Down and Out Blues was the first LP by Sonny Boy Williamson (No. 2). Chess Records subsidiary label, Checker, released this collection of 1955-58 singles in 1960. Harmonica maestro Williamson (Alex ‘Rice’ Miller, 1912-1965) recorded some of his strongest and most poetic songs on these Chicago sessions, accompanied by such stellar sidemen as Muddy Waters, Robert Lockwood Jr., Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, Luther Tucker, and Fred Below. Although Williamson was known as a dapper dresser, Chess chose to illustrate the down-and-out Blues theme with a cover photo of a nameless, ragged, barefooted derelict. Noted Chicago author Studs Terkel wrote the liner notes. Williamson was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the first year of the awards.
