Search - Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sonny Boy 'John Lee' Williamson :: Blues Masters

**1/2. Disappointing latter-day Sonny Boy

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 04/26/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded in Denmark and Sweden in late 1963, less than 18 months before his death, these sides feature Aleck "Rice" Miller/Sonny Boy Williamson the Second playing solo or with various small combos. Those occationally include Memphis Slim and Matt "Guitar" Murphy, but they usually just fade into the background.



The last seven songs are previously uinssued, but there aren't any hidden treasures here, to be honest. I consider Rice Miller's classic Trumpet and Chess sides to be some of the greatest electric blues ever recorded, and his entire 40s and 50s output was of extremely high quality.

But these sides do not compare. They are musically and lyrically relatively uninspired...not bad, you understand, but certainly a far cry from Miller's Chess sides. A few decent songs, such as "Little Girl" and "Down And Out", are swamped by mediocre solo instrumentals and forgettable acoustic numbers with none of the mordant lyrical wit you would expect and no melody to speak of.



VERY serious Rice Miller-fans will probably want to check out this album...I'm sure they're going to buy it no matter what I think about it, if they haven't already. But slightly more casual fans will be much, much better served by Miller's Trumpet and Chess sides.

2 1/2 stars. Very disappointing."