaustive The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson. Still, for a budget price, there are a dozen unforgettable tracks: "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," and his Checker debut; "All My Love in Vain," "Wake Up Baby," "99," "Cross My Heart," "Let Me Explain," and "The Key (To Your Door)."

Sonny Boy Williamson I - Later Years 1939-1947 (2009) {4CD JSP Records JSP77101}
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© 1939-1947, 2009 JSP Records | JSP77101
Blues / Harmonica Blues / Chicago Blues / Acoustic Blues

This four-CD set is the perfect companion and complement to JSP's The Original Sonny Boy Williamson, Vol. 1, covering the blues harp legend's final eight years. John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (aka Sonny Boy Williamson I) has, until fairly recently, been the odd man out in the story of Chicago blues stars, at least in terms of how history and posterity treated him. Having died in 1948, long before the significance of the blues or his work was recognized, he receded within the shadow cast by the older yet longer-lived name appropriator Sonny Boy Williamson II (aka Aleck Ford Miller), who got to record for Chess Records into the 1960s, and made it all the way to sessions with the likes of Eric Clapton and even a sadly never fulfilled intersection with the Band.

This is the first of two albums originally recorded while Williamson was on tour of Europe in 1963. The other was a sort of unplugged album before it's time, with just Williamson on vocals and harmonica and M. T. Murphy on acoustic guitar; on this one he's joined again by Murphy plus drummer Billie Stepney and a superb, albeit uncredited, pianist. Some of the performances, including the wry and funny "Movin' Down the River Rhine" feature just Williamson himself, reminding you once again just how much music it's possible to get out of an unamplifed harmonica and a tapping foot. The album has been edited so that Williamson's off-hand, almost stream-of-consciousness narrative ramblings provide weirdly effective segues between songs…

Sonny Boy Williamson - Don't Start Me Talkin' I'll Tell Everything I Know (2015) {Jasmine Records JASMCD 3049 rec 1955-1962}
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© 1955-62, 2015 Checker / Jasmine Records | JASMCD 3049
Blues / Chicago Blues

The complete Checker singles 1955-62 plus the classic LP 'Down And Out Blues'. Sonny Boy Williamson was an enigma in the modern blues world of the early 1960s, a real true example of the travelling blues man who rambled and hoboed across America playing music, gambling, womanising and drinking heavily along the way. 26 tracks including all 12 titles from the classic 'Down And Out Blues' albums which reach No. 20 in the UK charts. Herein are gems such as "One Way Out", "Fattening Frogs For Snakes" and as the title of this collection suggests the hit "Don't Start Me Talkin'" which has been covered by The Doobie Brothers, Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher and even the New York Dolls. Session musicians include Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon and more.

While some hardliners will point to his early 1950s Trumpet recordings as his most undiluted work, Sonny Boy's tenure at Chess Records was his longest and most successful and therefore deserves first look for the novice coming to this remarkable bluesman at ground level. This 20-track collection takes 17 tracks from the excellent two-disc Essential Sonny Boy Williamson collection and adds "Sad To Be Alone," "My Younger Days" and an alternate session-second version of "One Way Out" with Buddy Guy on guitar (yes, this is the version that the Allman Brothers used as the blueprint for their cover version) to the final mix. This is another entry into MCA's Chess 50th Anniversary Series and the digital transfers here are exemplary, making this an automatic audio upgrade for those who already have this material in their collection.

Easily the most important harmonica player of the prewar era, John Lee Williamson almost single-handedly made the humble mouth organ a worthy lead instrument for blues bands – leading the way for the amazing innovations of Little Walter and a platoon of others to follow…