Personnel includes: John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (vocals, harmonica); Robert Lee McCoy (vocals, guitar); Yank Rachell (spoken vocals, guitar, mandolin); Joe Williams, Henry Townsend (guitar).

Recorded at the Leland Hotel, Aurora, Illinois on May 5 & November 11, 1937 and March 13, 1938. Includes liner notes by Mark Humphrey.

Digitally remastered by Dennis Ferrante.

Personnel: Sonny Boy Williamson (vocals, harmonica); Robert Lee McCoy (vocals, guitar); Yank Rachell (guitar, mandolin); Henry Townsend, Big Joe Williams (guitar).

Liner Note Author: Mark A. Humphrey.

Recording information: Leland Hotel, Aurora, IL (05/05/1937-03/13/1938).

This 24-track overview of the blues harp master's brief tenure with the Bluebird label includes "Good Morning School Girl," probably Williamson's best known work thanks to subsequent covers by Howlin' Wolf and the Grateful Dead. ~ Jason Ankeny

THE BLUEBIRD RECORDINGS is a brilliantly remastered collection of the highly influential bluesman's earliest recordings. All but one of the tracks here are taken from the original metal masters.

Several of these songs, of course, have become blues standards, particularly "Good Morning School Girl," which has been covered countless times (the Yardbirds, Ten Years After, et al), and there's a surprising variety here. "Got the Bottle Up and Gone," for example, has an obvious jug band feel to it that's thoroughly at odds with the haunted sound of "Decoration Blues," or the proto-swamp "Up the Country Blues," a song that clearly influenced Slim Harpo.

Down Beat (5/97, p.73) - 5 Stars (out of 5) - "The blues has been blessed with two Sonny Boy Williamsons. This compilation is all about the original Sonny Boy...often called Sonny Boy #1....this 24-track disc serves notice that Sonny Boy #1's harp legacy is every bit as rewarding as the legacy of his later namesake. And every bit as essential."