Sonny Boy Williamson: The Real Folk Blues (Chess 75 series) [HIP-O RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This Chess 75 edition is mastered from the original analog tapes and pressed in mono on 180g vinyl, in a gatefold jacket. When Chess first put it out in 1966 it was mostly unissued material, including "Checkin' Up on My Baby" and "Bring It On Home."

This edition

• Chess 75 series
• Mastered from the original analog tapes
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Gatefold jacket
• Remastered

About the album

Sonny Boy Williamson had the kind of harmonica tone that sounds like a conversation, half wisecrack and half sermon, and Chess Records spent the late 1950s and early 60s getting it down on tape in Chicago. The Real Folk Blues gathers twelve of those sides, recorded between September 1957 and April 1964, and Marshall Chess produced the album.

The bands are stacked with Chess royalty. Willie Dixon plays bass and wrote "That's All I Want" as well as "Bring It On Home," Otis Spann and Lafayette Leake share the piano, Fred Below drums, and the guitar chair passes between Robert Lockwood Jr., Luther Tucker, Matt Murphy, Eddie King and Buddy Guy, who plays on "One Way Out." "Checkin' Up on My Baby" swings hard, "Peach Tree" and "Down Child" slow things down, and "Too Old to Think" closes with a wink.

Led Zeppelin later took on "Bring It On Home" and the Allman Brothers made "One Way Out" a live staple, so a fair chunk of classic rock started right here. Think of it as the original, before everyone else turned the amps up.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Chess / UMe (cat# 1503), a reissue of the 1966 compilation.