One of two LPs released in SBW's Lifetime. A classic but not recommended. Buy "His Best" or "Essential" CD instead. Either has twice the music per CD. Recording date: 1955-58 Release date: 1959 Label: Checker, Chess/MCA Catalogue #: LP-1437, LPS-1437, CH-9257, CHC-9257, CHD-31272 Length: 32 minutes Available: CD, cassette

TRACK LIST Don't Start Me To Talkin' (2:30) I Don't Know (2:20) All My Love In Vain (2:45) The Key (3:10) Keep It To Yourself (2:45) Dissatisfied (2:40) ========== Fattening Frogs For Snakes (2:16) Wake Up Baby (2:56) Your Funeral And My Trial (2:26) "99" (2:35) Cross My Heart (3:18) Let Me Explain (2:50)

MUSICIANS Fred Below (drums) Willie Dixon (bass) Lafayette Leake (piano) Robert Jr. Lockwood (guitar) Eugene Pierson (guitar) Jimmy Rogers (guitar) Otis Spann (piano) Luther Tucker (guitar) Muddy Waters (guitar)

NOTES This was the first of only two Sonny Boy Williamson LPs released during his lifetime. (The Storyville recording, A Portrait of The Blues was the other coming out in late 1964 while he was in England.) The late Lillian McMurry, co-founder of Trumpet Records, felt it was terribly unfair to Sonny Boy to portray him as an anonymous bum on the street. "Sonny Boy" she likes to say, referring to this style, "always went neat." This LP was simply a collection of singles and not produced with an LP in mind. It is, however, a classic album and the one which introduced many white people to his music. Produced by Leonard and Phil Chess, it was released in 1959 on the Checker label, in mono (LP-1437), then stereo (LPS-1437), with liner notes by Studs Terkel. In 1987 it was reissued in MCA's The Original Chess Masters series (CH-9257), with original inaccurate liner notes by Studs Turkel and additional liner notes by Don Kamerer. It has also appeared with the catalogue number CHD-31272. The cover features Don Bronstein's famous and offensive photograph of a down-and-out bum. [ HOME | HARP | LINKS | PHOTOS | RECORDS | SONGS ] © 1998 Sonny Boy's Lonesome Cabin