When blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter burst onto the New York City music scene in 1968, quickly securing both a high-power manager and a major label record deal, it seemed like the albino Texan had come out of nowhere to grab the brass ring. Truth is, Winter had been based in Austin, Texas and toiling on the Southern club circuit for better than a decade when a complimentary Rolling Stone article thrust the talented fretburner onto a bigger stage.
From Woodstock To Stardom
Winter released his critically-acclaimed, self-titled album in 1969, performed a memorable set at that year's Woodstock Festival, and shortly became one of the biggest concert draws in rock music during the 1970s. The guitarist would release almost a dozen studio and live sets during the decade, and would change his sound around more than once, incorporating elements of roots-rock and country into his houserockin' blues.
The Johnny Winter Anthology, a two-disc retrospective, covers Winter from his earliest days in Texas through the new millennium with a respectable 35 songs. The compilation isn’t perfect - this sort of collection seldom is - and it skews heavier towards Winter's 1970s-era recordings for what is now Sony Music. Winter's more blues-oriented work during the 1980s and '90s is shorted in favor of that from his most prolific decade, but even the casual fan won't be disappointed. The stuff here seriously rocks. It rocks hard....
The Johnny Winter Anthology
The Johnny Winter Anthology cranks out the amps from the very beginning with a fiery version of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' And Tumblin'." Taken from Winter's 1968 debut, recorded in Austin, the song is a hypnotic rave-up with plenty of scorching guitar riffs, gritty vocals, and explosive rhythms. The guitarist's self-titled Columbia debut is represented by a chiseled-in-gravel cover of B.B. King's "Be Careful With A Fool." Replace King's soulful vocals and elegant guitar tone with Winter's Texas twang and his slashing fretwork, and you have one raucous performance.
From the excellent Second Winter, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" is taken back to its Delta roots with a Biblical fervor, Winter's strained vocals matched by locomotive rhythms, and some of the nastiest slide guitar that you'll hear this side of heaven. The live "Black Cat Bone," which would become one of Winter's signature tunes, is affordable an unstoppable up-tempo rhythm and barbed-wire guitarplay. Rick Derringer's "Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo," which would become a hit for both Winter and Derringer, is a strutting, boasting, full-blown rocker with a deep, funky groove upon which Winter lays down his firecracker solos.
Roots-Rock & Twang
The first disc rolls out with a handful of songs from the first Johnny Winter And live album, including a naughty take on "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl." With a razor-sharp lead and hurricane-strength drumbeats, Winter rips through the song with a lusty abandon. A cover of the Rolling Stones' classic "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a riff-driven wonder, Winter nailing the song's bluesy braggadocio with reckless energy and an unwavering mojo hand. Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" has never sounded as alive as when Winter takes it to school with a rambling, ramshackle performance that perfectly captures the song's primal celebration of rock 'n' roll.
By around 1973, Winter had changed course somewhat, incorporating more of a rootsy sound into his blues-rock juggernaut. There's no better example of this than "Still Alive And Well," which kicks off the anthology's second disc. Written by Rick Derringer for the newly clean and heroin-free Johnny W, the song is a defiant statement delivered with certainty, a bit of twang, and an infectious, red-hot riff and blistering solos. "Silver Train," given to Winter by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, is equal parts honky-tonk spirit and juke-joint jive, a three-chord wonder that imagines country music as made by a bunch of drunken Englishmen, filtered through the not-so-delicate sensibilities of the Texas-born guitarslinger.
Back To The Blues
"Stone County," a story-song from 1974's Saints & Sinners, could pass for a Southern rock number not dissimilar to what the Outlaws, or maybe Molly Hatchet were doing at the time. Winter talked John Lennon into letting him record "Rock & Roll People," and he does the Liverpool legend proud with a muscular performance that matches Rio Grande mud with British cheekiness. The greasy Delta romp "Self-Destructive Blues," is a literal steamroller, Winter's whiskey-soaked vocals paired with his fractured leads and galloping drumbeats.
The lone song here from 1976's Together, recorded live with brother Edgar, is a lightning-paced, six-minute nine-song medley that lends the guitarist's rough edge to classics by Little Richard, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Mitch Ryder. By the early-1980s, Winter was sliding back towards the blues, and "Sweet Love And Evil Woman," recorded with Muddy Waters and his band - including harp-blaster James Cotton - is a welcome return to form. Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" is afforded a reverend vocal reading and a soaring guitar track while a live cover of Freddie King's signature instrumental "Hideaway" is played with respect and unbridled passion.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Johnny Winter remains one of the most beloved among blues-rock guitarists, a living legend that has created a significant, influential, and long-lasting body of work. The Johnny Winter Anthology does an excellent job of representing Winter's inspired early work; as for his later, blues-oriented recordings, not so much.
Personally, I would have liked a third disc to better flesh out some of the stellar performances from Winter's Alligator and Point Blank label albums during the 1980s and '90s. Still, there's a lot of great stuff here, some of it hard to find or out-of-print, and if The Johnny Winter Anthology isn't exactly a definitive career statement, it'll peel the paint from your walls and blow the roof off your shed nonetheless. If you're a JW fan, you probably already have most of these 35 songs; if not, you should check it out. (Shout! Factory, released May 26, 2009)
