One Way Out

Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 17, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002O92
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,841 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Born Blind

2. Work With Me

3. You Killing Me

4. Keep It to Yourself

5. Don't Lose Your Eye

6. Good Evening Everybody

7. Too Close Together

8. Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

9. I Wonder Why

10. This Is My Apartment

11. One Way Out

12. Like Wolf

13. Have You Ever Been in Love

14. Cool Disposition

15. I Know What Love Is All About

Editorial Reviews

This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the original MCA Chess release. Catalog CHD-9116. There is a drill hole through the booklet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Miller, October 13, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Way Out (Audio CD)

Of all the blues greats of the 40s, 50s and 60s, Aleck "Rice" Miller's output was of the most consistently high quality, and if you're not completely satisfied by the double-disc MCA/Chess anthology, "The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson", his four LPs "Down And Out Blues", "Help Me", "One Way Out" and "Bummer Road" are all must-own purchases.

On "One Way Out", Rice Miller is backed by an incredible number of superstar sidemen, including Otis Spann, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Fred Below, Odie Payne, Lafayette Leake, Robert "Jr." Lockwood, and Willie Dixon.

It may not be as consistently sublime as "Bummer Road" or "Down And Out Blues", but there are certainly no clunkers either, and several of these songs rank among Miller's very best.

The album opens with "Born Blind", a great re-take on his classic 1951 Trumpet single "Eyesight To The Blind" with some wonderful piano playing by Otis Spann. And other highlights include the shuffling "Too Close Together", the slow "Don't Lose Your Eye" with its lean arrangement, the fantastic title track (which boasts one of Miller's best lyrics), and the classic "Keep It To Yourself".

Rice Miller's harp playing is superb all the way through, employing his usual barrage of powerful, riffing bursts and nuanced, even subtle, blowing. And his vocals on the song which bears the tounge-in-cheek title "Like Wolf" are indeed uncannily like Howlin' Wolf's.

4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great harmonica, great blues history, December 3, 2001

By 

Bob Davis (Christchurch New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Way Out (Audio CD)

This collection by Sonny Boy Williamson is no longer a fashionable music style. However, his harmonica and vocals highlight a blues legacy that is worth remembering. Some of the backing features Muddy Walters and Otis Spann. My favourite Sonny Boy track, 'Help Me' is missing from the album but there are still enough highlights to keep you interested. All blues fans should have at least one album from Sonny Boy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a St Louis trumpet sound - Miles Davis or Clark Terry, April 30, 2010

A Kid's Review

This review is from: One Way Out (Audio CD)

Sonny Boy was more than "Kind of Blue" and just as influential.

"the material on One Way Out is mostly pretty obscure, that's no reason to avoid this collection" Indeed!

"Born Blind" is the Checker (Sonny Boy and Little Walter's records were always on Checker, not Chess records) was probably the most widely-heard version of "Eyesight To The Blind" which was the only track on Tommy the rock opera that was not written by The Who members. Actually The Who got the song from a Mose Allison 45.

"Good Evening Everybody" was a version of the King Bicuit Time theme, a song which rang in the ears of every bluesman who moved North from the Mississippi delta as it may have been one of the few radio shows which featured the blues.

"One Way Out" was co-written with Elmore James, is the name of the Allman Brothers publishing company and has been in their stage show for decades.

"Keep It To Yourself" was part of Sonny Boy's stage show on the American Folk Blues Festival (the one where he played his harmonica "no hands" sticking out of his mouth like a cigar for a whole chorus. Check out the performance in the essential AFBF DVDs (this I think is on the Memphis Slim/Sonny Boy Williamson tour DVD.)

Every Sonny Boy song is worth hearing. While the original Sonny Boy Williamson I and Little Walter were aptly described as playing their blues harps (harmonicas) like Mississippi saxophones Sonny Boy II was closer to a St Louis Trumpet like Miles Davis and Clark Terry where every note carried color and emotion and only the necessary notes were played. Sonny Boy could make me cry with a single note. In fact if you notice some of his songs, he holds a note for several bars, it sounds a lot like where Jimmy Smith got the idea of holding down one key on his organ with a matchbook wedged in between the keys.

Sonny Boy II was one of a kind and if you think this kind of harp playing is easy, ask around and see if you can find anyone who can copy Sonny Boy II. Only Rick Estrin of the Nightcaps can come close today. He can do the "no hands" trick as well.

Buy it, play it, love it and then do it all again.