Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds
| Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds | |||||
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| Live album by Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds | |||||
| Released | January 7, 1966 | ||||
| Recorded | London, December 1963 | ||||
| Genre | Blues | ||||
| Length | 34:03 | ||||
| Label | Fontana | ||||
| Producer | Horst Lippmann, Giorgio Gomelsky | ||||
| Sonny Boy Williamson II chronology | |||||
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| AllMusic |   |
Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds is a live album by Chicago blues veteran Sonny Boy Williamson II backed by English rock band the Yardbirds. It was recorded at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, Surrey on December 8, 1963, although a second date and location has been given for two songs.
Williamson sings and/or plays harmonica on all of the songs. Although they are in a supporting role, the album also presents some of the earliest recordings by the Yardbirds, whose members included Eric Clapton on lead guitar. Numerous reissues have appeared over the years, sometimes with additional tracks recorded around the same time.
German music impresarios Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau organized the first annual American Folk Blues Festival in 1962. They arranged for several well-known American blues artists to perform in concert in several European cities. Sonny Boy Williamson participated during the second festival tour in 1963 and his performances are identified as some of the most memorable of the festival. At the conclusion of the festival, he returned to England for a more extensive club tour.
The Yardbirds' manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, who promoted some of the early American Folk Blues Festivals in England, persuaded Lippmann to attend one of the group's shows (by another account, Williamson also saw one of their performances). A deal was struck and the Yardbirds backed Williamson for several English dates between December 1963 and February 1964. Part of the arrangement included that Lippmann and Rau record some live performances (as they had done for the festival tour) and finance a solo studio demo by the group.
December 7, 1963 at the Star Hotel, Croydon
December 8, 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond
February 28, 1964 at the Birmingham Town Hall
Over two years after it was recorded, Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds was first released in the UK by Fontana Records on January 7, 1966. With a somewhat different running order, it was released in the US a month later by Mercury Records on February 7, 1966. The album coincided with a string of successful singles by the Yardbirds, which lead music critic Richie Unterberger to label it "an exploitative album". Although Williamson's photo and name were prominently displayed on the album cover, a more recent photo of the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck (who replaced Clapton in March 1965) in the foreground was used. In Germany, the album was released by Star-Club Records, which had a connection to Lippmann and Rau.
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