MOTOWN SESSIONS
1962-1964
All music guide review

Signed to Motown years after speak as an R&B star. Milburn's association with the label turned out to be something of a non-event, producing only an obscure album and flop single.
A commercial non-event, that is Milburn's skills were still intact, resulting in some fine if somewhat unchracteristic performances.
The compilation reissues that album (The Return of the Blues Boss) and adds seven unreleased tracks. Milburn may still have been singing blues/R & B, but he was with Motown, which meant that a fair amount of soul-pop flavor ineveitably seeped through. You can hear it in the occasional female backup vocals, swinging brass arrangements, and even a brief harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder on "Chicken Shack Boogie" the arrangement on "I'll Make It Up to You Somehow" wouldn't have been out of place on an early Mary Wells single. The results are pleasantly surprising, updating Milburn' sound(which would have been quite anachronistic in the early 1960's) into the early soul era. The material is pretty strong, including both bluesy ballads and more uptempo numbers that don't totally smother his boogie-woogie roots.
Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide