Sonny Boy Williamson II
Keep It To Ourselves

There are different ways to feel music.
I'm not talking about listening to it, I mean really FEELING IT...
The music of Sonny Boy Williamson is called blues and it's music that you really feel.
Ohh, you do feel it!
Damned and friggin’ blues that gets into your bloodstream instantly like 3 well-served glasses of Brunello di Montalcino.
JOHN LEE "Sonny Boy" WILLIAMSON II (alias Alex Rice Miller), born in 1914, was a true pioneer in the use of the harmonica as a solo instrument rather than just an embellishment in the blues compositions of his brilliant colleagues (B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, etc.). Before him, there was another "Sonny Boy Williamson" just as important, who paved the way for him and whom he considered a true master, so much so that he immediately changed his real name to call himself by the same name, as a sign of sincere appreciation for the one who had opened a world before him.

When he recorded this "KEEP IT TO OURSELVES" for the historic Storyville label, Sonny Boy had already reached the end of his brilliant career after playing with the greatest bluesmen of the era and even collaborating with the legendary Yardbirds and the Animals.
He was 66 years old at the time, although he seemed 30 years younger given how fluid, spontaneous, and groovie his semi-improvised forays into the depths of the music of the devil were.

A record that is sincere like never before, where there is no more desire to prove anything to anyone but the awareness of playing, once again, JUST for the personal pleasure of doing so and to retrace the key moments of a troubled, difficult career but in general more than satisfying for a man who started virtually from scratch.

Music made almost exclusively of voice, guitar, and harmonica (with guitar played by Matt Murphy and some piano interventions by Memphis Slim), in keeping with the early classic blues tradition, with only one instance of drums (played by Billie Stepney) in the track "Moving Out." Unplugged songs (as we would say now!) recorded in the span of a single night (!!) in Copenhagen in 1963, offering the charm of spontaneous execution captured in moments of greatest creativity, even with a few minor technical flaws, only increase the allure of a truly participatory interpretation.
A sparse, simple, and real record from a man who communicates with us and SUCCEEDS using very few tools at his disposal: no artifice, no overdubs, practically good on the first take, with just a few rapid exchanges (audible in the microphones) and then they start. As in: Come what may, the good Lord will assist us. (enjoy a rare video of him here).

Ladies and gentlemen: this is Blues.