Johnny Winter - ...and on guitar (1977)

John Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944, two years before his brother Edgar made an apperance in 1946. They were encouraged in their musical pursuits by their father John Dawson Winter Jnr, who was also a musician who played saxophone and guitar and sang at churches and weddings, and they appeared on a local children's show with Johnny playing ukulele when he was 10 years old. His recording career began at the age of 15, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released 'School Day Blues' on a Houston record label, and after recording a single with Roy Head And The Traits, he released his first album 'The Progressive Blues Experiment' in 1968. His big break came at the end of that year, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. Representatives of Columbia Records were at the concert, and after Winter played and sang B.B. King's 'It's My Own Fault' to loud applause, they snapped him up with reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry at that time — $600,000. Winter's first Columbia album 'Johnny Winter' was recorded and released in 1969, using the same backing musicians who played on 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', plus blues legend Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter recorded his third album 'Second Winter' in Nashville in 1969, with the two-disc album having just three sides of music, with the fourth side being blank. In 1970 the original blues trio disbanded, after Edgar left to record a solo album 'Entrance', and to form Edgar Winter's White Trash, an R&B/jazz-rock group, with Johnny playing guitar on both 'Entrance', and White Trash's debut album. He then formed a new band with the remnants of The McCoys who had just split, nabbing guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and Derringer's brother Randy Z on drums, with the original name of Johnny Winter And The McCoys being shortened to Johnny Winter And. 

Winter's momentum was throttled when he sank into heroin addiction during the Johnny Winter And days, but after seeking treatment for and recovering from the addiction, he returned to the music scene with the release of the prophetically titled 'Still Alive and Well', a basic blend of blues and hard rock, whose title track was written by Rick Derringer. In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters, and in 1974 he got his chance, when renowned blues artists and their younger brethren came together to honor Waters with a concert featuring many blues classics, and which was the start of an admired TV series 'Soundstage', with 'Blues Summit In Chicago' being the first episode. In 1977 he took Waters into the studio to record 'Hard Again' for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia, and it was this record that kick-started the resurgence of Waters' career, with this and their subsequent two albums together producing three Grammy Awards. Throughout his career Winter has helped out friends and relatives on their records, contributing to solo albums by Rick Derringer and former White Trash singer Jerry LaCroix, as well as playing with James Cotton in 1970, who returned the favour by contributing harmonica to the 'Hard Again' sessions seven years later.

 

Track listing

01 She Moves Me (from 'Taking Care Of Business' by James Cotton Blues Band 1970)
02 Tobacco Road (from 'Entrance' by Edgar Winter 1970)
03 I've Got News For You (from 'Edgar Winter's White Trash' by Edgar Winter's White Trash 1971)
04 Funny Boy (from 'The Second Coming' by Jerry LaCroix 1974)
05 Skyscraper Blues (from 'Spring Fever' by Rick Derringer 1975)
06 King Tut Strut (from 'Temple Of Birth' by Jeremy Steig 1975)
07 Reggae Rock & Roll (from 'Hit It Again' by Tornader 1977)
08 Mannish Boy (from 'Hard Again' by Muddy Waters 1977)

Johnny Winter - Winter Blues (1969)

Johnny Winter is rightly regarded as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, but growing up in the 50's, being born in 1944, meant that he also loved rock 'n' roll, and this is evident on most of his albums, where he mixed the blues with rock 'n' roll classics such as 'Johnny B. Goode', 'Bonie Morone', and 'Riot In Cell Block #9'. His recording career began in 1959 at the age of fifteen, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released 'School Day Blues' on a Houston record label, and it was at this time that he saw performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the early days, Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and the Traits when they performed in the Beaumont area, and in 1967 he recorded a single with the Traits, 'Tramp' / 'Parchman Farm'. In 1968, he released his first album 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', but his big break came in December 1968, when Mike Bloomfield invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. Representatives of Columbia Records were at the concert, and when Winter played B.B. King's 'It's My Own Fault' to loud applause, it impressed them enough to offer him $600,00.00, reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry, to sign to Columbia Records. 
Winter's first Columbia album, 'Johnny Winter', was released in 1969, and featured the same backing musicians with whom he had recorded 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', which was bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner, along with his younger brother Edgar Winter on keyboards and saxophone. The album was a mixture of blues standards, rock 'n' roll songs, and some of Winter's own compositions, and was something of a success, leading to Imperial Records picking up 'The Progressive Blues Experiment' for a wider release. Winter's blues trio toured and performed at several rock festivals, including Woodstock in 1969, and with Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter recorded his second Columbia album 'Second Winter', which was the same mix of rock and blues as the previous two, with this one featuring a couple of songs that later became staples of his live show, Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' and Bob Dylan's 'Highway 61 Revisited'. 
While all three albums are great records, I'm not that keen on the rock 'n' roll stuff, and much prefer his blues recordings, and as well as covering the classics from Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Leadbelly, he also wrote a lot of his own material. What I really wanted to hear was an album of Johnny Winter's own compositions purely in the blues style, so that's what we have here. It's drawn from his three albums from 1968 and 1969, and shows not only his skill on both electric and acoustic guitar, but also that he can pen a mean blues tune. All the tracks are the original recordings, apart from 'Dallas', which is a band recording instead of the solo acoustic take on 'Johnny Winter'. Winter was professionally active right up until the time of his death in Switzerland on July 16, 2014, when he was found dead in his hotel room two days after his last performance at the Cahors Blues Festival in France. The cause of Winter's death was not officially released.

Track listing

01 Mean Town Blues
02 Bad Luck And Trouble
03 Black Cat Bone
04 Leavin' Blues
05 I'm Yours And I'm Hers
06 Dallas
07 Leland Mississippi Blues
08 38, 32, 20
09 I Love Everybody
10 Low Down Gal Of Mine
11 Fast Life Rider
12 Kind Hearted Woman
13 Hustled Down In Texas