One of Sonny Boy Williamson’s specialties was his way of singing not just about the sadness of lost love but also about how cruel and unjust it all seemed to him. In the case of his heartfelt “Nine Below Zero,” he complained: “She wait till it got nine below zero and put me down for another man.” Williamson’s cries were echoed by his harmonica, with Willie Love’s piano leading the band pumping along behind him on this 1951 session from Jackson, Mississippi. Williamson rerecorded three more excellent versions of this song for Checker at a 1961 session in Chicago.
