Search - Sonny Boy Williamson :: One Way Out

Great harmonica, great blues history

Bob Davis | Christchurch New Zealand | 12/03/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This collection by Sonny Boy Williamson is no longer a fashionable music style. However, his harmonica and vocals highlight a blues legacy that is worth remembering. Some of the backing features Muddy Walters and Otis Spann. My favourite Sonny Boy track, 'Help Me' is missing from the album but there are still enough highlights to keep you interested. All blues fans should have at least one album from Sonny Boy."

Like Miller

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 10/13/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the blues greats of the 40s, 50s and 60s, Aleck "Rice" Miller's output was of the most consistently high quality, and if you're not completely satisfied by the double-disc MCA/Chess anthology, "The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson", his four LPs "Down And Out Blues", "Help Me", "One Way Out" and "Bummer Road" are all must-own purchases.



On "One Way Out", Rice Miller is backed by an incredible number of superstar sidemen, including Otis Spann, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Fred Below, Odie Payne, Lafayette Leake, Robert "Jr." Lockwood, and Willie Dixon.

It may not be as consistently sublime as "Bummer Road" or "Down And Out Blues", but there are certainly no clunkers either, and several of these songs rank among Miller's very best.

The album opens with "Born Blind", a great re-take on his classic 1951 Trumpet single "Eyesight To The Blind" with some wonderful piano playing by Otis Spann. And other highlights include the shuffling "Too Close Together", the slow "Don't Lose Your Eye" with its lean arrangement, the fantastic title track (which boasts one of Miller's best lyrics), and the classic "Keep It To Yourself".



Rice Miller's harp playing is superb all the way through, employing his usual barrage of powerful, riffing bursts and nuanced, even subtle, blowing. And his vocals on the song which bears the tounge-in-cheek title "Like Wolf" are indeed uncannily like Howlin' Wolf's.



4 1/2 stars - highly recommended."