But then he sings like an angel, a male counterpart to Aretha Franklin, on “I’ll Drown In My Tears,” honky-tonk piano and horns as his guide, and you realize there’s more to Johnny Winter than just being this incredibly soulful blues guitarist. And then there’s the growl and the roar of Winter’s voice, which like Hendrix, slyly teases the lyrics before they are fully digested and spewed out. You’re hearing superb musicianship from Winter and all the accompanying players, including bassist Tommy Shannon, who played with Winter on The Progressive Blues Experiment and later joined Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughn’s backing band. Goode” and the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Not to be outdone, he also tackled John Lennon’s “Rock & Roll People,” Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Then you jump into “Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo,” “Roll With Me” and “Still Alive And Well” - songs Rick Derringer had a hand in - and you recognize Winter’s incalculable instincts as a bad-ass rocker. Take a cursory listen to “Rock Me Baby,” “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and “It’s My Own Fault,” and you immediately get pulled in by Winter’s intense feel and touch for the blues. Winter didn’t go on to become as big as Led Zeppelin, but he did play Woodstock and the Fillmore East, blowing audiences away whenever he put on a guitar and stepped on stage. If you know the legend of Johnny Winter, you know after an article about him was published in Rolling Stone, a bidding war ensued and he was signed to a big fat recording contract with Clive Davis and Columbia Records. Taking five decades of Winter’s music, both in the studio and on stage, and fitting the best of the best onto two CDs may not have been as easy as it sounds, but the results spread out over The Essential Johnny Winter are sure to give you a decent overview of what the man is about. It was Johnny who mastered the guitar, becoming a major link between traditional blues and rock n’ roll - as important to the advent of blues-rock as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Hailing from Beaumont, Texas, Johnny and his brother Edgar were both musically gifted and albino.
While he’s too young to have been part of a blues wave that included BB King, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, he’s every bit as authentic. When you think of the blues and rock ‘n roll in a perfect marriage, it’s hard not to picture Johnny Winter at the wedding party.
0 kommentar(er)
