Customer Reviews

Sweet Home Chicago: Job Sessions 1950's

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I owned this album on vinyl when it briefly appeared in the UK around 1980. I remembered that I had enjoyed it very much - but would it stand the test of the intervening 20+ years? The answer is a resounding YES! It's not all that it seems to be, because the Robert Jr.Lockwood tracks are the man operating as part of a loose assembly of accompanyment from the likes of Sunnyland Slim on piano and Alfred Wallace on drums, as well as other instrumentation that appears on individual tracks. Indeed Lockwood only gets to undertake the vocals on tracks 1 to 4 and 11 & 12, but his fluid guitar contributions are everywhere.Favourites are "Sunnyland Special" (Luandrew on vocals on this one) and "Sweet Woman from Maine", where Lockwoods vocals are added to by alto sax from Alex Atkins. However the real bonus for me are the Johnny Shines tracks, probably the 'best' vocal performances from him on record.Tracks 13 to 16 have backing from a three piece of second guitar (Moody Jones) bass and drums."Fishtail" is my favourite ( a raunchy Cadillac metaphor) but they're all excellent. On tracks 17 to 22 he's accompanied by Big Walter Horton. "Evening Sun" is electric, but the two versions of "Gonna Call an Angel"(there are actually 4 takes) is a great indication of what Shines was aiming for (and achieved).It's an expensive buy, but the Johnny Shines tracks would make it worth the price on their own, and the Lockwood tracks make it an indispensible purchase. Highly recommended

These songs are hard to come by elsewhere. It's nice to have them collected here. Early Lockwood. Great unique blues guitar playing with Sunnyland Slim as well as under his own name and with others. He solos a lot here which is rare as he was often playing only great rhythm and not soloing at all. The Johnny Shines stuff is also great as usual.

Not sure why this is out of print or if it is available anywhere else but if you like the blues you need this music! Lockwood sounds like Willie Johnson on the early Howlin' Wolf stuff in the first half of the record and the Johnny Shines stuff is just amazing. Shines is the closest thing to Robert Johnson we ever had and he plays some great slide as well. Lockwood's subsequent work was more spotty but Shines never failed to deliver the goods even if he often, like most bluesmen, seemed to repeat himself at times. Track this stuff down, you won't regret it!