Sonny Boy Williamson: Down and Out Blues (180g, bonus tracks) [BLUES JOINT]

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition adds bonus Checker sides, including "Nine Below Zero," to the original twelve tracks. Down and Out Blues was his first LP, and it was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2007.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Bonus tracks
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

There were two Sonny Boy Williamsons, and the second one, Aleck "Rice" Miller, simply borrowed the name of the first and then made it his own. By the time Chess put his Checker singles together on this LP, he was one of the most distinctive harmonica players in Chicago, with a dry, sly voice to match.

The songs were cut between 1955 and 1958 with a band that reads like a Chess Records hall of fame: Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers on guitar for the opening pair, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Dixon on bass, Fred Below on drums, and Robert Lockwood Jr. and Luther Tucker adding guitar. "Don't Start Me To Talkin'" swings, "Fattening Frogs For Snakes" and "Your Funeral And My Trial" are masterclasses in wry storytelling, and "Keep It To Yourself" is pure cool.

The album found a second life in Britain in the 60s, climbing to No. 20 on the UK Albums Chart in 1964 as a new generation of bands discovered him. He made off with another man's name and still came out the most original harmonica player of his day, which takes some doing.

Also at Kops: more Sonny Boy Williamson on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Blues Joint (cat# 8034), a reissue of the 1959 album.