A1 	The Skies Are Crying 	
A2 	Your Funeral And My Trial 	
A3 	Explain Yourself To Me 	
A4 	Nine Below Zero 	
B1 	Fattening Frogs For Snakes 	
B2 	My One Room Cabin 	
B3 	Getting Out Of Town

Sonny Boy Williamson - Vocals, Harmonica
Memphis Slim - piano

Recorded live at the Blue Bar, Paris, 1st December 1963. 

Rough and dirty, full of rhythm and of a most uplifting mood. Blues can't get any better for my taste. ---headphonian, rateyourmusic.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire ulozto gett

back

1. Help Me
2. Bye Bye Bird
3. Nine Below Zero
4. The Hunt
5. Stop Right Now
6. She's My Baby
7. The Goat
8. Decoration Day
9. Trying To Get Back On My feet
10. My Younger Days
11. Close To me
12. Somebody Help Me

Bass – Jack Myers (tracks: B2 to B5), Milton Rector (tracks: A1, A2), Willie Dixon (tracks: A3 to A5, B1)
Drums – Al Duncan (tracks: A1, A2), Clifton James (tracks: B2 to B5), Fred Below (tracks: A3, B1), Odie Payne (tracks: A4, A5)
Guitar – Buddy Guy (tracks: B2 to B5), Luther Tucker (tracks: A4, A5, B1),
 Matt Murphy (tracks: A1, A2), Robert Lockwood Jr. (tracks: A3 to A5, B1), Sonny Boy Williamson (2) (tracks: A1, A2)
Harmonica – Sonny Boy Williamson (2) (tracks: A3 to A5, B1 to B5)
Organ – Lafayette Leake (tracks: A1, A2)
Piano – Lafayette Leake (tracks: B2 to B5), Otis Spann (tracks: A4, A5, B1)
Saxophone – Don Hankins (tracks: B2 to B4), Jarrett Gibson (tracks: B2 to B4)
Vocals – Sonny Boy Williamson (2)

More good early-'60s Chess Recordings from Sonny Boy Williamson. "Help Me," "Bye Bye Bird," and "Nine Below Zero" have been covered by numerous blues and rock acts. Most of the songs, however, show up on the Essential best-of collection. --- Richie Unterberger, AllMusic Review

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire uloz.to mega 4shared cloudmailru gett

back

A1 She Got Next to Me 2:30
A2 Santa Claus 2:41
A3 Little Village 11:50
A4 Your Funeral and My Trail (alt. take)
B1 Lonesome Cabin 3:00
B2 I Can't Do Without You 2:45
B3 Temperature 110 2:14
B4 Unseen Eye 3:00
B5 Keep Your Hand Out of My Pocket 2:45
B6 Open Road 2:52
B7 This Old Life 2:34

Sonny Boy Williamson II – harmonica, vocals
Eddie King Milton – guitar
Luther Tucker – guitar
Robert Lockwood, Jr. – guitar
Lafayette Leake – piano
Otis Spann – piano
Willie Dixon – bass
Fred Below - drums

This album by the Rice Miller fellow who called himself Sonny Boy Williamson -- in other words, the Mississippi harmonica player rather than the Tennessee harmonica player -- may have been one of the best volumes in the grim-looking series of single-album reissues and collections Chess put out before switching to double-album sets. Those who enjoy both blues and the film noir style will enjoy the graphic design of these albums, which often sported singularly unattractive photography of the artists. The grainy, out-of-focus picture of Williamson that fills this front cover is no exception; in fact, in a way, it established the rule. It isn't that he looks mean, he just looks like he could care less. Such a look of indifference has perhaps never before been captured by the camera. It could easily have been taken during some of the discussion that occurs between the artist and his producers during the recording of a song called "Little Village." It was the reissue producer's decision to put an entire 11 minutes of takes, re-takes, and related arguing on the first side of this collection, complete with a severe warning that the proceedings are not suitable for airplay. Blues fans rushed to this track immediately, and were not disappointed in the slice of recording-studio life that is revealed here. Far better than Frank Zappa's secretly recorded band discussions and arguments, this is one of the best examples of enlarging the scope of a musical track by adding auxiliary material that wasn't originally meant for release. Bless T.T. Swan for compiling this series, and giving us this view of the "Little Village," such a profound moment that an all-star rock band eventually named itself after the track. There's lots of other great stuff here as well; really, every track is a burner. Robert Jr. Lockwood is here on lead guitar, playing from the heart in his style of that era, not as jazzy as what would come later but hardly just a bunch of stock blues licks. "Temperature 110" is fantastic, a totally believable sizzler. "Santa Claus Blues" is many listeners' favorite Sonny Boy Williamson track, after which one can never rummage through a room looking for hidden booty without hearing harmonica riffs in the background. Other great tracks include "Open Road" and "This Old Life." Quite a bit of this material was released for the first time in this set, certainly one the blues fans will want to sail off to that desert island with. ---Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi

download: uploaded yandex 4shared mediafire solidfiles mega zalivalka filecloudio anonfiles oboom

back

01. I'm Down and Thinking (S.B. Williamson)
02. Trust My Baby (S.B. Williamson)
03. Bye Bye Bird (S.B. Williamson)               play
04. Blues Of The Blues (S.B. Williamson)
05. Work With Me (S.B. Williamson)
06. The Loneliest Man (S.B. Williamson)
07. Blues (On Chromatic Harp!) (B.W. Horton)
08. Shakey's Boogie (B.W. Horton)                play
09. Things Ain't What They Used To Be (B.W. Horton)
10. Baby I Need Your Love (B.W. Horton)
11. Medley (B.W. Horton)
.... (I Lost My Baby - St Louis Blues - Careless Love - John Henry)

Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) - Solo Harmonica & Vocals
Recorded live at a private party in Baden-Baden,
Germany, 27 September 1963.

Big Walter 'Shakey' Horton - Solo Harmonica & Vocals
Recorded live at a private party in Dortmund,
Germany, 25 September 1965.

Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey, hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim and simply wrote, played and sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records. His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp-playing was full of short, rhythmic bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed page. Though he took his namesake from another well-known harmonica player, no one really sounded like him.

A moody, bitter, and suspicious man, no one wove such a confusing web of misinformation as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Even his birth date (stated as December 5, 1899 in most reference books, but some sources claim his birth may have been in either 1897 or 1909) and real name (Aleck or Alex or Willie "Rice" -- which may or may not be a nickname -- Miller or Ford) cannot be verified with absolute certainty. Of his childhood days in Mississippi, absolutely nothing is known. What is known is that by the mid-'30s, he was traveling the Delta working under the alias of Little Boy Blue. With blues legends like Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Elmore James as interchangeable playing partners, he worked the juke joints, fish fries, country suppers and ballgames of the era. By the early '40s, he was the star of KFFA's King Biscuit Time, the first live blues radio show to hit the American airwaves. As one of the major ruses to occur in blues history, his sponsor -- the Interstate Grocery Company -- felt they could push more sacks of their King Biscuit Flour with Miller posing as Chicago harmonica star John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In today's everybody-knows-everything video age, it's hard to think that such an idea would work, much less prosper. After all, the real Sonny Boy was a national recording star, and Miller's vocal and harmonica style was in no way derivative of him. But Williamson had no desire to tour in the South, so prosper it did, and when John Lee was murdered in Chicago, Miller became -- in his own words -- "the original Sonny Boy." Among his fellow musicians, he was usually still referred to as Rice Miller, but to the rest of the world he did, indeed, become the Sonny Boy Williamson.

Big Walter Horton was a virtuoso blues harmonica player who, ironically, never achieved the fame of the renowned harpists he taught and inspired—including James Cotton, Little Walter Jacobs, and Rice Miller. Horton is remembered as a gentle man who never quite escaped poverty and poor health he was born into. Bruce Iglauer, who produced the 1972 record Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell, called him one of "only four great creative geniuses of modern blues harmonica," ranking him alongside Jacob, Miller, and John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson. Those three harp players were "recognized, honored and extensively recorded with their own bands," Iglauer wrote, but Horton remained relatively obscure at his death in 1981. "Perhaps… this shy, withdrawn man (was) never aggressive enough to hustle a contract with a major record label. Or perhaps… his harmonica is so subtle, so delicate, that it requires hard, concentrated listening to appreciate."

Horton crafted "a unique, fluid style that fused blues feeling with an uplifting jazzlike tone," wrote Chris Smith. "The beauty that he created through his music was in striking contrast to the troubled life he lived. Walter Horton was a shy, sensitive man who had to deal with poverty and illness most of his life. Often uncommunicative in conversation, he ‘spoke’ through his instrument, creating a world of lyric beauty, wit and energy." Writer Charles Shaar Murray offered a similar assessment in The Blues on CD, "Despite the greater fame and popularity of Little Walter, James Cotton, Junior Wells, and Paul Butterfield, many connoisseurs regard Horton as the finest of all the great post-war harp men."

download:  uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

   1. Don't Send Me No Flowers
   2. I See A Man Downstairs (One Way Out)
   3. She Was So Dumb
   4. The Goat
   5. Walking
   6. Little Girl
   7. It's A Bloody Life
   8. Getting Out Of Town>
The final recording sessions by Sonny Boy Williamson II in April 1965.

Personnel:
Sonny Boy Williamson - Vocals and Harmonica
Brian Auger - Hammond Organ
Jimmy Page - Guitar
Rick Brown - Bass
Mickey Waller - Drums
Joe Harriot - Alto Sax
Alan Skidmore - Tenor Sax 

download:  uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

01. Born Blind (S.B.Williamson) - 2:31
02. Work With Me (S.B.Williamson) - 2:53
03. You Killing Me (S.B.Williamson) - 3:27
04. Keep It To Yourself (S.B.Williamson) - 2:47
05. Don't Lose Your Eye (S.B.Williamson) - 2:59
06. Good Evening Everybody (S.B.Williamson) - 2:33
07. Too Close Together (S.B.Williamson) - 2:09
08. Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide (S.B.Williamson) - 2:17
09. I Wonder Why (S.B.Williamson) - 1:33
10. This Is My Apartment (S.B.Williamson) - 2:36
11. One Way Out (S.B.Williamson) - 1:58
12. Like Wolf (S.B.Williamson) - 2:48
13. She Got Next To Me (S.B.Williamson) - 2:30
14. Keep Your Hand Out Of My Pocket (S.B.Williamson) - 2:48
15. Open Road (S.B.Williamson) - 2:52
16. Too Young To Die (S.B.Williamson) - 2:50
17. The Hunt (S.B.Williamson/W.Dixon) - 2:43
18. That's All I Want (W.Dixon) - 2:14
19. Got To Move (S.B.Williamson) - 2:25
20. My Yonger Days (S.B.Williamson) - 3:19

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared yandex mediafire ziddu

back

1. Goin' in Your Direction 
2. From the Bottom 
3. No Nights by Myself 
4. Boppin' With Sonny 
5. Empty Bedroom 
6. Red Hot Kisses 
7. Gettin' Out of Town 
8. Cat Hop 
9. She Brought Life Back to the Dead 
10. I'm Not Beggin' Nobody [Alternate Take][#] 
11. She's Crazy [Alternate Take][#] 
12. Sonny's Rhythm, No. 2 [Alternate Take][#] 
13. Make a Little Love With Me - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson 
14. Gonna Find My Baby - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson 
15. Carfish Blues - Bobo "Slim" Thomas, Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson (II)'s early-50s waxings for Trumpet Records are not as well-known as his Chess sides, but they are a very important part of his legacy, and while the fidelity is not stellar, the performances are terrific.

I called this "early" Sonny Boy, and it is in terms of recorded material, but Rice Miller was already in his 50s when these performances were taped, and had played with men like Robert Johnson and Elmore James down in the Delta in the 30s. So his inimitable harmonica style was already in place on these his first recordings, and his characteristic vocals and his way with words were fully developed as well. One of these songs features Bobo Thomas as the lead vocalist...his "Catfish Blues" was reportedly put on the flipside of Elmore James' lone 1951 single "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", a recording which also featured Rice Miller on harmonica. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, the man behind "That's All Right Mama", sings on two numbers, and on the 1954 single "From The Bottom" a young B.B. King is credited as the guitar player.

But this is mainly Sonny Boy's show. He lays down tremendous, gritty performances of "Goin' In Your Direction", "I'm Not Beggin' Nobody", and the thumping, syncopated "Gettin' Out Of Town", as well as several others, including "She Brought Life Back To The Dead" and the driving "Empty Bedroom", which give Sonny Boy's best Chess sides a run for their money. The swinging "Red Hot Kisses" features great piano playing from David Campbell, and pianist Willie Love and guitarist Joe Willie Wilkins are also among the musicians. Love is particularly great on "She's Crazy", contributing mightily to the deep, swaggering groove of the track.

Sonny Boy fans should rush to secure themselves a copy of this excellent collection. Alligator has found a real treasure trove with these wonderful Trumpet sides, and this is in no way second-rate material...this is Sonny Boy Williamson at his best. ---Docendo Discimus, amazon.com

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

   1. Do It If You Wanna
   2. Cool, Cool Blues
   3. Come On Back Home
   4. Stop Crying
   5. Eyesight To The Blind
   6. West Memphis Blues
   7. I Cross My Heart
   8. Crazy About You Baby
   9. Nine Below Zero
  10. Mighty Long Time
  11. She Brought Life Back To The Dead
  12. Stop Now Baby
  13. Mr. Downchild
  14. Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues
  15. Pontiac Blues
  16. Too Close Together
  17. Radio Program (KFFA)
  18. Dust My Broom

Personnel: 
Sonny Boy Williamson (vocals, harmonica); 
Cliff Bivens (vocals, bass); 
Joe Willie Wilkins (guitar); 
Dave Campbell, Clarence Lonnie (piano); 
Frock (drums).

King Biscuit Time features Sonny Boy's early Trumpet sides from 1951. The original "Eyesight to the Blind," "Nine Below Zero" and "Mighty Long Time" are Sonny Boy at his very best. Added bonuses include Williamson backing Elmore James on his original recording of "Dust My Broom" and a live KFFA broadcast from 1965. ---Cub Koda, Rovi

download:  uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared mixturecloud yandex mediafire ziddu

back

01. Don't Start Me To Talkin
02. I Don't Know
03. All My Love In Vain
04. Key
05. Keep It To Yourself 
06. Dissatisfied
07. Fattening Frogs For Snakes
08. Wake Up Baby 
09. Your Funeral & My Trial 
10. 99
11. Cross My Heart
12. Let Me Explain 

Line Up:
Fred Below (drums)
Willie Dixon (bass)
Muddy Waters, Robert Lockwood, Jimmy Rogers (guitar)
Sonny Boy Williamson, Rice Miller (harmonica, vocals)
Otis Spann (piano)

Retaining photographer Don Bronstein's cover shot of a disheveled bum lying on the sidewalk (some former Chess artist, perhaps?) 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)." ---Bill Dahl, Rovi

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega 4shared yandex mediafire ziddu

back

1.  Do It If You Wanna 
2.  Cool, Cool Blues 
3.  Come On Back Home 
4.  Stop Crying 
5.  Eyesight To The Blind 
6.  West Memphis Blues 
8.  Crazy About You Baby 
9.  Nine Below Zero 
10.  Mighty Long Time 
11.  She Brought Life Back To The Dead 
12.  Stop Now Baby 
13.  Mr. Downchild 
14.  Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues 
15.  Pontiac Blues 
16.  Too Close Together

For hearing the man born as Alec (Rice) Miller as he had rounded into near-complete game shape, in the years immediately preceding the seminal sides he would cut for Chess beginning in the mid-to-late 1950s, there is no better package than this of Sonny Boy Williamson's incandescent, embryonic recordings for the ancient Trumpet label. Many of these songs would get the Sonny Boy makeover when he re-cut them during his Chess years, and it's intriguing to compare between the Trumpet originals and the Chess refineries of such signature songs as "Eyesight To The Blind," "Cross My Heart," "Nine Below Zero," "Mr. Down Child," and "Mighty Long Time." Then again, the tandem treat is to hear a good enough dollop of some of Sonny Boy's more personal material, particularly the slightly haunting "West Memphis Blues," which he wrote about the fire that actually burned down the house he had bought with his wife.

Then, there are the bonuses: one of the last broadcasts of the legendary "King Biscuit Time" on which Sonny Boy would appear before his death; and perhaps the earliest known version Elmore James would cut of his signature "Dust My Broom," this one with Sonny Boy (who was long reputed to have tricked him into cutting it for Trumpet) sliding in with some fills showing he was a deft an accompanist/partner as he was a harmonica virtuoso. Accompanying the cantankerously poetic Sonny Boy, mostly, are such legends of Memphis/Helena blues as guitarist Joe Willie Wilkins (Robert Jr. Lockwood he ain't, but for laying a sensible support and spitting out the occasional fill and run he acquits his own self very nicely), bassist Cliff Bivens, drummer Frock, and pianist Dave Campbell, and they deliver yeoman's work. ---BluesDuke, amazon.com

download:   uploaded anonfiles mega gett 4shared yandex mediafire ziddu

back