There are few blues or rock 'n' roll guitarists that really light the stage on fire. The great Muddy Waters, of course, could shut up even the loudest heckler with a menacing stare and six-strings of silken fury. Clapton, in his prime, was the heavyweight champ on the block, while a couple of decades later, Texas's favorite son, Stevie Ray Vaughan, would drop suckers from coast to coast with his mad skills, great tone, and seemingly endless reservoir of blues emotion.
Johnny Winter was, and still is, one of those choice handful of fretburners that leave listeners walking away from a performance shaking their heads in disbelief. Because of his electrifying, incendiary live shows, Winter has developed a loyal following that has supported him through various ups and downs for better than forty years. It's to these dedicated fans, perhaps, that Winter's Live Bootleg Series albums are aimed. Featuring performances hand-picked by the man himself, the albums takes Winter's immense musical legacy out of the studio and places it on stage, which is a much better measure of the artist's contributions to both blues music and rock 'n' roll.
Johnny Winter's Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6
Winter's Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6 presents more of the same sort of tightwire thrills-n-chills as the first five albums in the series, a half-dozen tracks of vintage live J.W. rescued from the archives and slapped onto a platter for our enjoyment. From the song selection here, and a band comprised of bassist Jeff Ganz and veteran Winter/Alvin Lee drummer Tom Compton, I'd guess that these tracks are from the 1992-93 Hey, Where's Your Brother? era, a decent time for Winter fans following the guitarist's mid-1980s comeback.
Of the song selection, only three of the six here are from Hey, Where's Your Brother?, with an absolutely smokin' extended jam on Freddie King's classic instrumental "Sen-Sa-Shun" kicking off Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6. While Winter's fretwork is nothing short of stunning, with raging riffs and razor-sharp flying notes pacing the stage like a hungry jungle cat, Compton's drumming is explosive, driven like a locomotive off a cliff. Maybe it was his tenure with Alvin Lee, but Compton learned how to accompany a strong, guitar-slinging frontman. Ganz, on the other hand, is a competent bass player, but he's too often lost here in amidst the noise and fury coming from in front and from behind him.
Johnny Guitar
From the aforementioned studio set, the original Winter composition "Johnny Guitar" is a semi-autobiographical houserocker, kind of like "Johnny B. Goode" with a fit of steroids rage. In front of a shuffling rhythm, Winter bends and burns the strings like nobody's business, tearing off a few white-hot solos and driving the song forward with propulsive rhythms. Ray Charles' soul classic "Blackjack" is provided a different interpretation, Winter opening the song with a lengthy, bluesy intro before launching into his gutbucket vocals. Nobody's ever going to mistake Winter's growling voice for Charles' smooth croon, so the Texas flamethrower takes it old school instead, howling out the lyrics but letting his guitar do most of the talking.
The other two tracks here from Hey, Where's Your Brother? are "She Likes To Boogie Real Low," a greasy slice of booger-rock with some nice-n-slippery fretwork, and "White Line Blues," a rampaging example of blues-rock fusion that hits all the right notes. With deliberate rhythmic pacing and fractured guitarplay, this is one of the better showcases for Winter's six-string skills. Stepping outside of the normal blues-rock structure, some of Winter's amazing play sounds downright avant-garde with soaring notes, ear-shredding feedback, and discordant riffing. The "bonus track," a blustery cover of B.B. King's great "It's My Own Fault," seems to be of older vintage than previous tracks, the song's cavernous low-fi sound quality marring what is otherwise an exciting display of six-string pyrotechnics.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
OK, here's the skinny...clocking in at six actual songs (the first, an intro, is neither a song nor an introduction) and a gnat's hair over 52 minutes in length, Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6 leaves you wanting just a little bit more. The performances are what you'd expect from Johnny Winter – lots of guitar; soulful, groaning vocals; an entertaining mix of original songs and classic blues covers – but a couple more tunes would enhance the listening experience.
Given that these "bootleg" albums are for the hardcore faithful, the motley sound quality...tracks 2 through 4 are pretty good, 5 and 6 slightly less so, 7 sounds like listening at the club's back door 'cause the 300-pound tattooed doorman kicked you to the curb...doesn't distract from the performance. But could we have a little more information on the provenance of the performances? This minor cavil aside, although Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6 isn't the place for a new Johnny Winter fan to build a collection, it's certainly impressive enough that the veteran fanboy will want a copy on their shelf. (Friday Music, released January 12, 2010)
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