Sunday Morning Blues - Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson I & II

Nearing the end of our journey through the Sunday Morning Blues we have both Sonny Boy Williamson's on one volume, a great comparison of the two.

Volumes 49 and 50:

Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Born in Texas. Johnny Watson started as a solid blues- guitar player. In the seventies he started to add heavy funky elements keeping his career going through the eighties. The first two decades he was straight up Texas guitar-blues. He had some moderate success through the 1950s and 60s, making a blues career when others were fading out due to rock'n'roll, and keeping one as the resurgence happened. By the 1970s he started to change his style with the times, keeping his career going, but never fully coming back to the blues.

All the songs here are from his early career and hits in the 1950s and 60s, straight blues guitar, with two versions of his greatest hit Gangster Of Love, one leading the set in and one closing it out. The cap like that shows his change wasn't entirely sudden, he'd been working some funk and non blues elements into his work through the late 1960s. Personally, I'd find his older stuff as the guitar work is a little more bluesy, the funk of his late stuff isn't bad though.

Big Joe Williams
Joseph Lee Williams began his career in the early 1920s, traveling the country and busking. He didn't start a recording career until the 1930s, first recording with jug bands. He didn't start his solo blues career until 1934. Williams played mostly delta blues, with some folk blues mixed in, and a style his own. He never hit stardom, but never fell out either. Continuing on with music through the decline of blues to the oncoming rock rise, playing festivals continuously. He also played an unusual 9-string guitar giving him a unique sound and style.

The songs here are mostly from post world-war 2 recordings, still all his classics though. The bulk of his recording career was done in the 1960s, where almost all the songs from here come from. They're clean and clear, and good examples of his work.

Sonny Boy Williamson I
John Lee Curtis Williamson was an early country blues harmonica player in the Chicago area. The first man to use the name Sonny Boy Williamson. He was a prolific player in the blues scene and a had some fame through the 1940s both as a band leader and a sideman for others. He was killed in a robbery on his way home from a gig in 1948. There was some dispute between him and Alex Miller, but since Miller didn't leave the Mississippi basin until after Williamson's death, the dispute was minor.

Some good clean recordings here, most of them from the WWII era and past it, until his passing. A good clean delta style. It's not strict Delta, a little bit of Chicago comes through with some Jump and other R&B elements coming in.

Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex Rice Miller, another early delta blues artist. He claimed to have used the name Sonny Boy Williamson first, but the other musician was already famous, while Miller was still gaining a foothold in the music business. The dispute continues, and Miller is assumed to be the Second, or rarely Little Sonny Boy. From the 1950s onward Miller started to have a lot of influence in the music scene for his style of play and skill. A cousin to Howlin' Wolf he often played with him. His birth year is in dispute (reportedly he claimed 1899 to seem older than the first Sonny Boy), and hi gravestone has an incorrect date of death. His songs were covered when he was active, and continue to be covered today by blues musicians.

By contrast, Miller's harmonica is much more bold, and to the front of the song. His recordings are all from the 1950s onwards and are clean and loud. You can hear the delta behind it, but his style and the influence of Chicago and other contemporary blues artists shows through. Personally, I think Miller is the better of the two Sonny Boy's.

Next Week - the final two volumes in this large boxset, Bukka White, Josh White, and Jimmy Yancey.