Sonny Boy Williamson II "Bye Bye Sonny" 2006

If legend grows out of mystery, then Rice Miller could be its poster boy, since even his name is an uncertainty (he was most likely born as Alec or Alex Miller), and given that he assumed the name of another harmonica player, thus becoming the second Sonny Boy Williamson, he seemed to approach life like it was a hall of mirrors. What keeps him from being a completely self-invented illusion is that he was a remarkable musician, and the music he recorded is as solid as bedrock, an impressive counterweight to the vague and watery details that pass for his personal biography. Like the first Williamson, he was a harmonica player, but he really sounded nothing like his adopted namesake, favoring a light, soaring, almost horn-like sound on the instrument. He was also a natural songwriter, and his blues-based compositions show a sharp attention to detail unusual in a genre built largely on cliché and a handful of repeated patterns. He was also a larger than life showman, and he knew a good thing when he ran into it, so when he participated in the American Folk & Blues Festival package in Europe in 1963 and saw the enthusiastic reception afforded old American bluesmen there, he decided to stick around for awhile and ended up fronting numerous gigs with various young white British blues bands, each of which he charmed, confused and schooled. As providence would have it, a fair amount of these gigs were caught on tape, including the two sets with the Yardbirds (December 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond and February 1964 at the Birmingham Town Hall in Birmingham), and a set with the Animals (December 1963 at the Club A Go-Go in Newcastle) that are collected on the first disc of this two-disc set. Truthfully, these live shows are more historically interesting than anything else, being merely passable bar band blues, even if they feature a fascinatingly charismatic if rather drunken Williamson at the helm. The second disc here consists of a studio session Williamson did with Jimmy Page and Brian Auger in January of 1965, and thanks to the presence of Alan Skidmore and Joe Harriott on tenor and alto saxophone respectively, the whole affair has an edgy and jazzy jump blues feel that allows Williamson to stretch out a bit from the strict blues format. As fate would have it, the Page/Auger session was to be the last chapter in Williamson's recorded legacy, as the harpist died four months later in Helena, Arkansas. All of the tracks on these two discs have been released several times under various titles and on assorted labels, and aside from the experimental freshness of the Page/Auger material, it all amounts to historical ephemera, probably essential only for dedicated collectors. As the last chapter in the murky, mythical and fascinating career of one Rice Miller, though, these recordings are worth their weight in gold. --Steve Leggett, AllMusictrax Disc 1:

Sonny Boy Williamson II & The Yardbirds Featuring Eric Clapton (Live at the Crawdaddy, 1964)

01. Bye Bye Bird 02. Mister Downchild 03. The River Rhine 04. Twenty-Three Hours Too Long 05. Lost Care 06. Take It Easy 07. Out Of The Water Coast 08. Western Arizona 09. Slow Walk 10. Highway 69 11. My Little Cabin

Sonny Boy Williamson II & The Animals Featuring Eric Burdon (Live at the Club A-Go-Go, 1963)

12. Sonny's Slow Walk 13. Pontiac Blues 14. My Babe 15. I Don't Care No More 16. Baby Don't You Worry 17. Night Time Is The Right Time 18. I'm Gonna Put You Down 19. Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes 20. Nobody But You 21. Bye, Bye Sonny, Bye Bye - Coda

trax Disc 2:

Sonny Boy Williamson II with Jimmy Page & Brian Auger (Studio Recordings, 1965)

01. Don't Send Me No Flowers (Pt. 1) 02. Don't Send Me No Flowers (Pt. 2) 03. Don't Send Me No Flowers (Pt. 3) 04. Don't Send Me No Flowers (Pt. 4) 05. I See A Man Downstairs 06. She Was So Dumb 07. The Goat 08. Walking 09. Little Girl, How Old Are You 10. It's A Bloody Life 11. Getting Out Of Town

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